Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Organization Speaks Out, 2019 Free Agent Class Review & Arthur Smith Zoom Call Pt. 2

Episode Date: June 12, 2020

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Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is a Friday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast, so hopefully I can get you guys ready for a fun and safe weekend. Also, I hope you enjoyed the episode that was in your feed in the Locked On Titans feed this morning. It was a Locked On Podcast Network special, a Black Lives Matter roundtable with eight hosts from different Locked On Podcasts who are black men explaining their experience growing up and being an adult in America. And I absolutely encourage you guys to check out that podcast and that conversation if you haven't. And on that topic, the Tennessee Titans have come out not only as an organization, but individual members of the Tennessee Titans organization have come out on

Thursday and made their first official comments. We did hear from head coach Mike Vrabel quite a few days ago, and he spoke for the organization. But on Thursday, we heard directly from Tennessee Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk on her thoughts and heard from John Robinson. And not only that, we've heard quite a bit from Titans starting quarterback Ryan Tannehill, and we've heard some of his teammates come out and applaud his efforts so far as well. So what I want to do today in our first segment is just bring you all of that information, give you the statement from Amy Adams of that information give you the statement from amy adams strunk give you the quotes from john robinson give you some quotes recently on wednesday

from ryan tannahill and then follow that up with some quotes from kevin byard and rashaun evans on how they feel about ryan tannahill and the stance that he is taking so i know that everybody right now is weighted down with all the very heavy conversation. But in my opinion, if the Tennessee Titans organization is coming out and making statements, then I need to bring that information to you guys. So we will start there. And then we will jump into the final installment of our free agent class review. So we will go over the 2019 free agent class. And like I said, when we did

the 2019 draft class review, it's only been one season. So those results have to be taken with a grain of salt, but it's never a bad time to take a look back at how things went, how things are going with those free agents. So we will talk about last year's free agent class, how they performed in 2019, and what I expect going forward. And after that, we will finish off hearing from Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. On Wednesday's show, I played you part one of Sounds of the Titans for Arthur Smith. And on today's show, I am going to follow that up with part two. So we will go over the highlights from his long conference call, his Zoom conference, and I'll make sure to give you my analysis paired in with those comments.

And then, of course, as we always do on Friday, I got a couple mailbag questions. So I will finish off the show with that. Very excited to break everything down with you guys. Let's get it. Recently, we heard from Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel and his statement in regards to all of the issues facing the nation right now in regards to social injustice, racism, police brutality. But on Thursday, we finally heard from Tennessee Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk and general manager John Robinson and their thoughts on the matter.

Amy Adams Strunk had this to say, and this was the statement that was released via the Tennessee Titans Twitter account as well. Quote, I want to add my voice and the voice of our organization to the cause for equality and reiterate our firm stance against all forms of racism. Hearts, minds, and institutions need to change throughout our country. Those who face racism need to be heard and, more importantly, understood by those who haven't listened before. Our organization and our players have dedicated time and resources to those issues

through the We Stand For campaign, and we are making a difference in our community, tackling issues like educational equity, judicial reform, policing policies, and assistance for underserved areas. We are proud to support those efforts, and we will continue to find ways to impact our region. Hearing our players and coaches speak over the last two weeks has been constructive to this vital discussion. I support our players using peaceful protests and their platform to advance us as a nation. I would encourage those who haven't thought about these issues before to understand the pain, anger, and frustration of the black community. Black Lives Matter. We should

all agree on that. End quote. Titans General Manager John Robinson also had this to say, quote, this being my first opportunity to speak publicly about the issues our nation is facing with respect to social injustice, to racism, police brutality, all issues that are wrong. There shouldn't be a standard for how to live as a black person in our country. I had a great conversation with a staff member the other day who teared up in my office talking about how he hopes this, in quotes, black lives matter movement can create change, a sustained change. So that talk that he had to have with his parents as a young black man, that he does not have to have that same talk with how

to be leery or how to conduct himself as a black man in our country. We've got to be better. Also, Titans starting quarterback Ryan Tannehill has been very outspoken about the social issues the country is facing as well, having this to say in his Zoom call on Wednesday. It's an issue that affects millions of people. I think the unfortunate thing about it is if you're a white person, you don't have to deal with it on a daily basis. And if you're not put in those situations, it's easy to just go about your life and not recognize it and not realize how big a deal it is, how many people it affects on a daily basis. With this push, I think more and more people are having an awakening to the reality of the situation

and how deep it really is, how many layers of injustice there are to it with the court system, policing just on a day-to-day basis. This has also caught the attention of Ryan Tannehill's teammates. Kevin Byard had this to say about Ryan Tannehill and his outspokenness on these issues. Quote, I respect him just for the man that he is. The fact that he is speaking and using his voice to uplift others, black, white, or indifferent, whatever, speaks volumes for his character. But Kevin Byard wasn't the only Titans teammate to applaud Ryan Tannehill.

Rashawn Evans, Titans middle linebacker, also had this to say. He called Tannehill courageous and said, guys in the locker room are watching. Situations like that bring guys closer and closer together. After the statements from Amy Adams Strunk, John Robinson, Mike Vrabel, Ryan Tannehill, and the rest of the Titans organization, it does appear that everyone is on the same page about how these issues need to be handled. Now, of course, with all of the Zoom conferences and conference calls that took place on Thursday with of course Titans General Manager John Robinson, Head Coach Mike Vrabel, some of the other players as well, there was a ton of actual football that was discussed

but I wanted to make sure to bring you guys their comments on recent events and obviously I explained my reasons for doing that but we do have a lot of football to talk about and a lot of good information that came out of those zoom calls and those conference calls so I'm going to be ready to break that all down with you guys next week talk about all of the different tidbits that came out of that John Robinson talked about Jarrell Casey Mike Vrabel talked about the defensive play calling. So we heard a lot of good information. I'm going to bring that to you guys next week.

Make sure that you are subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast for all that content that I will be bringing to you guys starting on Monday. And then make sure that you are following me on Twitter at TicTacTitans as well so you can get my additional analysis and any sort of scheduling information or program information I put out about the show. But we have to finish off our free agent class review series with the 2019 class.

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all of the parts your car will ever need, rockauto.com. Let's dive into the final installment in our free agent class review series. Of course, that'll be last year's class, 2019. So let's dive right in. And I know this is a little bit of a strange inclusion, but if you recall, Ryan Tannehill was traded to the Titans on March 15th but only if the Titans were able to work out a contract extension now the Dolphins did pay a good amount of Ryan Tannehill's salary in 2019 but the Titans did have to agree on a one-year two million dollar deal out of their

pocket with one and a half million guaranteed and needless to say Ryan Tannehill made the full two million dollars but when you look at that signing along with the trade I know I'm not evaluating the trade but getting Ryan Tannehill on a one year two million dollar deal last offseason was absolutely fantastic mean, I don't really have to say much. We know 7-3, 70% completion percentage, 2,742 yards, 22 touchdowns, 6 interceptions, 4 more rushing touchdowns as well. His performance in the playoffs, while he gets a bad rap for his performance in the playoffs, if you go back and watch Tannehill was absolutely fantastic outside of the interception against New England so Ryan Tannehill the trade the signing

all of it it's an A it's an A don't have to go any further pretty simple cut and dry there now how this year's extension will turn out with the basically it's a three-year 90 million dollar deal that is a topic that is a discussion for another time but last year's transaction absolutely fantastic and a for john robinson next we have defensive end cameron wake and wake was signed to a three-year 23 million dollar deal that ended up being just a one-year 10 million dollar deal for Wake. And this was a tough one to evaluate because Cameron Wake only played nine games before he eventually went on injured reserve. But he did have two and a half sacks,

all of those coming in that week one matchup against Cleveland where he also got the safety. Only had four tackles on the year, but not having Cameron Wake out on the field is what caused Harold Landry to have a downturn in production later in the season so although Cameron Wake wasn't incredibly productive although he was hurt for most of the year when he was on the field he really did serve the purpose that he was signed for so it's kind of a tough evaluation in my opinion because when he could play he did

exactly what the Titans expected but he just wasn't able to play. And for a guy who's been healthy for most of his career, that was quite a surprise. But considering that, you know, your best ability is availability and Wake was only available for nine games and even that should have an asterisk because he wasn't healthy for most of those games and wasn't able to actually play for the full game you got to give that a c plus in my opinion c plus may be a little high but like I said when Wake was healthy and on the field he gave the Titans exactly what they were looking for and it's just unfortunate he wasn't able to be on the field so I'm not going to criticize John Robinson harshly because Cameron Wake couldn't stay healthy and he had previously been a pretty healthy player. So a C plus for me on that one could go a little bit worse. I would understand if you're shaking your head right now and expecting a worse grade, but for me, when he was out there, he was doing what he was signed to do. So the next signing was Roger Saffold and Saffold took a bad rap at the beginning of the

year and you know having Mariota out there throwing ducks no pun intended all over the place having Dennis Kelly starting left tackle halfway through training camp not really being able to focus on one group of offensive linemen it had Saffold off to a bad start and he didn't necessarily handle it that well the criticism that he took but once the offensive line got settled down once Taylor LeJuan returned to the lineup Nate Davis took over a starting role Roger Saffold was one of the best damn offensive linemen in the NFL and he played in all 16 games for the Titans after signing that four-year $44 million deal. And pro football focus, the analytics grading website, had Saffold as the sixth best offensive guard in the entire NFL.

He had a 77.3 grade for the season, a 75.5 grade in pass protection, a 74.9 grade in run blocking. So Saffold was one of the best offensive linemen in the NFL after everything settled down to the point where he still finished the entire season, even taking into account those bad first four weeks, even taking that into account, he still ended up as one of the highest graded linemen in the NFL. So I'm going to give Saffold an A. That's an A signing. He is an above average quality starting offensive lineman, offensive guard for a team that is based on the run. And Saffold and LeJuan destroyed people in the playoffs. So that's an A signing for me to get one of the best guards in the NFL in free agency, regardless of the tough start. Saffold's an absolutely dominant offensive lineman, and he needs to be recognized as

that despite the slow start. That's an A signing for general manager John Robinson. And then we are going to go into wide receiver Adam Humphreys, and another signing that unfortunately health impacts. Humphreys was signed to a four-year $36 million deal. I will say this now, Saffold and Humphreys both have an out after this next season. So a year from now, the Titans could let them go with little to no dead cap penalty. We'll go into that maybe more if we need to throughout the season.

But hopefully both of those players you know play well Humphreys played well when he was on the field Saffold played well the entire season without those first four weeks so keep that in mind while we discuss this but Humphreys had 37 catches 374 yards two touchdowns in the 12 games he was actually able to play in had that absolutely awesome game- winning reception against Kansas City in week 10 so Humphreys again like Wake is kind of a tough judge when he was out on the field he really did his job exactly what the Titans were looking for in a quick slot receiver but he just wasn't on the field enough and Humphreys even if he does get on the field with the way the Titans offense is built and with the emergence of

A.J. Brown the Titans really don't need to be paying Adam Humphreys the type of money that they paid him so I would expect them to possibly look to get out of that deal after this upcoming season and looking at the deal you know nine million dollars a season for Adam Humphreys I know that John Robinson couldn't predict how great A. Adam Humphreys I know that John Robinson couldn't predict how great AJ Brown would be I know that John Robinson couldn't necessarily predict how well the offense would come together and the style and the scheme that they're running but even then when Adam Humphreys was signed it seemed like a little bit of an overpay for a slot guy like Humphreys who doesn't have much athletic

upside. So with that in mind, although I gave Cameron Wake a C plus, so I know some people may not like this grade because Humphreys was out on the field a little bit more, but to me, the signing doesn't make as much sense. The amount paid doesn't make as much sense. And even when Humphreys was on the field and played well his impact on the offense just doesn't justify the price tag so I'm going to give that signing a C. Now the Titans did last offseason re-sign Kenny Vaccaro but I talked a lot on Wednesday's episode about Kenny Vaccaro and that signing so just carry over that analysis same with Kevin Panfield and Ty Smith who were both re-signed last March.

I've talked about both of them as well and their contributions to the team, so I'll roll that over. Then we have David Flewellen, the roster pirate. That's an F. I'm not going to spend too much time on that. That dude has to have some sort of blackmail on John Robinson and Mike Rabel to be on the roster still. It's just unbelievable to me. There are so many good running backs in the draft and undrafted free agency and regular free agency. There's just no reason to have David Flewellen on the team. And of course, everybody will talk about his versatility. He could play running back. He could play fullback. I'm sorry. If you play running back and you play fullback, you play neither. You're not big enough, strong enough, and a good enough blocker to be a real fullback,

and you're obviously not a quick and athletic enough running back to be a running back full time. So it's one of those, if you have two quarterbacks, you have none. If you have a running back-fullback combo, you basically have none. And David Flewellen is neither of those. Kari Blossomgame is a better fullback. Darrington Evans and Dalen Dalkins are better running backs. No reason for David Flewellen to be on this roster.

And then they also gave an extension to Brett Kern, the weapon, and I don't need to go into all of the punter-specific stats to tell you that Brett Kern's signing is an A as well. So overall, really just looking at those top four signings of Tannehill, Wake, Saffold, and Humphreys. Overall, when you look at that, you have to give John Robinson a B. I could see B+. Tannehill was a trade, but they had to work out a deal. So I'm going to limit how much that grade factors into the overall grade overall. So with that in mind, you got an A in Saffold. You got an A in Tannehill.

You got a C-plus in Wake. You got a C in Humphreys. Kenny Vaccaro, Kevin Panfield, Ty Smith, David Flewellen as re-signs. Brett Kern with an A as an extension signed. Overall, I'm going to give John Robinson a B for that class. And I could see a B-plus if you wanted to be a little more generous. And I'm not going to argue with anybody on that note but that is going to wrap up our 2019 free agent class review we are going to go into the second part of the sounds of the titans conversation with Arthur Smith give you

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podcast I highly recommend it by the way I ordered a box from builtbar.com to support the show hope others do the same I really appreciate that high school basketball coach I don't know who you are but you know who you are and I definitely do appreciate the support. Of course, guys, like I've mentioned, if you do go ahead and support the show by ordering from BuiltBar.com, use that promo code LOCKEDON. Let me know on Twitter, at TicTacTitans. I'll be sure to give you a retweet and shout you out on the show. Let's get into part two of the Arthur Smith Zoom Conference highlights and this edition of

Sounds of the Titans. So first off, offensive coordinator Arthur Smith talks about Ryan Tannehill's performance in 2019 and what he expects to see going forward. Yeah, Ryan did a great job when he, you know, obviously the season kind of hit a tipping point there and he took off. I mean, Ryan was very decisive with the football. He made some great plays and he's able to move. He's,

he's good in the pocket. He stands in there. We feel like, you know, again, the more attempts and the more we can do in the passing games can expand. I mean, he, he gives you a threat because Ryan is a, is a good athlete, but he was very decisive with the football, especially down in the red zone, which helps those windows close quick. But we're excited about Ryan and really where we can go with the passing offense. Yeah, we feel good about the growth.

I mean, that's the hardest thing to do in this business is sustain success. And, you know, that's what the great ones have done. And Ryan did a good job last year. And certainly, and it's the same thing. I think you've got to earn your job every day as a player and a coach. And as we're going into it, there's no mistake about it.

I mean, we're trying to take another step as we evolve and improve. And there's areas that we do that. But I feel obviously very confident in Ryan. He and I have a great relationship. I enjoy working with him. And we see the game very similarly. And it's fun talking football when we go in there and meet. I'm excited about the leadership Ryan will bring too.

Everybody's different, has their own style. Ryan's got his style and he certainly, I think, will take off with it now. I absolutely love hearing that from the Titans offensive coordinator talking about the relationship with Ryan Tannehill. Oftentimes it's coach to player, authority to subordinate, but it really does sound like Arthur Smith and Ryan Tannehill are actually working together and collaborating on the offense rather than Arthur Smith just telling Ryan Tannehill what to do. And anytime you can have more collaboration in your process, I think that's better for the entire team.

So that got me really excited to hear that. Next, Arthur Smith talks about the competition at the wide receiver position. Well, you know, I think we're going to have great competition there. You know, the heart of your roster. I mean, those guys did a great job as the season went on. Even when Adam went down, Kalief, Cody, Hollister, he stepped in there. For sure, Davis, I mean, he made plays late in the year. And then, of course, Cam.

You know, Cam's a guy that he's a fun guy to work with. He competes, and he's made plays, and he played for us in 18. And I think those guys, if you want to constantly have competition and push it and we're excited to see what these rookie wideouts can do as well so yeah it'd be good competition I feel it'll be fun to watch that that thing play out in those spots. I have to be honest as excited as I was to hear about the collaborative process between Tannehill and Smith, I am the opposite of that. I'm very unexcited by his answer to the wide receiver competition. I personally am not going to rely on or trust Cameron Batson, Cody Hollister, Davis, any of the undrafted free agents.

The Titans need another speed threat at wide receiver and as much as i love uh khalif raymond i'm sorry that's just an area where this titans team has to improve and you know they can continue to use these undrafted free agent low round pick role players like they always have in that role remember Remember all those times we watched Darius Jennings drop passes? I mean, they have constantly been trying to fill that speed role, that fourth wide receiver role, with players on the low end of the talent scale, and they can't continue to do that. I know that this is a run-based offense, but I'm really expecting the Titans to look for an actual home run threat as a wide receiver eventually. They just have to.

It has to be done. But the next thing that Arthur Smith is going to talk about is his thoughts on their philosophy during the playoffs. Well, certainly. I mean, you get in a groove and the confidence was built week after week and i know we start you know we're going to start over every season's its own entity but the but the offensive line and really all all the 11 guys that are out there in offense the way we we ran the football league the line did a heck of a job i mean they were really in a groove and and going back and you reflect on some of those playoff games well well, you know, it wasn't anything against Ryan. I mean, those guys were rolling up front, and Derek was rolling.

So, really excited about the line and, you know, the familiarity of most of those guys coming back, and we'll see where it goes from there. But we feel good about the run game. So, just hopefully to continue to build off that. And it's great that derrick henry was rolling i mean obviously that had a ton to do with the titan success in the playoffs but anytime you're giving a back that many carries and relying on a running back that much for your offensive production you have to answer the question of how you're going to manage derrick

henry's workload going forward? Well, you know, it depends how the game goes. And, again, how we're – hopefully we've got to start much better than we did last year. And like I said earlier about we've got a lot of explosive guys on our offense, and I've got to do a good job of finding ways to make sure different guys get touches and then naturally spread out. You know, to me, that's what helped us in the, in the red zone. We had multiple people score touchdowns, which kind of to spread it out.

And, and as his, we'll just see how it goes game to game. But if we got a lot of guys doing it and we can win games and, and more guys are touching the ball, it'd be better off for us as a team and as an offense. And I think that would naturally work itself out depending on it as we build up and we want to be improving and peaking as the season goes along if the titans do plan on extending derrick henry and keeping him in the fold long term then arthur smith better focus on lessening his workload and getting the ball spread around to other people derrick henry's not going to last the life of his next contract

if they continue to give him 350-plus carries a year. So that's something that definitely has to change. The next thing Arthur Smith talks about is Taylor LeJuan and his leadership role and how it's evolved. Well, certainly. I mean, Taylor's been around. I mean, he's – I think what happens a lot of times, I think people try to pigeonhole guys because they get drafted

and they try to – to me, you've got to be authentic in your leadership, and Taylor's going to lead in his own way, and he's got his own – it might be different from how Ryan leads or whatever, but, yeah, I mean, Taylor's like all of us. I mean, hopefully I've matured and evolved as a coach and the same thing he's done as a player. And I don't want to speak for him, but Taylor's always been a guy. I mean, he works hard.

He leads by example. But sure, I mean, if there's one more guy going along along with that offensive line, get a good leadership from that group. And while we're on the topic of leadership, Smith talks about Derrick Henry's leadership. Yeah, of all of our guys. I mean, I think we feel great about the circumstances and what we're dealing with and how we're attacking our Zoom meetings,

and Derrick's heavily involved in that. And I think a lot of that stuff will play itself out. Derrick did a great job. Derrick, his leadership was great down the stretch, and hopefully he'll continue to build off that. But a lot of that stuff will play itself out. Derek did a great job. Derek, his leadership was great down the stretch, and hopefully he'll continue to build off that. But a lot of times that happens too. So we get on the field and we get around each other. That'll certainly help.

And when you talk about leadership, you need leadership in a locker room to help out the young players. And Arthur Smith talks about rookie offensive tackle Isaiah Wilson. Well, you know, it's hard to say with some of these rookies because if you've seen it uh so different for guys and it's hard to predict especially in a year like this but you know the hope is you know obviously there is familiarity so he understands his own schemes and he had a great offensive line coach in Georgia Sam pitman who's at arkansas now who you know i think is one of the best to do it in the country that certainly

helps but like a lot of these rookies it's there it's so different when they get there and how quickly they make the adjustment and last year how it worked out with nate and aj you know they for different circumstances but both those guys had injuries in camps and then they were brought along slowly and then obviously we end up playing more games and it helped with them. So the good news is, you know, we feel good about the guys in that room. We've got good vets, guys that have played right tackle, which I think Dennis Kelly, Tyson Brillo. So, you know, Isaiah, we'll just have to see when he gets here

and where he takes off. We know his background, and in theory that's definitely helped, but we'll have to see. And then finally, and what I think is one of the more interesting answers of Arthur Smith's Zoom call, he talks about the self-evaluation process and how you have to look at what you've done, what you did and use that to get better in the future. Yeah, you've got to be objective. I mean, the thing at the end of the day is, even on some of the stuff that was successful, you look at it and you're like, well, we've got to improve that.

You know, we may have caught a break here. Or, you know, you look back at some things. I think you've got to be honest with yourself. You know, if somebody says, come up here, I don't regret anything. You know, that's, to me, a very stubborn approach to Paul. So, yeah, you go back and you learn, and I learned, you go back and watch it and watch it as the season evolved.

And I said, well, I know why I called that there, but would I do it again? No, but, and I think you gotta be honest with yourself and objective. And again, we don't wanna get stale as an offense. We feel like we wanna enhance our strengths and try to push it. But yeah, you've gotta be objective. And this is just my personal opinion in our strengths and try to push it. But, yeah, you've got to be objective.

And this is just my personal opinion in this job for me to go forward. And I want to continue to improve as a play caller and as an offensive coordinator. And that right there is the perfect attitude and perfect mentality for really any player or any coach whatsoever. But definitely love hearing that from Arthur Smith going from year one to year two so that ends the Arthur Smith highlights from his zoom call it's a Friday got a little bit of mailbag information to get into and I have to be honest with you shout out to David Heim I talked to David via DM about the question that he had, and I really don't recall

if I answered it for him just in the DM or if I said it on the podcast. So if I did answer this for you guys last week, my apologies. But his DM and his question came on last Friday at 5.50, and I record Friday's show on Thursday evening, as of you guys know so I'm thinking I'm I might have missed this one but basically just ask what percentage of Philip Rivers struggles last year were on his O-line do I think that'll play better next year with a better O-line he's trying to decide whether to bet on the Titans plus 125 to win to win the division next year just in case I answered this already I I'll keep it brief. I think Rivers is washed. I think that while his O-line was bad last year, he's not good anymore either. And yes, I would bet on the Titans to win the division. So if I answered that already, like I said,

my bad, but just wanted to make sure that I didn't miss any because sometimes that happens with all the different places that I store these. The one question that I did get, it's not something I was advertising throughout the week. We have so much going on. It's hard to get to the mailbag questions, but I did get a really good one from Tyler Chandler. Funny, his name is spelled Tyler, T-Y-L-O-R minus T-Y-L-E-R. But my uncle, rest in peace, he died when I was pretty young, about 18 years ago. But all of my birthday cards I ever got from my uncle, he spelled my name like the other way, T-Y-L-O-R, Tyler. And I got to be honest with you, I've never seen somebody named Tyler with it spelled O-R like that. So I was always very confused as to why my uncle made that mistake.

But here we are. It's a first time for everything, I guess, in this world of ours. Tyler, with an O-R at the end, asked, Who on the Titans represents each Ninja Turtle? So, of course, we have Leonardo, who's the leader of the Turtles, the quiet, stoic, always trying to do the right thing. We have Raphael, who's got an attitude about him, he's a fighter, ready to go at all times, but is kind of the secondary leader. We have Donatello, who's a really smart guy, good with machines, kind of the tech turtle, to say the least. So great. And then we have

Michelangelo, who if you guys know about Ninja Turtles, you know exactly how Michelangelo is, always having fun, always out there trying to be a positive, trying to have a good time. So that's a really tough question to answer, but I love this question, Tyler. These are the kind of questions I am looking for, baby. Love that. If I had to choose, it's really hard. I'm going to go with Derek Henry as Leonardo. Derek Henry is a quiet guy. He's not a big rah-rah guy, always yelling, screaming, in your face, all of that.

He's just a pure leader, and we saw that take place over the course of last season. Two, Raphael. It was a tough one because there's nobody on the Titans who's kind of an edgy, bad guy per se, attitude, always in your face, blah, blah, blah. I mean, attitude always in your face blah blah blah I mean that's kind of Taylor LeJuan in a sense you could say um but I see him as more of like a goofy dude out there having fun getting in people's face not necessarily like a mean and an aggressive get in your face kind of guy so that was tough so for me on that one if I if I have to choose on a Raphael although I don't really see one on the team I'm gonna have to go with Rashawn Evans and he's become a leader on the defensive side of the ball but he is the guy that's gonna come up and smack you in the mouth during the game I guess Kenny Vaccaro maybe could be this type of guy. He likes

to get in people's faces and be physical out there. So that was the toughest one for me to answer. As for Donatello, I'm going to go with Kevin Bayard for Donatello. They don't really have machines or technology out on the field, but in terms of just being an absolutely intelligent force out on the field, Kevin Byard knows everything that is going on out on that field on defense. He knows where everyone's supposed to be, and having the ability to get all the interceptions and the turnovers that he does just requires a high-level intelligence of the machine that football is. So I'm going to go with Kevin Byard for Donatello on that one and as for Michelangelo I mentioned it a little bit earlier but I'm absolutely gonna go with Taylor LeJuan

on that one he's a goofball he's out there saying crazy stuff he's getting in people's faces and everything like that but it always seems good nature. He's just having a good time out there the entire time. The Bussin' with the Boys podcast is quite entertaining. LeJuan definitely has a goofy personality to him. So for me, Michelangelo would be Taylor LeJuan. So that is the best that I can come up with. And of course, we have Master Splinter, who can be Master Vrabel out there for that one with his rat- know rat like mustache

that he likes to have a lot of the time that match the whiskers of a master splinter so that is going to wrap up my uh analysis of which titans are the different ninja turtles so that was a really fun question i really enjoy those i'm going to be back with you guys next week to go over more like i said we have a ton of information to go over from this week's Zoom conferences once the players were actually in the building. And we have more information from the NFL to go over as well. Make sure that you're subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast. Make sure you're following me on Twitter at TicTacTitans

so you don't miss any of the offseason content that I will be pumping out to you guys. But now that you are done with this episode of the Locked on Titans podcast, I encourage you guys to go check out the Locked on NFL Draft podcast. It's never a bad time to get ready for the 2021 NFL Draft, and they're still going over information from this year's NFL Draft as well, so make sure that you check that out. That is going to do it for me today in this week of Locked on Titans podcast. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. you