Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Rival Gets A New Quarterback, Jayon Brown Back & NFL Salary Cap Buzz!!

Episode Date: February 19, 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. This Friday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is presented by Built Bar. Make sure that you go to builtbar.com, use promo code LOCKEDON, and you'll get 20% off your next order. So Titans fans, the biggest news of today's show is interdivisional news,

not necessarily Tennessee Titans news. The Indianapolis Colts finally have a starting quarterback and it's a move that a lot of us have expected them to make a move that makes a lot of sense. So we are going to dive into the big trade that got the Titans division rival their new starting quarterback. Going to walk you through my thoughts on the move itself and also what the Colts paid to get him. So going to dive into that to start our show. And then we got some interesting comments from one of the Titans in-house free agents. And it has to make you optimistic that this player could be returning. So going to dive into some comments we got from a Tennessee Titans free agent and tell

you exactly what that means and how the Titans could find a way to bring this player back on a team-friendly deal. And then finally, we are going to end off today's show talking about some general NFL news. The NFL did not announce the salary cap number, but they did give teams an updated salary cap floor. So I'm going to inform you on what that is, what we could still expect to be the actual but they did give teams an updated salary cap floor. So I'm going to inform you on what that is,

what we could still expect to be the actual cap number for 2021, and then also throw in a few extra tidbits and a few extra reports that I've been picking up over the last 24 hours. So we're kind of taking inventory of all the different Tennessee Titans buzz over the last few days over the course of this week to end off this week of shows. I will be back with you guys on Monday to continue bringing you Monday through Friday Tennessee Titans content. So make sure that you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream so you don't miss any

of the episodes that I will be dropping. We did just finish the Locked on Titans free agency preview. We went position by position through the offense and the defense. If you missed any of those, make sure you go back and check those out as well. But a big Friday show ahead. Got to talk about a big division trade, talk about some in-house Tennessee Titans free agent comments, and then go over all of the recent Tennessee Titans buzz today on the Locked on Titans podcast.

Let's get it. Going into this NFL offseason, there was expected to be a lot of shuffling on the quarterback carousel. A lot of new faces in new places. And one of those places that needed a new face would be the Titans' big rival, the Indianapolis Colts. Now, for a long time, a lot of lot of people thought hey Frank Reich used to coach Carson Wentz. The Eagles are clearly trying to turn a new leaf here and go a different direction. Carson Wentz has caused some problems over there and you know it made a lot of sense for the Eagles to go ahead and ship Carson Wentz over to the Colts to reunite him with his old offensive coordinator. But there were stumbling blocks.

We heard about the Chicago Bears trying to maybe get in on Carson Wentz. We also heard the public negotiations taking place on the value. Is Carson Wentz worth a first-round pick? How much should they get? The Colts are out of the negotiation. The Bears are tired of bidding. We got all these reports, but Jay Glazer from Fox Sports ended up saying after the trade went down that the Bears never actually made an

official offer. So a lot of hublub for nothing. But at the end of the day, the Indianapolis Colts trade for the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz. Now let's dive into the trade a little bit. The terms here, the Colts will be sending a third round pick in this year's draft, in 2021 draft, and then they will be sending a conditional second rounder in 2022. What is the condition? It is based on snaps and it is based on performance. If Carson Wentz plays 75% of the snaps this season, that second rounder turns into a first next year. If Carson Wentz plays 70% of snaps and the Colts make the playoffs this upcoming season, then that second rounder turns into a first. So if Carson

Wentz is able to play the season for the Colts, regardless of how good they do, if he just plays 75% of the snaps. That means that the Colts will have given up a third round pick this year and a first round pick next year. A first and a third for Carson Wentz. In my opinion, that's pretty expensive. Now, if they don't end up paying a first round pick, they'll be paying a second round pick next year, but that means that Wentz played less than 70% of the snaps, less than 75% of the snaps. Colts probably didn't make the playoffs, and that would be a great outcome for the Titans

anyway. So either way, I think this deal makes sense for the Colts. Out of all of the options that are available on the quarterback market right now that, you know, outside if they made a crazy trade for Watson, which not in the division, Texans wouldn't do that maybe Derek Carr but how much better is that I think Carr is obviously a better player right now but doesn't really inspire a lot of hope if you're a Colts fan so to me this made the most sense for the Colts you got a guy in Wentz who his rookie year he struggled at times

had that really good 2017 where he got some MVP votes before tearing his ACL. Then he had some middling years in 18 and 19, obviously bottomed out last year. But that good year that he did have was with Frank Reich. So if you're the Colts, try to reunite Frank Reich with Carson Wentz. See if you can kind of rekindle some of that MVP form that he had in 2017. But more likely than not, Carson Wentz is the quarterback that we've seen the last three years. He's just another guy, if not one of the lesser quarterbacks in the league. It's crazy to think that he's fallen that far from that 2017 form.

But right now, it's not a slam-dunk trade for the Colts because they don't know what they're going to get from Wentz. But from the Colts' perspective, I think it's the most logical move that they could make to try to give themselves a franchise quarterback moving forward. Overall, I would give the trade a B, probably a B minus if I was allowed to put minuses and plus on it because Carson Wentz, clearly, maybe that 2017 year is just a one-hit wonder so when you take that into account you take the injury history he has been somewhat of a tense guy in the locker room in Philly as well all of that into account I'm going to give this a B minus for the Colts

who could end up paying a third and a first for a league average at best quarterback in Carson Wentz. But it definitely makes the Colts a stronger team than Jacoby Brissett or even an option like a Ryan Fitzpatrick in my eyes. This is definitely a better outcome for the Colts. And the Titans always struggle with the Colts no matter who is playing quarterback. I've seen the Titans lose to Curtis Painter. So Carson Wentz, definitely a little bit of healthy fear there, even though I'm not overly, overly concerned. A B-minus, right in the middle there is where I would be.

Good deal for the Colts, good deal for the Eagles. We'll see how it plays out. But before we get into some comments that a Titans in-house free agent made about his free agency. Do want to tell you guys about the best tasting protein bar in the galaxy and our title sponsor for today's show, and that is Built Bar. They have their 18 amazing flavors. The bars are covered in 100% real chocolate.

They're soft and easy to chew, and they're not just delicious. They're also healthy for you as well. Low calorie, low sugar, high protein, high fiber. They're great as a meal substitute or as a guilt-free snack and go to builtbar.com right now use promo code locked on you'll get 20 off your next order and best of all even if you've taken advantage of this promo code before you can get 20 off again just by using that promo code lockedCKEDON at BiltBar.com. The Tennessee Titans have a number of in-house free agents who they certainly will consider re-signing. Of course,

on the offensive side of the ball, you have names like Corey Davis and Jonu Smith on defense, Daquan Jones, Jadavion Clowney, Desmond King, and then at linebacker, you have Jayon Brown. So, Jayon Brown, of course, spent the last four seasons in Tennessee after being drafted in the fifth round in 2017, and Jayon is one of those guys who his name has kind of faded a little bit from a lot of the conversations. A lot of conversations online have centered around the offensive pieces, debates about Jadavion Clowney. But Jayon's name, like I said, has kind of fallen away from the spotlight.

And it makes sense. He got hurt in that game against the Ravens in the middle of the season and missed the back half of the year but when the Titans defense has had good moments in recent years Jayon Brown has had a lot to do with that as a coverage linebacker who can match up with offensive weapons over the middle of the field now Jayon even when he was healthy in 2020 had one of his worst seasons probably his worst season since his rookie year, but that was pretty common of a lot of people on the Titans defense. So I don't know if you can specifically point out Jayon Brown and say he took this massive

slide when a lot of people on the Titans defense, including someone like Kevin Byard did. So I'm not going to hold that too much against Jayon Brown. He's still a fantastic linebacker, even though he is undersized. But the conversation now is, will the Titans be able to bring Jayon Brown back? Now, his spot track market value has him looking at about $11 million per season. I think that's incredibly too high, not only because of the lowering cap and the options teams will have on the market. But also, I just generally don't think that a player like Jayon Brown is worth that kind

of money. I would think that Jayon would be looking more around the $7-9 million range somewhere in there. But, Jayon Brown made some comments recently that could lead us to believe the Titans could get a very good bargain to bring Jayon Brown back because he wants to be in Tennessee. Jayon spoke with ESPN's Teron Davenport. We are fans of Teron Davenport on this program, but Jayon spoke with Teron Davenport recently and had this to say about staying in Tennessee. Quote,

It would be huge staying with the Titans for another however many years. I've grown to love the city. The team drafted me. I know the system, know what's expected of me, and love the fan base. There's a lot of comfort. End quote. So guys who are going into free agency and know they're going to have an open market don't typically make comments like that. Because like I said, if I'm John Robinson, I'm the Titans cap people,

I'm looking at that and saying, okay, you love the city, you love the fan base, you know what's expected of you, you're comfortable here. Well, why don't you give us a little bit of a discount on the contract so that we can bring you back. Some other team may be able to pay you more money, but all those factors you just listed, Jayon, why not give us a little bit of a discount? We're trying to build this defense. We're trying to do better.

We're trying to get to a Super Bowl. Help us out a little here. Now, I don't like the idea of players being the ones who we put all of the onus on to take discounts. The reality is the NFL owners have way more money than these individual players. So I don't like that owners get an easy way out and the players, the millionaires are the ones taking discounts instead of the billionaires. But in a salary cap league, it's just a reality of what has to happen. And you saw a guy like Mike Evans for Tampa Bay saying, hey, I'll take a discount if it

means keeping the team together to go for a Super Bowl. Now he's got a much stronger incentive. They just won the Super Bowl. So it's a little easier to go to Mike Evans and say, hey, if you take a pay cut, we got a chance at a Super Bowl than it is to go to Jayon Brown and say that. But you can at least say, hey, how much better would we be as a team if we had some more money to spend on the pass rush? So with these comments that Jayon Brown makes, it makes you think that he's willing to maybe take a little bit less than he could get on the open market to stay with Tennessee.

And I think if that's the case, the Titans absolutely have to look at that because the reality is I don't think that Rashawn Evans will be with the team past two years at maximum and if you can lock in Jayon Brown to a two three four year deal at a pretty good team friendly rate that's an excellent idea to pair him with David Long and then you can have David Long be that you know driving through the line of scrimmage over aggressive run stopper and then you have Jayon Brown who's your coverage linebacker and you don't really have to replace that role. So I think it would make a lot of sense for the Titans and Jayon Brown to try to get a team-friendly deal in place as soon as possible. Some other factors, though, that I want to mention here.

I mentioned it yesterday, but Chase Edmonds, the running back from the Cardinals, said free agency is probably going to be crazy. There might be some super teams and things like that because free agents in the NFL will be incentivized to take one-year deals. Let the cap number go back to normal in 2022, and then players can pounce and get those big money deals that they want to get. There's not going to be a lot of money out there this year because the cap went down. It was $198 last year.

It's going to be, at minimum, out there this year because the cap went down. It was $198 last year. It's going to be at minimum $10 million less than that. The cap usually goes up, guys. It doesn't go down. That's not how this works. So teams aren't going to have as much money as normal. That means players aren't going to get the deals that they normally get. It's going to downplay the entire market. I've talked about this with the free agency preview, and that's going to happen with Jayon Brown. And maybe not a team-friendly three four-year deal but maybe Jayon Brown takes a one-year six million dollar deal for the Titans to come back for one more season and see what can happen you know there's a lot of different possibilities I think we're going to see some things that we don't typically see in normal off seasons because of this situation so that could be something that

impacts the Titans it could be something that impacts Jayon Brown, and it could lead to Jayon Brown returning to Tennessee, which clearly he is open to do. So those are the comments we got from Jayon Brown. Shout out to Teron Davenport for getting those comments out. But very interesting to watch. And based on the news that we're going to talk about in our third segment, we could see some Jayon Brown contract traction quicker than we even expected.

But before we talk about that, I want to remind you guys about the new podcast from the Locked On Podcast Network, Locked On Today. We're covering everything that you need to know about the Titans, but what about the rest of sports? Now the Locked On Podcast Network has you covered there as well with Locked On Today. It's hosted by the great Peter Bukowski, and it's all the sports news you need every single morning in under 20 minutes. Make sure that you subscribe to the Locked On Today podcast wherever you get podcasts.

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I guess it really is. But previously this week, we did our Locked on Titans free agency preview, finished off things. And as I mentioned earlier in the show, if you missed any of that, make sure you go back and check that out but free agency will be directly impacted by what the NFL chooses to set the salary cap at and we got some news on Thursday of where that could be now it's not official news to lock in what the salary cap will be but they increased the floor. So previously, the NFL salary cap in 2020 was $198 million, but the NFL had come out this all season and said that it could be as low, the NFL PA and

the NFL actually agreed that it could be as low as $175 million. That is a huge drop and would have a major impact on not only the Titans, But pretty much every team around the NFL. Now we got word on Thursday. The NFL informed teams that the salary cap floor would be a minimum of $180 million. So that's up from the $175 million that they had agreed upon previously. So now NFL teams know that $180 million will be the minimum. The salary cap will be. A lot of reports and a lot of thinking indicate that it could end up being anywhere between $87 to $88 million. There's a lot

of different factors. I talked about that yesterday a little bit. There's a new TV deal that the NFL is trying to lock into place for Sunday night football and for NFL Sunday ticket and if they get that new TV deal done it could give them confidence to increase the salary cap a little bit more and be able to smooth things out so they don't take such a big hit in one season and kind of smooth it out so that the drop is is placed throughout the next coming years rather than dropping down the salary cap by 10 to 15 million dollars in one season it would be a smooth out where they only drop it about $2 to $3 million for the next three to four to five years, kind of smooth things out.

But we don't know if that's going to happen right now, despite all the rumors, but we do know that minimum is $180 million, and that should get the ball rolling on a few moves. We saw the Atlanta Falcons cut two players already to save some salary cap space. I would expect the Titans to maybe start getting in that business here shortly. I mean, free agency is only a month away. And you got to start getting things lined up so you know where you're going to be and know what kind of players you're going to go after.

Some other things that impact the salary cap for the Titans. Some moves that they could make. I want to talk about a few things that kind of make a little bit more sense now. We're starting to get a clearer picture. I mentioned some of them earlier in the month, but going to dive into those a little bit more now. So a couple players who could be cut. One we've talked about before, one we haven't, and it could be very interesting. Number one, Adam Humphreys. So very interesting number one Adam Humphries so John

Robinson talked about Adam Humphries in his press conference earlier in the week and didn't really give an update on his health right now things seem to be still kind of in the air for Adam Humphries health wise well I thought and a lot of people have thought that cutting Adam Humphries wouldn't make a lot of sense it would be a dead cap of $5 million, but they would save the Titans $4.75 million. So basically dead cap of $5, but $5 million worth of savings. For Adam Humphreys, you just can't justify paying him $10 million, $9 million for what he's given. Adam Humphreys is the 33rd highest paid wide receiver in the NFL right now, and that just simply can't continue for the Titans. So I thought that cutting Adam Humphreys would make sense, but that's what I want to talk about. Like I said, it'd be $5 million in

dead cap, $4.75 million in savings if he's cut before June 1st. If the Titans wait until after June 1st and cut Adam Humphreys, well now it's only two and a half million dollars of dead cap. So saving half of the dead cap money and it'd be 7.25 million dollars in savings. So you're getting almost three million extra dollars in salary cap relief if you just wait until June 1st to cut Adam Humphreys. Now, that could make sense for a couple of reasons. Due to his health, it makes things a little murky on whether you can cut him or not outright. So, giving him more time to get officially healthy so that they can cut him and not have to worry about that, that makes sense.

But, there's also the downfall here of, yeah, the Titans would be getting three extra million dollars basically in salary cap money by waiting to cut Adam Humphreys. But if you wait that long, who's going to be available on the market? Free agency is in March. Yeah, there could be some veteran options who are late camp casualties who get cut or maybe guys lingering on the market like Jadavavian Clowney did last year. But for the $3 million and not even that, $2.75 million in savings you would get for waiting, is it really worth it when you need that money now? It's an interesting conversation to have.

The long-term wait to get more money in savings or I need the money now when free agency is actually happening, so we're going to do it now. That's an interesting thing to watch for the Titans. So we'll monitor that as things go. Another name that's interesting, and I'll be honest with you, it's not something that I consider, and then I hopped on over the cap today, started looking at some things. You know, we talk about the Titans cutting Malcolm Butler,

and that would save them $10 million in salary cap space. You know what else would save the Titans $10 million in salary cap space? Cutting Adoree Jackson. That's right, guys. I know that we were excited that Adoree could be a number one corner, and they his fifth year option for $10 million and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But with his injury history, his play last year when he was out there, some of the play from the beginning of his career, his inability to help on special teams when that was a big factor in drafting him.

I mean, I know he's got the speed to hang with some of these top tier speed guys in the NFL at the wide receiver position, but at what cost? And last year, how can you look at a Dory Jackson and Malcolm Butler and say you'd rather have a Dory Jackson on this team for $10 million? I'd rather pay Malcolm Butler $14 than a Dory 10. So what if the Titans cut a Dory Jackson now that has to happen before his money becomes guaranteed so that would need to happen before free agency the Titans do have a tight window on that I think it'd be interesting I think I'd rather cut a Dory Jackson and save that 10 million and

keep Malcolm Butler and let Christian Fulton take over the slot for Adoree Jackson and then use six million dollars to go get one of the mid-tier cornerback options that we discussed yesterday like a Razul Douglas or a Terrence Mitchell something like that not that crazy right just saying something to consider another guy who's probably going to be gone off the Titans in one way or another is Isaiah Wilson, the Panda himself. I did see a report on Twitter on Thursday, though, saying that the Titans are looking to cut or trade Isaiah Wilson before the end of the 2021 all season. I mean, duh.

I mean, that is the dumbest report I've ever seen. If you listen to John Robinson in his press conference, anybody could tweet that. So that's just ridiculous to act like that's a report. That's obvious. John Robinson made that obvious himself. So don't buy anybody trying to act like they're breaking a story with that. That's just silly. Silly nonsense.

One other report, though, that I do want to mention before we get out of here for the weekend. Justin M. Guy writes for Broadway. Don't know his last name. Does good work though. Especially good draft work from Justin. But he tweeted out.

On Thursday. That Corey Davis. Had recently bought. A brand new home in Nashville. That. His biggest primary concern concern on the open market isn't money, that it's a chance to win and to get targets in the passing game. Some people are taking that as

a sign that Corey Davis is coming back to Nashville. That the Titans and Corey Davis actually have something worked out. And again, guys, if Corey Davis is taking a team-friendly deal because he wants to stay in Nashville and he thinks they can win and he wants to get targets from Ryan Tannehill, then I'm all for it. I'm all for these guys taking team-friendly deals. What the conversation was, if Corey Davis is going to get $12, $13 million in free agency, then the Titans aren't going to go there,

especially with the lowered cap. But if Corey Davis is going to be around $8 million, $9 million, then I'm all for it. Bring him back. That makes sense. So it's all about the price tag here. But tons of interesting Titans buzz. Tons of interesting news.

And I'll be back on Monday to go over everything that takes place over the weekend. Things could start happening quickly with the salary cap news, with free agency a month away, so I would imagine that we'll get some kind of big news over the weekend. Like I said, I'll be back with you guys on Monday to go over all of it. Do want to remind you, do want to remind you, Monday we will have a mailbag. So send me your mailbag questions on Twitter at TicTacTitans or put them in as a review in Apple iTunes.

Either way, I will make sure I get to those on Monday. We're going to get the mailbag back going this week. But that's going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.