Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans select Jeffery Simmons at 19, what's left for day two?

Episode Date: April 26, 2019

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked On Titans. I'm Joey Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you tonight? Doing good. The wait is over. We finally know who the Titans have picked, so it's a good day. It is a great day. The wait is over. We talked about this before, but it just seems like so much longer this year. After last year, the Titans getting in the playoffs, winning a playoff game. Then they fired Mike Malarkey, had a coaching surge. So we had all of that stuff to talk about before we ever got into draft coverage. This year we went straight from Week 17 into draft coverage. So it was like it seemed like an eternity. So we finally got the answer tonight to who the Titans pick would be at 19.

So we're going to talk about that, obviously, in this show, and then kind of give you a preview of what you can expect tomorrow. Before we do that, remind you to write for me at citymiracles.com where we cover the Titans for SB Nation. So you can check us out there. You can also follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm.

Terry's at tlamberttn. You can get the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Just search out Locked on Titans and you will find us there. We also have a voicemail line. So if you want to give us feedback on the Simmons pick or anything we talk about or just whatever, 615-787-8762. Call in there.

Leave us about a minute-long message, and we'll try our best to get that into a show next week all right so the titans took jeffrey simmons the defensive tackle from mississippi state uh with the 19th pick um you know obviously there's a lot of a lot of question marks surrounding this pick uh you have the torn acl from earlier this season so we pretty much know that he's not going to be available at the beginning of the season. A lot of people are saying he's not going to be available at all in 2019. I don't think that's the case.

I think, you know, eight months after a torn ACL, a guy can be back to pretty much full strength. So I do think we see him this year, but I think that he probably starts the season on PUP. Maybe don't see him until after the bye. You always have the off the field incident that espn apparently took the whole you know however long after the titans picked simmons to talk about um an ugly incident no doubt uh you know but something that happened for three or four years ago uh by all accounts, with everybody that the Titans have talked to. He's changed from that.

It was a mistake. Again, I don't really hear a talk about that. You can draw your own conclusions as far as that's concerned. We'll mainly focus on the football part of this here. I will say one more thing about that. Just keep in mind the Titans have Amy Adams-Tronk, a female owner, who would have had to sign off on this. So she was comfortable with it. But again, draw your

own conclusions there. Let's talk about Jeffrey Simmons, the football player. Terry, what's your reaction to what Simmons is going to bring to this team on the field? Well, you're getting a top 10 player. Every analyst out there has said that. If he didn't

blow out his knee, if he didn't have this off-the-field thing lingering over him, he might have gone top five. But you're getting an elite talent in this draft, and we've talked about it. It seemed like every question we got was about Simmons in this draft process. Whether or not he was going to be there at 51, the Titans ended up taking him at 19. So 6'4", 300 pounds, finally, finally some help for Jarrell Casey,

who really hadn't had it his entire career in Tennessee. He's been fighting through double teams for, what, six, seven, eight years now, it seems. He's been successful with it, but adding Simmons into this mix is just going to make him that much better. So, like you said, we don't know when he's going to play. He's not going to go through training camp. We're going to have to be a little patient through this process.

But ACLs are not once were. You know, you see guys coming back from ACL injuries six months, eight months now. It used to be a full year, no doubt. But he did that in February. So I don't think it's unrealistic to say this guy's going to be back sometime in October, maybe even on the field at the midway point of this season. Yeah, and that's the thing. We talked about this when we talked about the schedule release.

If you go and look at the way the Titans' schedule sets up, they have the bulk of their division games after their bye. So when you look at starting in November, you go Jaguars November 24th, Colts December 1st, Texans December 15th, and Texans again December 24th. Colts, December 1st. Texans, December 15th. And Texans again, December 29th. So you've got four of those games, four of your six division games, coming from the end of November on. And like you said, I really do think that Simmons will be available for that stretch run.

Now, you know, we've seen what happens when these guys miss training camp it takes them a little bit more time and that kind of stuff so i mean i don't think that we should fully expect that what we're going to see from simmons whenever he is on the field to be what the times are ultimately going to get in him but i do think he can come in and make an impact i think that like you said they finally have somebody to take attention away from Jarrell Casey. And that's been the biggest problem. I mean, you know, they gave Daquan Jones a bunch of money last offseason. And, I mean, to Jones' credit, he did play better, you know, at the end of the year,

or the year before he had the injury. But I think a lot of that is just because so much of the attention was focused on Jarrell Casey. And this one, it gets Daquan, Austin Johnson, whoever, off the field a little bit, which I think is nothing but a good thing because those guys have underperformed or at least they just have been non-sackers for the most part when they've been on the field. So you get less snaps from those guys whenever simmons is ready and you have somebody else the team has to account for the opposing team has to account for and i just you cannot

overstate how big that's going to be you cannot overstate how important it is that there's going to be a focus up front besides jarrell casey that opens things up for jarrell casey it opens things up for harold landry it opens things up for whoever else they have rushing off of the edge. So, I mean, I think he's a guy that can create penetration from the middle, the middle of the offensive line. And that's one of the things, one of the biggest recipes for success right now. You get that push back, get the quarterback off of his spot. And I think he has the ability to make everybody around him better like you said he's a guy that um could have been

a top 10 could have been even a top five pick if you don't have the acl tear uh i was listening to john robinson he was on the titan radio guys after after the pick was made and you know basically saying simmons was the guy they liked. You know, they asked him, well, you know, how did you feel towards ACL? And Robinson was like, you know, well, I mean, it was a little bit bittersweet. He's like, you know, we hate it for the kid because obviously that sets him back. But, you know, basically John Robinson said, hey, now we think we might have a chance to get him at 19,

where we didn't think that was possible before. So obviously not something they were rooting for, but put him in that position and again, he's going to do a lot of things for this defense while he's healthy in all the field. Yeah, I think you've got to look at how the board fell too. That's a big part

of the equation for me. Let's just start at 13. Christian Wilkins goes to Miami. Like we were talking about before we hopped on here, the board had fallen really well to this point. Then at 13, Wilkins goes. At 14, Chris Lindstrom goes. That's higher than anyone thought he would go to Atlanta.

Haskins goes 15. Brian Burns, 16. That's a guy that had a lot of top ten hype, and he was starting to tumble, and we were starting to get our hopes up there. That certainly would have been an instant answer on the edge. He goes 16 to Carolina. And the Giants take Lawrence. Garrett Bradbury goes 18.

So both of our guys, Lindstrom and Bradbury, who we've talked about for months as being potential fits, Lindstrom and Bradbury, who we've talked about for months as being potential fits, potential Josh Klein replacements, go before the Titans can even pick. There's no real pass rusher there. You had the Montez Sweat deal with the heart issue

that left everything in doubt for him. He ends up going 26. But nothing else really made sense for the Titans. You know, we were talking about Hollywood Brown. You know how we feel on that. His smaller guy with Liz Frank injury. You know, what's the positional value of receiver with how deep this receiver class is.

So, when you pair all of that together, this pick just makes a ton of sense. You know, there was nobody, there was no real difference maker on the defensive front other than Simmons. So looking at it from that perspective, I don't know how the Titans do better tonight. Yeah, absolutely. And like you said, the way there was a point there where you're like, all right, man, they're going to have so many of these guys

that we've talked about, so many of these guys that we've talked about, so many of these guys that we've seen in different mock drafts, the people that weren't being ridiculous and mocking a corner and a tight end and all that stuff. Wilkins, Bradbury, Lindstrom, like you said. It looked like they were going to have a choice of all those guys, Burns, and then all of a sudden they're all gone, and so you kind of had to reset a little bit.

But the way it fell, this just seemed to make the most sense. Because we talked about it when we did the locked-on drafts. I did the SB Nation writers draft. Bradbury was our pick in both of those mocks because it was just what made sense. It was just that was the best value for what had come off the board at 19. And then, you know, in this draft, once he's gone, it just kind of opened up some other things. So, I mean, I think it all worked out pretty well.

You would have liked to have a few more choices there. But with the way things fell, I think the Titans had to be pretty pleased with what they came away from here. All right, coming up, we will talk a little bit about what this looks like for tomorrow, kind of resetting the Titans' needs and all that stuff. Before we do that, I'll tell you about ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter. Hiring used to be hard, multiple job sites, stacks of resumes, confusing review process. But today, hiring can be easy, and you only have to go to one place to get it done.

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We're recording this as the first round is ending up. We're through 30 picks currently. It looks like we talked a lot about how the Titans probably weren't going to go receiver in the first round for a multitude of reasons, but they do need to add weapons on offense. And the way that this draft is set up so far, it looks like there's going to be a lot of quality wide receivers available in the second round now the Titans don't pick a 51 so I mean

there's a lot that can change between you know when the second round starts and the Titans are actually on the clock but you know as we sit right here at pick 30 you've only had one right wide receiver off the board in Marquise Brown so it really looks like the Titans are going to have the opportunity to get a quality player there in the second round, and then you can still add that interior offensive lineman, possibly in the third round, a guy that you can probably at least bring in and can have a chance to start for you next year. There's a fascinating conversation going on right now in Titans draft room.

I'm glad I don't have to make this call because you look at the receivers left, and, again, we've got two picks left as we're recording this. But in Kilharry, Debo Samuel, DK Metcalf, A.J. Brown, J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, Paris Campbell, they're all still available. Just wild. I didn't think we'd be saying all that. Even guys like Hakeem Butler still on the board. So I think there's going to be a huge run of receivers in the second round.

Still some top flight guys, in my opinion, that you can go get. So you've kind of got to weigh that out against getting a guard who you need. You know, you don't currently have a rock-solid starter there. You've got guys like Connor McGovern, Drew Samia left, and Michael Dieter from Wisconsin, guys that we've heard, guys that we've seen connected to pick 51. So I don't know. I'm not real comfortable taking a receiver at 51

and waiting on getting a potential starter in the third round yeah it's going to be interesting and then now the Falcons have traded 231 so I would assume they're not going to take a receiver but yeah it's going to be an interesting thing to watch because

and we talked about this and I have been I mean we both have been firm on this. They have to walk away from the first two days of the draft with an interior offensive lineman that has the opportunity to start. And so, like you're saying, then you've got to weigh the chances of being able to get that guy in the third round if you do go receiver in the second round. And, again, you know, as we sit here, we don't know how the picks in front of the titans are going to play out in the second round maybe there's not a run of receivers maybe a lot of these guys are still sitting there at 51 and then you think okay maybe we can wait until the

third round and we're still going to get a player that can step in there do they like some of these tight ends i mean we said all along tightening was ridiculous at 19 but i don't think it's ridiculous as we get later into the draft you know a guy that can come in and help you if john who doesn't continue to take the steps you thought he was going to if delaney walker doesn't it doesn't come back from from his injury 100 i mean there's a lot of different ways they can go but i still think they have to get a guy that at least can come in and compete to start at guard before tomorrow is over or you know friday so that that's that would be the biggest thing for me um as they watch how this all plays out it was interesting i mean like who said you you had lindstrom lindstrom you had bradbury go uh and listen was a guy we talked a lot about at

least the titans not necessarily that he would that they would take him but you know that they had more information on him than anybody else would uh but he was off the board by the time they by the time they came on the clock so it's just been kind of an interesting day and then you've still got a bunch of these tackles available do they is there one of those guys that they that is going to keep kind of sliding down the board they think they can move inside so yeah i mean it's just it's so interesting and i think that you know we get so excited for for the first day of the draft. And obviously, you know, the first round is really exciting.

But when we, you know, when this first round is over and we sit down and we look at, you know, best players available and all that kind of stuff, there are still going to be a lot of really good names on the board. And there's going to be like what 10 or 11 guys that we saw consistently going in the first round of mock drafts they're still on the board so you know tomorrow is really just as important as today was absolutely i mean i think we both we both feel like they they still have to add two starters you know which is which is strange because i think they plugged a lot of holes there but i still think they have to add two starters, which is strange because I think they plugged a lot of holes there. But I still think they have to add another receiver.

What I don't want them to do is to take a pass rusher because once you get into the second round pass rusher, Harold Landry is kind of a different deal there. There was something up with his medicals. They've got to have the athleticism to get after the passer. I just don't think those guys in the second, third round have that juice in them. So I'd rather see them hold off until next year, maybe address that next season's draft,

and maybe can sign another band-aid like Cam Wake. But I think you make a good point on the offensive tackles. Guys like Cody Ford, Dalton Reisner, I thought those two might be in play at 19 you know just seeing how everything fell didn't really know how they felt about Simmons uh those two could have easily you know been the pick at 19 and come in and kicked inside the guard uh and been the answer and been the starter there. So it's interesting. Which way are you going? At 51, gun to your head, you've got Debo Samuel on the board or you can pick an offensive guard.

Which way are you going? If it's me, I go with the guard. I just, I don't know. I have this thing with receivers, and we talked a lot about Hollywood Brown. He may be good in the NFL. I just don't think he would have been good here. We talked about the reasons that he might not be good in the NFL at all, but we've never figured out how to use those guys here. So I think I'm a little bit gun-shy on that.

But again, they don't have a starter at right guard right now. You've got enough receivers that you can run out there. You've got Corey Davis. You've got Adam Humphreys. You've got Taewon Taylor, who, I mean, they probably still have a little bit of faith in. You've got Tajay Sharp serviceable. So, I mean, you've got some guys there. You don't have a right guard right now.

So I think that if you're not going to take that guy at 51, you've got to be really confident that the guy you're going to take in the third round is going to be there. And I just don't know if you can be or not. So that's kind of where i said i mean you kind of feel the same way yeah it's tougher for me i mean i'll be honest uh you're talking about the difference in a debo and our secret white side versus you know who we're talking about kelvin harman andy isabella emmanuel hall in the third. I think the drop-off is kind of significant there.

But at the same time, I'd see where you're coming from. It's like we've said all along. You've got to come out of this draft with a starter at right guard. So you've got Kevin Panfield right now. Maybe you can kick Kelly inside, but they seem opposed to that idea. That would certainly make things easier. I just want some help for Marcus Mariota. I really don't want to go through

another season talking about well, if this guy would have caught the ball, we'd have a different opinion of Marcus Mariota. I hope they address it. It's just an embarrassment of riches there in that second round. I just think it's going to be hard to pass on one of those guys.

Yeah, absolutely. All right, coming up to finish up the show, we'll talk a little bit about what the rest of the teams in the division did in round one. And we haven't addressed the Drew Locke rumor, so we'll talk a little bit about that as well. All right, so starting with the Drew Locke rumor, did you ever buy that? I mean, to me, that was ridiculous. Not to say they couldn't take a quarterback in this draft if there was a guy they were

really in love with, but I just, I never, John Robinson was not falling in love with Drew Locke. Like, that just never made sense to me. I never bought it, but I'll be honest, once he got past 11, I started to sweat a little bit. I mean, because just the way it was falling, if you were going to do something like that, your board had kind of been cleared off if they didn't like Simmons there.

So if you were going to do something like that, it kind of sort of made sense. Of course it didn't to me and you you because we're believers in Marcus Mariota. You brought in Ryan Tannehill. You're kind of going all in this season. And then long term, I just don't buy drafting Drew Locke there. You've got this stellar quarterback class next year. You've got Tua coming out.

You've got Justin Herbert. You've got Trevor Lawrence in two years. I just didn't like the idea of pigeonholing yourself in there and it just did not make any sense to me yeah i the one thing you know because when when daniel jeremiah threw it out there he was throwing it out there as here's all the the crazy stuff that i'm hearing good luck predicting this track i mean that's basically what he said. But then when Peter King mentioned it, that was when I was kind of like, okay, you know, like he's been connected to John Robinson in the past. That's when I started to get a little bit nervous.

But it just never – I don't know, it never really made sense to me. And I was going to have a lot of trouble if that's what happened. And, again, not because I took a quarterback, but because of the quarterback that they would have taken in Drew Locke. So that's kind of where I was on that. All right, finishing up with what the other teams did. The Jaguars, man, I was so pissed when Josh Allen is still on the board at seven. Like I wouldn't have thought in my wild – like in anything that we looked at,

any of the mocks, I mean he wasn't making it past four in any of that stuff. And then, of course, the Raiders go way off the board and pick Furl, however you say his name, a guy that was consistently at least getting in range of the Titans, sometimes falling past the Titans in mock drafts. They go off the board there. You got the Giants taking Daniel Jones. I mean, so you got the dumb teams being dumb in front of the Jaguars,

and they luck into a guy that, you know, just looks like he's going to be a star, looks like a really good football player. So not the greatest thing the way that thing fell. Yeah, and I know we're trying to talk about the Jaguars, but I've got to talk about the Giants for a second. Has anyone ruined a roster quicker than Dave Gettleman has ruined that roster? I mean, you trade away Odell Beckham. You pass on the quarterback last year only to draft Daniel Jones this year, and you spend a top-two pick on a running back.

Then you take a nose tackle at 17. The Giants have gotten significantly worse since he took over. And, again, directly impacts the Titans here. significantly worse than he took over. And, again, directly impacts the Titans here. Josh Allen, a really good, really productive outside linebacker, falls right into the Jaguars' lap. So they get a blue-chip talent when, you know, they were rumored to take T.J. Hawkinson, an offensive lineman there.

So, yeah, hated seeing that just for the Jaguars' sake because that defense got a lot better tonight. All right, before we talk about the other two teams, first round closes out with the Patriots taking in Kilharry. So there is one receiver off the board, but there's still a bunch of guys there. So we'll see how that plays out tomorrow. All right, so then you have the Texans who, you know, picked right after or you have the texans uh who you know picked right right

at or closely after the titans um and it's just the the texans man they're they're special right uh they they need an offensive lineman so they they got one of those but it just seemed like they they kind of went way off the board there with i I mean, a guy that I think has some potential. I don't know. It just seemed like there were better guys that they could have taken to do similar things. Yes, the Texans really apparently hate Deshaun Watson. That's my takeaway there. I think they got sniped there from Andre Dillard.

I think that's where they were going to go. Philadelphia moves up in front of them, grabs the tackle there, forces the Texans, you know, they've got to squirm there and figure out who they're going to pick. They ended up going with a project who was rumored to be, you know, somewhere in the second round. I didn't even see him in the third round. So interesting selection there.

They had to go offensive line. That's been the biggest need there for years. So they take a project there. I'm not sure if he's a day one guy. You know, the Texas fans aren't going to be happy with that. But a guy with a lot of athletic ability, a lot of upside, but definitely doesn't solve their problem immediately. immediately yeah and then you got the colts who ended up trading out of the first round uh with the redskins so they traded back into the second round picked up a two this year and a two next year um you know that they could kind of afford to do that after the draft that they had last year uh you know really restocked that roster with talent and now loading up on more picks and that's not i mean they're obviously you know disadvantages to trading out of the first round you don't get a fifth year option and all that

kind of stuff but i just i don't like the idea of ballard having extra picks there because he's just done such a good job with with the ones he's had so far. Yeah, I'm with you. I hated seeing that happen. Just kind of what he did last year. They had a ton of picks last season and hit on a lot of them and ended up flipping that terrible defense and turning it into a top half defense. So, yeah, Ballard is definitely a problem for the AFC South. Building that roster around Andrew Luck, already a ton of young talent there.

So, yeah, that's scary. Yeah, so anyway, it was a fun first round, as the NFL draft always is. Always a lot of surprises and things that you didn't see coming. Really cool to see it in Nashville. By all accounts, everything went off pretty flawlessly. There was a huge crowd down there. So not surprised at all that they've done a really good job. But just a good look for the city, and you like that for the city,

for the Titans organization because, you know, they had a big hand. Amy Adams-Shrunk had a big hand in getting it here. So it was cool to see the turnout and everything that was going on downtown yeah absolutely that i mean i thought the preds pictures were awesome but then seeing these it just seemed like the crowd had quadrupled in size and that picture the titans tweeted out with amy adam struck you know with the crowd behind her that was awesome uh just just kind of the culmination of all that work. You know, having the uniform reveal and all that. Just really cool to see Nashville take another step forward. You know, I think they're going to have to build a new stadium

to get a Super Bowl or anything like that. But definitely, rain and all, they really performed on a big stage. Yeah, and I think, you know, the combination of the things that you mentioned, the Predators playoff stuff from a couple years ago and the uniform reveal, I think those two things really highlighted the turnout that Nashville can produce. And so I think those were really instrumental in getting the draft here. All right, so that'll do it for our show tonight. Like I said, a lot of stuff coming up, musicofmiracles.com.

We'll be writing on best players available. I'm sure we'll have second-round mocks tomorrow, all that kind of stuff coming up music miracles.com uh we'll be writing on best players available uh i'm sure we'll have second round mocks tomorrow all that kind of stuff to look at so you can check that out again follow us on twitter i'm at jay morris mcm terry's at t limbert tn uh pod or the voicemail number if you want to call and leave us a voicemail reaction to the simmons pick or anything else that happened on night one six one15-787-8762. It was about a minute long voicemail and we will get to it on a show next week. Again, subscribe to the show.

Locked on Titans will have a ton of stuff coming out over the next couple of days. So hit that subscribe button. You'll get them as soon as they are available. For Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening to Locked on Titans and we'll talk to you again tomorrow.