Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Needs In Draft, Positional Depth, Power Rankings & Cap Update

Episode Date: March 30, 2021

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You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is a Tuesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast, and it is dropping a little bit later than the show typically would. I do like to have the show up for you guys in the morning, but as I articulated on Twitter on Wednesday night, been a little under the weather the last few days. Won't go into the gory details, but I appreciate everybody who reached out on Twitter and told me it was okay to put the pot up a little late.

Thank you guys all very much. But I am responsible for pumping out Monday through Friday Tennessee Titans content for you all to consume and better late than never. So whether you're going to listen to this on Tuesday night or a little double up for you on your Wednesday morning, either way could not leave you guys without a dope pod to step to. So on today's Tuesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast, we are going to do a little article analysis. Got two different articles I found very, very interesting

from a Titans perspective to go over. And then we will cap off today's show with an update on the cap. We got the contract details for wide receiver Josh Reynolds signing in free agency, so I will update you guys on what his contract is, why it is such a value for the Tennessee Titans, and then of course let you know where the cap space sits at this moment in time. So excited to dive into everything with you guys on a Tuesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. Let's get it.

We are going to do a little article analysis at the top of this Tuesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Analysis at the top of this Tuesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Before we dive into the article though and talk about what it means for the Tennessee Titans, do want to remind you guys as I said during the intro, Monday through Friday Tennessee Titans content here. Make sure that you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream. Follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans for schedule updates, additional content, my film breakdowns. Also check out the new Facebook page at LockedOnTitansPod.

I do appreciate all of the support. But this article, and it is an article, but the reality here is it is a top 100 draft board from one of the more respected draft analysts in the NFL sphere, and that is Dane Brugler from The Athletic and Dane put out his top 100 draft big board and I just want to make a note there are a few things that I wanted to point out to you guys that will maybe make you feel better about what the Titans have done so far in free agency if you don't good already, I feel very good about the offseason so far. Some of you I know don't. So I wanted to take this opportunity and maybe put your mind at ease.

So I'm not going to go through the big board here and talk about all the different names. I want to give you a big picture takeaway from three positions. So right now, if you looked at the Titans' biggest three needs heading into the draft, what would you say they are? Most of you right now are saying wide receiver, of course, the loss of Corey Davis and Adam Humphreys, the addition of Josh Reynolds, the Titans still need more there. Fair. At cornerback, the Titans cut their two starting cornerback, Sanja Norris-Jenkins, who's 32 years old. You have last year's second round pick, Christian Fulton,

and then Kevin Johnson, Breon Borders, Kareem Orr. A lot to be desired there, admittedly so, even though I wasn't as down on the Kevin Johnson move as most people. Still, at the end of the day, it's a big area of need for the Titans. And then you want to go to the third position of need and you're going to either get to tight end or offensive tackle. Well, in my mind, offensive tackle is the bigger need over tight end. So to me, it's wide receiver, it's cornerback, it's offensive tackle. Those are the Titans three biggest needs heading into the draft

if you want to say that tight end is three and offensive tackle is four, either way that's fine and this will still make sense for that, so why why would John Robinson not go out and do more at wide receiver, why would John Robinson not go out and do more at cornerback

why would John Robinson not go out and do more at offensive tackle, only signing Kendall Lamb and Ty Sambrillo back after cutting Dennis Kelly? Well, this could be why. Dane Brugler made his top 100 and within his top 100 prospects, remember the Titans have four picks in the top 100. Within his top 100 prospects, you have 15 wide receivers. Dane says it could have easily been 20. You have 13 cornerbacks, 11 cornerbacks in the top 62.

You have 12 offensive tackles in the top 100, and that doesn't even count Alex Leatherwood from Alabama and Jalen Mayfield from Michigan, who I think Mayfield would be a very solid option for the Titans, but Brugler has those guys coded as guards. So those guys aren't even within that 12 offensive tackles. So you could have had 14 offensive tackles, 13 cornerbacks, and 20 wide receivers potentially in the top 100. So connect the dots there.

You have incredibly deep and talented classes in the draft at the three biggest positions of need for the Tennessee Titans at this moment in time. That is not by chance, guys. That's not by chance at all. John Robinson took a look at the draft class. He had his scouts tell him where he saw value. And as a matter of fact, if we go back to earlier in the offseason, John Robinson tipped us off to this exactly when he talked about these three groups.

He talked about the wide receiver class. He talked about the cornerback class. He talked about offensive tackles with incredible length and tenacity. He talked about these three positions. It tipped us all very early on. So, when you have these three positions as the deepest, most talented positions in the draft, it makes sense that the Titans would have needs at those spots because they plan to fill them in the draft. And here's the thing, it's not just about filling them in the draft. When you have

this sort of depth at these positions of needs, you don't have to put yourself in a bad situation reaching for need. If there are 15 wide receivers in the top 100, 13 cornerbacks in the top 100, and 12 offensive tackles in the top 100, well then you can just go off the best value because you know that with your four top picks in the top 100, you're going to be able to fill all three of these spots with somebody of value to you. So John Robinson, a little bit smarter than maybe people give him credit for. Just saying.

It's starting to make sense now why the moves were made for the Titans in the way that they were, especially considering the depth and talent at the three biggest positions of need for the Titans. So wanted to cover that with you guys. We are going to dive more into draft content here in the next week or so as we get leading up to the NFL draft, but things are shaping up to work out very, very well for the Titans in the draft. But we are going to move into another article here to analyze and take a look, and it's

another very positive article for the Tennessee Titans so excited to jump into that with you guys before we do want to remind you about betonline.ag the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action football might be over but the NBA and NHL are in full swing still got a few more weeks of March Madness bet online also has award shows, TV shows and reality TV as well. Make sure that you head to their website right now or use your mobile device to sign up

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analysis on this Tuesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. And I told you guys at the beginning of the offseason that we would be doing a power rankings every single month throughout the offseason to at least get you up to date on where some who cover the league have the Titans among the competition. And we are doing just that today. ESPN actually put out a power rankings post-free agency to kind of take the temperature of where they see teams ranked right now. So let's dive into that and find out exactly where the Tennessee Titans stack up. Before we do, I want to remind you guys you can get more of the sports news you need in much less time with the Locked On Today podcast. Get all the biggest sports news in under 20 minutes

with host Peter Bukowski leading you on the way. Like I always say, it's basically like having the sports section read to you in the morning in under 20 minutes. You really can't beat it getting caught up to date on all the biggest stories in all the sports. Make sure that you follow the Locked On Today podcast on the Odyssey app, that is A-U-D-A-C-Y or wherever you get your podcast. Now, into this article.

Number one, not really a big surprise, maybe a little baby surprise, but the Kansas City Chiefs. Now, obviously, they lost both their tackles. They haven't really done a lot to replace the tackles. They've made some work on the interior of the offensive line, but at the end of the day, it's the Kansas City Chiefs, and I'm not going to bicker too much with them being up top. They still have a fantastic football team.

Number two, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That's not a big shock either. Number three, the Green Bay Packers. So, again, you know, these are teams that are typically going to be ahead of the Tennessee Titans. And I don't think that it's wrong, quite frankly. Number four, the Buffalo Bills, which I think the Bills could be even higher. I think they should be ahead of the Green Bay Packers. Number five, the Baltimore Ravens. I don't really know how I feel about

that with the Ravens having a mass amount of difficulty finding wide receivers in this free agent market. I don't know how I feel about that ranking right there. Number six, the Los Angeles Rams. Of course, they went out and got Matthew Stafford, pair him with that defense. Makes a lot of sense that they would be very highly valued here. Number seven, this is interesting, the Cleveland Browns a lot of people are getting real super high on the Browns and you know in my opinion the Browns always do better when the expectations are low when the expectations are high like we saw in 2019 they tend to disappoint 43-13 baby won't ever forget it uh but then we do have the Tennessee Titans coming in at number eight. And you know, that's a pretty good ranking for the Titans. How could any Titans fan complain about that? The Titans

are getting national respect, considered a top eight team or top eight, top 10 team in the NFL. In a previous offseason edition of the power rankings, ESPN had the Titans at 10. So they got a bump up in and here it says that the Titans' best offseason move was pairing Danico Autry and Bud Dupree together in free agency, and Teron Davenport had the write-up here, so I'll just read you his quick blurb. He said, quote, the Titans need to add a jolt to their pass rush, which is exactly what they did when they added Autry and Dupree. The two players had 15.5 sacks between them in 2020. Both players excelled with their previous teams in an abundance of ways,

including executing stunts along the defensive front. Autry and Dupree should be able to find a high degree of success on twists and games up front. Both players are also hard-nosed, physically tough football players who will set the tone from the start in Tennessee. End quote. I love what Teron had to say there. I talked about the free agent additions and how the Titans added a ton of power and a ton of physicality to their front line.

Excited to watch those two guys play together along with Jeffrey Simmons, who may be the most hard-nosed, physically tough football player on the team. Just to go through the rest of the list quickly, Seattle was number nine, the Colts at number ten. Love seeing the Titans ahead of the Colts in any capacity at all. Pittsburgh at number eleven. I don't know if I agree with that one. Arizona at number twelve.

San Francisco at thirteen. I think they should be a little bit higher. Miami Dolphins at fourteen. Vikings at fifteen. Saints at sixteen. very low drop for the Saints. Chargers at 17, the Dallas Cowboys at 18, Patriots at 19, which is interesting considering all the free agency moves that the Patriots made and all the money that they spent. The Raiders at number 20, 21, the New York Giants, 22, the Washington football team,

23, the Carolina Panthers, 24, the Falcons, 25, the Bears, 26, the Eagles, 27, the Broncos, 28, the Bengals, 29, the Jets, 30, the Jacksonville Jaguars, 31, the Detroit Lions, and then 32, the Houston Texans, the lowly Houston Texans. Boy, I feel bad for our guys John and Cody from the Locked On Texans podcast, but I have to admit, I am pretty excited to do our ultimate division crossover this year and kind of take the temperature of what the guys are thinking down in Houston with the roster upheaval, with the uncertainty in the organization, and now with the Deshaun Watson allegations,

I mean, just a very tumultuous time down in Houston. You add in the James Harden trade debacle at the beginning of the year. You add in the trade debacle that took place at the NBA trade deadline with Victor Oladipo. You add in the cheating scandal with the Houston Astros. I mean, my Atlanta. Rough times to be a Houston sports fan. But that's going to do it for that article. We are going to dive into a conversation about the Titans' current cap space

as we did get the contract details for recently signed wide receiver Josh Reynolds. So going to dive into his contract numbers and how that affects the Titans overall cap space. Before we do though, do want to tell you guys about our friends over at rockauto.com. Rockauto.com is a family business that's been serving auto parts customers online for over 20 years. Make sure you go to rockauto.com right now, shop for all your auto and body parts needs from hundreds of different manufacturers. They have everything from engine control modules to brake parts to tail lamps. And best of all, the catalog is unique. It's remarkably easy to use. You can quickly see all the parts available for your vehicle. Choose the brand specifications and

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Also, we have finally made it into the flavorful four of built bar madness best flavor bracket and the flavorful four consists of cookies and cream versus the cookie dough chunk and then the mint brownie against the coconut brownie chunk and if you want to vote on these matchups to determine who will be the best tasting protein bar ever, make sure you go to builtbar.com or on Twitter at bar underscore built to place your vote. And make sure you go to builtbar.com, use promo code LOCKED15 and get 15% off your next order of the bested on Titans podcast. And I say cap, I mean puns because we are talking salary cap and the cap hit for newly signed wide receiver Josh Reynolds.

So there are still some contract details for some signings that we don't have. Number one, Janoris Jenkins. When are we ever going to get his contract details? What is going on with that? Very interesting. If the Titans have more moves that they're trying to accomplish and that's why we don't have that, then that's great news. But just very peculiar and very surprising that we have not gotten that information yet.

But either way, either way, we do have the contract details for Josh Reynolds now. And I just want to point out something that I have been talking about all offseason long in regards to value and specifically in regards to letting Corey Davis walk in free agency. So something I pointed out on Twitter when these details dropped on Monday. Corey Davis is getting an average per year of $12.5 million. Last year, he had about 900 yards receiving, 984 I do believe, and had 65 catches and 5 touchdowns. So, that's pretty good production.

Near 1,000 yards, a ton of catches, 5 touchdowns is a very good day. But $12.5 million for 65, 984, and 5. Value. Value. So Josh Reynolds had 52 catches for 600 yards and two touchdowns. 13 less catches, about 300 less yards, and about three less touchdowns. Fewer touchdowns is the correct grammatical way to say that. I'm a little under the weather. Give me a break. But the Titans are only paying Josh Reynolds $1.75 million on a one-year deal.

On a one-year deal. So you're telling me that there's going to be an $11 million difference between the production Corey Davis put up and the production Josh Reynolds put up? And then you look and you see a guy like Kendrick Bourne from the 49ers who had less production or pretty similar production to Josh Reynolds. And he got $5 million. You look at Nelson Aguilar who got the same money as Corey Davis. I would take Josh Reynolds over Nelson Aguilar at that rate all day, twice on Sunday. It's all about value. It's all about value. And this was my point all along when I talked about letting Johnnie Smith go, when I talked about letting Corey Davis go. It's not

that you're going to get a better player. You can't do that. You can't replace every, it's like, it's like those games that you see in those memes that you see on Facebook or on Twitter or whatever, where you have $15 and they give you a row of $5 players, a row of $4, a row of three, a row two, a row of one. And you have to make a lineup with the money that you have. It's the same thing. Yeah, Josh Reynolds is not as good as Corey Davis. Corey Davis is a $3, $4 player, and Josh Reynolds is a $1 player. But I would rather stack my deck with a Bud Dupree with a Danico Autry,

especially considering the Titans' pass rush deficiencies, and then pay $1 for Josh Reynolds compared to $4 for Corey Davis or $3 for Nelson Aguilarilar or two for Kendrick Bourne. The value there is immense. So with that $1.75 million cap hit on the Titans for Josh Reynolds, that leaves the Titans right now with an estimated cap space of about $11 million. Of course, still waiting on the Ferkser details,

still waiting on the Ferkser details, still waiting on the Janoris Jenkins details. So when you consider all of that, we don't have an exact clear picture of what the Titans cap space is right now. But with that new updated information, we know we're right around $11 million before the Janoris Jenkins deal and before the Anthony Ferkser deal. So that's where we sit right now. And again, I just want to drive home the idea here. It's all about the value. Yes, Corey Davis is better than Josh Reynolds. But one other thing

to consider, as I mentioned with Josh Reynolds, is he played in a system where there were three other wide receivers. Think Cooper Cupp and Robert Woods were also there. And Brandon Cooks was there for the beginning of his career, but just last year, he did have to compete with Cooper Cup and Robert Woods, who are better wide receivers and are going to take more targets. So you give Josh Reynolds more targets in the Titans offense. You give him opportunities because A.J. Brown's being doubled. Derrick Henry has nine, eight in the box. And it's not crazy to think that that production would go up. So if the Titans get more than 50 catches, more than 600 yards, and more than two touchdowns

for $1.75 million on a one-year deal, I mean, what a bargain. Just what an absolute steal. So basically this entire day, this entire podcast, gets us to a point where you guys should be very optimistic about what the Titans have done this offseason. The Titans have set themselves up based on Dane Brugler's article with their three biggest needs being the three best positions in the draft this year, the deepest positions in the draft.

The Titans' offseason moves have them in the top eight per ES the deepest positions in the draft. The Titans offseason moves have them in the top eight per ESPN's free agency power rankings. And John Robinson was able to get a very, very good wide receiver for only $1.75 million who should improve his production based on what he did last year and the opportunities that he had. I mean, I don't see how you couldn't be incredibly optimistic for the 2021 Tennessee Titans. I I don't see how you couldn't be incredibly optimistic for the 2021 Tennessee Titans. I just don't see how you couldn't be. So if you take anything away from today's Better Late Than Never edition of the Locked On Titans podcast,

let it be that the Titans are in a good spot, guys. And when the offseason is completely over, I think we'll all look back and be very happy about what's happened. But before we get out of here for today, I want to remind you guys the NFL Draft is weeks away. It's time to start following our Locked On NFL Draft duo. The Draft Dudes podcast watches every prospect so you don't have to. And the Locked On NFL Draft podcast is your daily draft news and mock draft podcast.

Follow the Locked On NFL Draft podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get podcasts. But that is going to do it for me today, folks. I will be back with you guys on Wednesday morning. If you guys are doubling up, then just keep it rocking and I'll be right back with you guys. But as always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.