Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans take A.J. Brown, Nate Davis on day two of NFL Draft; What's left for day three?

Episode Date: April 27, 2019

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked On Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you tonight? Doing pretty good. What's going on, man? Not a whole lot. Doing good. I think the Titans have done really well through three rounds of the draft. So we're recording this Friday night after the conclusion of the third round of the draft. So we're going to talk about the two picks the Titans made. Maybe circle back and have a little bit of conversation around the Jeffrey Simmons pick from yesterday as well. Before we do that, I remind you to be right for me at citymiracles.com.

We're covering the Titans for SB Nation, so you can find us there. You can also follow us on Twitter. I'm at jaymorrismcm. Terry's at tlamberttn. You can get the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Just search out Locked on Titans. If you want to react to this draft, obviously a lot of stuff has happened over the last couple of days, and then

we still have four rounds to go tomorrow. You can call and leave us a voicemail, 615-787-8762. It was a minute-long voicemail, and we will try to get to those on the show next week. Alright, so I think that's all the housekeeping stuff. The Titans had two picks

tonight they picked uh john robinson for the first time in in really in recent memory uh has has done no movement in the first two days of the draft has picked in his two spots so at 51 you had aj brown at 82 you had nate davis you know we talked a lot last night about the fact that there were a lot of receivers still available on the board, the fact that only two went in the first round, and the second one was in Kilharry, who a lot of people, I mean, obviously a good player, most people thought he would definitely go by the end of the second round, but they got kind of pushed up into the first round with the Patriots

picking him at the end of the second round um but a guy they got kind of pushed up and into the first round with the patriots picking him at the end into the first round last night so you knew there was still a lot of quality receivers on the board and again we talked about it not a lot of top end talent in this receiver class but when you got to you know second third fourth rounds a lot of guys that you felt like you could get could come in and be productive. And, you know, A.J. Brown, for some people, was the best receiver on the board. You know, a lot of people had D.K. Metcalf as the number one guy. But if you kind of compare those two guys, as far as production goes in college, A.J. Brown was, you know, leaps and bounds ahead of Metcalf as far as the numbers that he put up at Ole Miss.

We know John Robinson likes college production. That's one of the things that he looks at when he's looking at guys that he wants to pick. And so, you know, just with the way the board fell and everything, kind of in front of the Titans pick, it became pretty obvious, especially once the Titans were actually on the clock, that Adrian Brown was going to be the pick. Yeah, so you had Reisner ahead of Jenkins there.

You had Eric McCoy go just before the Titans picked. So a lot of interior offensive linemen coming off the board really right before the Titans picked at 51. So, you know, when McCoy came off, you were like, okay, it's A.J. Brown. It's Hakeem Butler. It's, you know, D.K. Metcalf. You start looking at some of these stats, A.J. Brown, clear, far and away, is a John Robinson-type guy.

So 1,200 yards at Ole Miss in 2017, goes 1,300 yards last year at Ole Miss, 19 total touchdowns. You know, Corey Davis, Tajay Sharp, Taewon Taylor, all those guys have had huge production. So, A.J. Brown certainly fits that mold. I like the way he's built. You know, 6 foot, 225 pounds, tough. He's going to go over the middle.

He can make stuff happen after the catch. 4.49 speed in the 40 yard dash not known for being a burner but you know has decent speed there a decent amount of burst so gives you a little bit of everything a good all-around player it seems like so uh fully expecting him to walk into the wide receiver two role there in Nashville, opposite of Corey Davis. And then suddenly, you know, this receiving core looks pretty good. You've got A.J. Brown, you've got Corey Davis, you've got Adam Humphreys,

you've got Delaney Walker coming back. You know, the big thing for me and you is we don't have to rely on Taylor. We don't have to rely on Tajay Sharp for anything of substance there. They're number four and number five now on the depth chart, which is honestly where they should be. That's the biggest thing for me. I've got issues with Taewon Taylor, but I think

that once he gets into that fourth position, then you don't have to count him for necessarily anything. And maybe he can just come in and run some clear-out stuff. And we saw, listen, last year in that Jets game, we saw that he can thrive in that role. But I think when you're pushing him to number two or number three,

I think that's just a little bit more than he's ready to handle at this point. Same thing around Tajay Sharp. I think he's a fine, productive receiver. Had at least one big game last year against the Chargers, but you don't want to have to rely on him as your second or third option. John Robinson's done a really nice job of remaking that room this offseason with the addition of Humphreys with the draft pick of Brown. And then, like you said, you've got Delaney Walker coming back. You've got Jonathan Smith coming back.

You know, shockingly, they still haven't drafted a tight end. You know, we try to tell everybody, but people don't listen. But, yeah, so, I mean, I think they've done a good job as far as, you know, bolstering that receiving room, you know, and the weapons with the guys coming back from injuries and the new guys coming in. You had to feel pretty good about where this team is. And there was a lot of conversation after the Jeffrey Simmons pick on Thursday about, well, this team is supposed to be all in this year with Marcus Mariota

in the final year of his contract. Now they draft a defensive guy that may not even be able to be on the field in 2019. But I think you saw the two picks tonight. You know, Simmons was just too good, too much of a value to pass up for them last night. We'll circle back to, like I said, some conversation around him a little bit later in the show. But, you know, they went and they got their receiver tonight, got the guy they can help make plays on offense. They really desperately needed that. they were able to add that and i don't know i mean again we'll get to the third round pick

here in just a minute but even just stopping at the end of the second round here i just you have to be really impressed with what john robinson has been able to put together this offseason and then especially once we get into the whole Nate Davis conversation, right guard, all that stuff, now you're entering day three of the draft, and they don't have to force anything. There's still a couple of positions they could use, sure. There's still a couple of places that they could use some quality depth. But they've done a nice job of not being desperate for anything, and now you can just say hey here's a guy whatever

position that has a couple of traits we think we can develop him into something and then you've got a guy in the fourth fifth round whatever that you think can be a steal they can kind of go that way instead of hey we've got to get a guard or a receiver or whatever it may be we have to reach for that guy with one of these picks. Yeah, absolutely wide open. Now is the time where you can take that tight end. You can take that running back. You can take that corner, and it's going to play special teams. Really nice job by John Robinson.

He had me nervous. I mean, I'll be honest. With the way it fell, not getting an interior lineman, I was kind of thinking he might need to move back up into the late second, early third range to secure that guard because I just thought it was such a big hole there. And then Michael Dieter goes before the Titans pick. I got nervous. And then you had the whole gaffe on Twitter where the Titans were supposedly taking an edge in the Georgia pass rusher,

and that turned out not to be true. So all worked out in the end. Titans filled their two biggest needs probably. You still don't have the edge rusher, but you might be able to address that now. And, look, it's something that I've maintained all along. I'm very much against taking an edge rusher at this point in the draft because I don't think they have the athletic profile if they're still on the board. So I think you're getting a role player. But like you were saying, the Titans might need a body on the edge for this year.

You signed Cameron Wake. You don't know how many snaps he's going to be able to handle. Guy's pushing 40 years old. Kamalai Correa, Shuri Finch are still there too. I think you can get some reps out of Rashawn Evans. I don't know how much they want to rely on that. But if there's a need left on the board, it's definitely at edge. But I don't know.

Am I crazy? I just don't feel like they have to go that route. No, I don't think you're crazy at all. I think you're absolutely right. And then once you get into this point, there's not just that guy, the athletic freak that you want to see at that position. So it'll be interesting to see how that goes. We'll get into a little bit more of that, the whole Twitter gaffe thing you talked about

and all that stuff. We'll circle around to that coming up after this. Yeah, so what you're referring to, I guess it was Kaharski. It was Kaharski that ran with DeAndre Walker, the edge rusher from Georgia, was going to be the pick in the third round there. And, you know, which whatever. I mean, I think he has some upside whatever i mean i wouldn't have necessarily been you know devastated so to speak if that were the pick but at the same time

uh we talked about i mean we've been said we've been saying really even before they didn't resign quentin spain and they cut josh Klein that they had to get a an interior offensive lineman in the first two days of this draft and so if that wasn't the pick there then you would start to get a little bit worried about that because I mean you know Kevin Palmfield did a nice job I mean filling in a tackle last year but remember I mean they brought him in, him and Suofilo, to compete for a guard spot last year. And Quentin Spain pretty much just held that spot down from the beginning of camp. So you don't necessarily feel great about that if he's your only option heading into week one. And so we know, obviously, that at least now you've got Nate Davis, the guy that took in the third round.

You've got him as an option. Now, I don't know if he'll be ready in week one or not. We'll have to see how camp goes. I think that is going to be the most interesting camp battle to watch at this point. I really don't think there's, quite honestly, there's that much more to watch as far as camp battles go. But they needed to get a guy that could at least come in and compete for that spot. They were able to do that in Nate Davis. And so then now you push that need for edge down a little bit further.

Some guys that I do think, like you said, I mean, I had said before, I think they need to bring somebody in just to have a body there because you talk about all the snaps you've lost between Brian Wright Poe retiring, Derek Morgan not being resigned. He's a free agent. I guess there's a possibility he could still come back here. But you need a body there more than anything. But I don't think at this point you're drafting a guy that you think is going to come in

and be your answer opposite of Harold Landry. So odds are we're talking about Edge. Edge Resher being a number one need for this team again next year seems kind of like Groundhog Day as far as that's concerned. But I thought it was infinitely more important for them to get the interior offensive lineman. Like you said, it was a little bit disappointing that Dieter went right before the Titans were on the clock. But, you know,

obviously they've seen some stuff in Nate Davis here and a guy they think can come in and compete for that right guard spot. Yeah, it would have been risky. I think Penn feels okay. I think he can spot start. I don't think he's a guy that you go into the year relying on calling him a starter. I just think they like him as a depth player, kind of similar to how they like Dennis Kelly. And I think they want to keep it that way.

So interested to see how quickly Nate Davis comes along. It's a guy that has taken reps at tackle for Charlotte, played a little right tackle. So that's something to keep in mind with the status of Jack Conklin. If something goes wrong there, maybe they've got a movable piece along that offensive line to provide some versatility there. But, yeah, had to come away in day two with that offensive lineman you know i saw deandre walker come across my timeline um i was pretty upset you know i i was just because that that

just basically told the story that the titans were going to be in on uh kevin penfield starting uh basically for the entire season so i think they they towed the line of getting a starter there. I think they were right there at the bottom of the barrel as far as starting caliber off the lineman goes. But, yeah, I'm a fan of what John Robinson did, filled that need, did it last. I think we would have preferred maybe it to be the first pick, but they didn't have the opportunity to do that with Bradbury and Lindstrom coming off the board.

But at least got it done in the third round, at least have some bodies to compete. So hopefully Davis can come away with that job at least by midseason. Yeah, that's going to be a thing to watch. I mean, you hope that he can come in and at least make that interesting and hopefully win the job. But even if he doesn't, you've at least had that competition there. And, again, I think that was kind of what they were hoping for last year,

and it just didn't play out that way. I mean, I think the guys that they had, and, again, we're talking about Palmfield again. I mean, he's a guy that was in the mix there that really wasn't able to push Quentin Spain last year year so it'd be interesting to see how that plays out but you've got options there now and you know hopefully you've got you you can come up with five guys there that um you know that can make up a better offensive line than what they had last year i do think this puts to rest the talk of either Jack Conklin

or Dennis Kelly moving inside. I mean, the Titans have pretty much shut that down from the beginning, but it's been a popular thing on Twitter. But I don't think you're taking a guy in the third round if that's really an option for you. No, definitely not at all. I'm still interested to see how Conklin comes back because I go back to

to the college deal um you know i i just didn't like him as a prospect uh and then you know to see how he played last year kind of brought back some bad memories of that michigan state tape that i watched uh so i hope the knee's okay it was kind of concerning how it never got better. So maybe the offseason will do him good. I had a conversation with a couple of people on Twitter who were more optimistic than I was. So we'll see. It's a risky situation. It's a scary situation for me because, you know, not too long ago,

he was one of the surest things on this roster, and now he gets hurt. And now suddenly you don't really know what you have there. Yeah, and that's the thing. I was confident. You talk about ACL injuries, and they're not as bad as they used to be and all that kind of stuff. And Jeffrey Simmons is going to play sooner than people think, all that stuff. And then I'm like, well, Jack Conklin, he wasn't right at all last year.

So that kind of threw a wrench into that thinking yeah it's not a given right it's not a given everybody react and that's what i can't i think it was i can't remember today it may have been cosell but uh whoever was talking about basically like when you get into those types of injuries it's case by case and some guys bounce back quickly i mean we all know the adrian peterson story where he came back four months or whatever it was um you know and you see that and he was you know just goes before and then you got you've got a guy like conklin who just didn't seem right even you know almost a year removed from the thing so uh hopefully simmons comes back a little bit quicker than that but the titans definitely are going to take it easy with him.

And, you know, just you hope you get something from him in 2019, but they're not going to risk the long-term, you know, future of him, especially when you spend a first-round pick on him. All right, well, coming up we will conclude with kind of what we're looking forward to on day three and then a little bit of talk about the Jeffrey Simmons press conference that took place Friday afternoon. All right, so last night we talked a little bit about, you know, the Offenfeld incident with Simmons.

Again, you know, a deal that was not good, you know, never endorsed hitting a woman, obviously, and, obviously. And not a good thing. The situation was a little bit different than a domestic-type dispute with a girlfriend or whatever it may be. I think the Titans have done a really good job so far of handling this pick, handling the narrative around that situation. I think also a lot of credit has to go to Simmons because when you listen to him talk about it, he doesn't shy away from it. He doesn't try to minimize it.

He basically says, look, I made a mistake, and I've tried to move on from that. But, you know, you've heard Mike Vrabel, you've heard John Robinson, both of them say that, look, there are bad people, and then there are good people who make bad mistakes, and they both believe that Jeffrey Simmons falls into the latter category. I thought the most telling thing from today being Friday was what Amy Adams-Strunk had to say about the whole process of drafting Jeffrey Simmons and the fact that she said that John Robinson and Mike Verrill came to her months ago and said,

look, we're looking at this guy. He's going to be a consideration. There's this video. They all sat down and watched it together. And then they talked through the whole thing. She talked to Simmons. They've obviously spent a lot of time with him as well. She was comfortable with it. And she made it clear in the press conference today that she has the final say in this thing. So if she hadn't have signed off on him,

then he would not have been the pick for the Titans at 19. I thought it was very telling to watch Simmons get emotional when Amy Adams-Strunk talked about trusting him and how important it was to him that she had put that trust in him. So to me, again, a terrible mistake. They're not trying to lighten that situation or whatever at all. But I think you can tell a lot about a person by the way they react after they make a mistake like that. And the thing that worries me is when you see a guy be like, oh, it wasn't that big of a deal or it wasn't my fault or whatever.

That kind of leads you to believe they didn't learn from that situation. I don't think you can walk away from anything that you've seen so far with Simmons and think that he didn't learn from the situation. And then by all accounts, he has tried to, I don't know if make up for it's the right way to say it, but he's basically trying to prove that that's not who he is. He made a bad mistake, got carried away in that moment, but that that one mistake is not going to define him going forward. And I thought that was an important piece for them to get out there today

because there was a lot of conversation about him as a person based on that one event. Yep, it's just the classic second chance. I mean, you talk to Mississippi State people, you listen to what they have to say. He's been a model citizen since. You know, he's done everything the right way since that horrible, awful mistake. You know, and he's clearly got people on his side.

He's clearly convinced the people that he needs to convince. You know, I thought it was really telling, the final statement from Amy today. You know, she said, this man is a good man. You know. I thought it was really telling. The final statement from Amy today, she said, this man is a good man. I thought that was powerful. It was simple, but it got her point across. But, yeah, just her taking us through the process, taking us behind the scenes of a delicate process in today's world,

I thought it was the right thing to do. I thought the Titans really, really knocked this thing out of the park, you know, with so much going on with the Tyreek Hill deal. It's just a tough time to be rolling out a pick like this. But they've done it really gracefully, and honestly I don't think they could have done any better. Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, I think that that should at least alleviate some concerns

that people might have about Simmons. I mean, and, you know, listen, there are some people that have completely written him off because of that incident, and, I mean, that's fine. That's how you feel. That's your prerogative. That's fine. But I think that he does have a desire to prove that that's not him,

and so you have to appreciate just the way that everybody has handled it. All right, so we talked a little bit about where we are heading into day three. We've already put up a post on the site from Justin Mello with kind of the best players available. I think the most interesting thing here is that the top two guys on his board that are still available are Kelvin Harmon and Hakeem Butler, two receivers that were generating quite a bit of buzz at the end of the draft. Listen to Greg Cosell.

He even said today that Hakeem Butler was his favorite receiver heading into this draft, a guy that's still there at the beginning of day three. Are you surprised by that? I'm shocked by that. I know he doesn't have the speed necessarily, but you're still throwing around Plexiglas-Burris comparisons. Last I checked, that guy was a really, really good receiver in the NFL, a good red zone target.

I'm not sure. I'm kind of dumbfounded here. You know, you sent me a highlight of this guy back in the fall, and you were like, I don't care where he's going. I want this guy on the Titans. And I've always remembered that, and that's kind of stuck with me through this process, and here he sits on day three.

So 6'5 guy, 220 pounds. I mean, it seems like the prototype for what the NFL wants these days. Again, doesn't have the speed, but in the fourth round, I mean, you're talking about a big-bodied receiver like that. I mean, sign me up. Yeah, absolutely. And so you've got a couple people there. I don't really expect the Titans to take on the receiver in this draft,

but there are a couple of quality guys there that I think you'll see come off the board early in day three. And then we talk about edge guys. I mean, if you look at Melo's list, he's got a Minahou from Texas, if I'm pronouncing that right. You've got Anthony Nelson from Iowa. You know, you've got Christian Miller from Alabama, DeAndre Walker from Georgia.

So, I mean, there's a few guys there that still have some things that could be good, traits that could be developed. So I wouldn't be surprised to see the Titans go that direction at some point. And then after that, I mean, we talked a couple times about kind of the lesser need to the Titans. Now they've kind of hit the big ones with the defensive line, the interior offensive line, and the receiver. You still got an edge out there, but they could use a corner for sure. Just looking down the road, you know, with Logan Ryan, Malcolm Butler,

that kind of stuff, you got some contract situations there coming up. They could use a running back to push Deion Lewis behind Derrick Henry. Use a safety because they're pretty thin there. So, I mean, I think it's pretty wide open. They talked about having a developmental quarterback on the roster. Is that Logan Woodside? Maybe. But is there somebody else that they like a little bit better?

but is there somebody else that they like a little bit better? So I really do think it is completely wide open what John Robinson is going to do tomorrow. I want the Titans to take a running back, and there's plenty available. You've got Travion Williams, Justice Hill, Bryce Love, set records at Stanford, Tony Pollard, Mike Weber, Rodney Anderson, Elijah Holyfield. There's a ton that have fallen to this fourth round. I think the Titans could use one.

Just with how Deion Lewis hit the wall last year, just literally hit the wall after that Chargers game in London. You didn't see anything out of him for the rest of the year. So I fear that there's not much left in that tank, and I think you need something behind Derrick Henry. Even if it's just a pass catcher, a guy that can do some dynamic things in the passing game, a change of pace guy, a guy with some speed, a guy with some long speed that can turn nothing into something

that can hit a couple home runs for you. Titans haven't had that guy since Chris Johnson. So it just seems like the league now, you see the Eagles with seemingly five or six running backs on the roster. Titans have rolled with two for a long time. And David Flewellen, he might be a really good special teamers, special teams player. I don't really care anymore. I'll just be honest. The Titans could do better there.

They could get more dynamic. They can get more athletic and certainly get younger there. There's plenty of names for the taking there. I hope they grab one. Yeah, Flewellen's sticking power on this roster has been one of the more amusing things it's incredible he plays teams though man um so you know you got that screw the last thing last thing they the titans did sign brent urban today uh they had brought him in for a visit like the week before the draft so um you know a guy that's going to help them on the defensive line

in the rotation there. Not a guy that's going to be necessarily a huge impact guy. But, again, when you're talking about, you know, not having Simmons probably until November at least, anything that gets me less of Austin Johnson and Daquan Jones on the field is probably a pretty good thing. Yeah, I mean, who did they have outside of Daquan and Austin Johnson? Not a lot there.

So Urban actually started 16 games for the Ravens last year, 6'7", 300 pounds. I think it's his sixth season in the league. So obviously you've got the Dean Pease connection there. I like it, you know, just for pure depth concerns. I didn't think the Titans had enough in the rotation last year. So, certainly took a step towards fixing that here. Yeah, absolutely. So, I don't know, it's been a fun first two days of the draft.

It's a little bit weird with John Robinson not making any trades, but I think he's done a good job of addressing what they needed to get done, and then we'll see what happens on Saturday on day three. The Titans are currently scheduled to have three picks. John Robinson talked about wanting more picks in this draft. That hasn't

come to fruition yet, but he could make some moves tomorrow. We'll keep all that stuff updated. Like I said at the beginning, check out VCCMir moves tomorrow. So we'll keep all that stuff updated. Like I said at the beginning, check out VCCMiracles.com. We'll have all that stuff covered for you pretty much as soon as it happens. We'll have it posted there. You can follow us on Twitter. Again, I'm at

jmorphsmcm. Terry's at tlamberttn. So check that out. We've got Best Player available ending into Saturday. All that kind of stuff. So any of that stuff you need, you'll be able to find there. Subscribe to the podcast Locked on Titans. We'll get you another episode at some point either Saturday night, Sunday night,

leading into Monday, kind of recapping the whole draft, and then we'll have plenty of recap and all that stuff in the next couple weeks. So subscribe to the podcast so that you get those shows 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 later.