Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Wrapping up day 3 of the NFL Draft, Titans decline Conklin's option, Roster overview

Episode Date: May 2, 2019

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked on Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, rejoined by Terry Lambert. Terry, how was your trip? It was good. Good to get away after a pretty hectic week last week. Yeah, a lot of stuff going on leading up to the draft. So Terry's back. We did a couple of shows while Terry was gone.

If you missed any of one of those, talking about Jeffrey Simmons and then the recap with Mello, go back and listen to those. Just subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already and that way you'll get shows as soon as they're available they'll come straight to your phone locked on titans wherever you get your shows just just subscribe there uh as always remind you right from you to see miracles.com where we cover the titans for sb nation so you can check us out there you can follow us on twitter i'm at jay morris mcm jerry's at tlamberttn. Today we're going to get into a little bit of day three with Terry. He hasn't been on since that happened, so we'll kind of circle back and talk a little bit about that.

Talk about the Titans not picking up Jack Conklin's fifth-year option, and then we'll look a little bit at where the roster stands right now, kind of what needs they have going forward as we look at kind of this last wave of free agency before training camp starts. All right, so day three, what were your kind of initial thoughts once those picks went down? I loved it. I thought they needed another body at safety. I think they got that in Hooker, a guy that can play a little nickelback. You talk about Logan Ryan, contract expiring next year.

If Hooker is the guy that works out there, that's kind of a natural jump-off point so you don't have to re-sign Logan Ryan there. We'll see how things play out there. But always good to have depth in the secondary. Always good to have those versatile guys. And then you've got your edge body in DeAndre Walker. Not wild about Walker, but that's a depth pick there. A fifth body in that rotation, which you pointed out, the Titans certainly needed.

So I don't think John Robinson came away with any answers on the edge, but I think he's come away with enough Band-Aids that he can kind of survive this year and look to address that further next year. And then David Long, a guy that I liked a lot. I saw him three years ago as a freshman. He really popped off the screen, super productive. It's a John Robinson pick. You know, special teams guy, a guy who's got a chance to grow

into that third linebacker role behind Jayon, behind Rashawn Evans. You know, Wesley Woodyard getting older. So that's a guy that could potentially replace him down the road. You know, Darren Bates, you know, getting into trouble over the weekend. Maybe David Long has already cement submitted his place on this roster. Yeah, it was an interesting day three a little bit in that people always talk about filling a need versus best player available. It seemed like with at least two of these picks, the Titans really did go best player available.

I mean, they obviously really wanted Hooker. They traded him in front of the Patriots to get him. And like you said, taking David Long in the seventh round a position where you're is arguably your uh deepest position as far as you know the quality of players you have there with Wesley Woodyard, Jayon Brown, Rashawn Evans like you said last year Woodyard's contract there there's a lot of things to be considered there and then with Hooker I mean think about it we one of the things we've talked a lot about over the last couple of years, it feels like, is the lack of depth in safety. And we felt pretty good about, you know, Bayard, even Bayard and Ciprian going into training camp last year. But certainly with Bayard and Kenny Vaccaro, you know, after he was signed last year.

And then, of course, they re-signed him. They drafted Cruikshank last year. So you honestly feel pretty good about the guys that are in the room there now. You know, you've got a couple of improving guys in Hooker and Cruikshank last year so you always you honestly feel pretty good about the guys that are in the room there now now you got a couple of improving guys in Hooker and Crookshank don't really know you know exactly what they're going to bring to the table but you do at least have some some depth there and yeah I think David Long was probably as excited as anybody to see Darren Bates get arrested because you know when you're a seventh round pick you're you're hoping you can stick on special teams I mean that's the way that you're going seventh-round pick, you're hoping you can stick on special teams. I mean, that's the way that you're going to make a roster.

That's the way you're going to stick, especially initially. And, you know, I don't know if Darren Bates is in it. You know, you don't know if guys – I think we don't find out when they fail their first drug test. So if they're in the protocol – or in this protocol, that's not the right word. But whatever it is, you know, the second test gives him four games and that so i mean we know that bates hadn't hit that but if he had a fellow test before he could be suspended for four games if that's the case it's not i mean he's obviously a guy they think highly of he was

their special teams captain last year but i don't think he's a guy that they're necessarily going to wait around for um if he gets a suspension so it's interesting interesting there. And like you said with the edge guy, this is something that we'll circle back to when we talk about the knees that the Titans have left on the roster. You needed DeAndre Walker. You needed a body in that rotation at edge. But you still probably feel like you're lacking the top-end talent. I do think the fact that they waited until the fifth round

to make a pick on an edge player says that they must feel pretty good about guys like Sharif Finch and Kamalai Correa. Yeah, it's interesting to go back and look at them taking Jeffrey Simmons. They kind of chose defensive line over edge there. You had Montez Sweat there, and who knows what their medical report said on that. But chose to address the defensive line there. You know, we were firm in saying they just needed a disruptor one way or another.

Both sides needed help. So, you know, I was kind of on John Robinson's side of thinking. I think they've got enough pieces there with Cam Wake and Finch and Correa, obviously Landry. Rashawn Evans is going to take some snaps out there, I'd guess. So I think they've got enough pieces to where they can be multiple, they can give some different looks. Certainly don't feel great about that group as we head into the future.

Still, you know, I don't think Landry's a dead-set home run quite yet. He kind of hit a rookie wall. We'll see how he responds this year. Obviously, we're both really high on him, just with how we evaluated him coming out of Boston College. So obviously some questions there, but I'm not so concerned about it. I think they're going to be okay there. I think they've got enough bodies.

I think they've got enough athletes there. Maybe not huge difference makers, but certainly can get by at least next year. Yeah, and got, you know, kind of a few situational guys. And like you said, you can move Rashawn Evans out there at certain points, and then you've got guys like Wake and even DeAndre Walker that you think have a chance to make some splash plays in certain situations. So I feel decent about that, but we were talking about Cameron Wake, how much does he have left in the tank and all that kind of stuff.

I really do feel like that we'll be having these same conversations around draft time next year about Edge being near the top of the Titans' needs list. All right, we are going to get into the Jack Conklin conversation here in just a second. Before we do that, we're going to talk to you about ZipRecruiter. Hiring used to be hard, multiple job sites, stacks of resumes, a confusing review process. But today, hiring can be easy, and you only have to go to one place to get it done, ZipRecruiter.com. ZipRecruiter sends your job to over 100 of the web's leading job boards, but they don't stop there.

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the fifth-year option on Jack Conklin. And we've talked about this a little bit back before the draft and all that stuff. I mean, we knew it was an interesting decision. That number ended up being almost $13 million. I think it was like $12.8 million is what the option would have paid Jack Conklin in 2020 had they picked it up. This doesn't mean they're giving up on Jack Conklin.

I think a lot of people thought that when they saw that the jack conklin was gonna be on the team in 2019 and he was a little confusion around that he's obviously still here for his fourth year 2019 this is just talking about the the option that would have been guaranteed in 2020 had they picked it up so that you get with every first round contract now uh when players are driving the first round teams have that fifth year option i think that decision, probably at the end of the day, was pretty easy here, just because you don't want to lock yourself into paying that big of a number

when you've got a lot of other things. You might be paying a quarterback. You've got to start thinking about guys like Bayard and possibly even Derrick Henry. There's other guys that they're going to need to pay on this roster, and so it would have been tough to have basically $13 million tied up in a guy that sure was really good his rookie year, but has not been as effective in the new scheme.

Obviously had trouble coming back from the ACL injury. I mean, I think last year we can chalk some of it up to him still not being fully healthy. But I think it is a real question going forward. How does he fit in this scheme? Yeah, and it's smart. You've got to give him a chance to get healthy if that was truly the case. If he wasn't healthy, if he was rushed back early from that knee, give him a chance to show what he's at if he's at 100%. Because I hope we didn't see Jack Conklin at 100% last year.

I kind of hope he was rushed back, because that would mean that Jack Conklin of old is still around. So, again, I just can't get out of my head the Michigan State tape. Some of the concerns I had with him coming out, he showed last year. So he was just not the same player. Again, new offensive coordinator, potentially some new wrinkles in the run game. We'll see how he fits.

We'll see if he's healthy. But Dennis Kelly was the better player last year. So the Titans have maintained all along that they're going to play Jack Conklin at tackle. I'd like to see him at guard. Apparently that's just not going to happen. I think it's kind of ignorant with seeing how you're going to have to wait on Nick Davis to develop at the guard position. I think you could kick one of them inside and that would make more sense to me than a guy like Kevin Panfield. Maybe they're concerned with depth or something like

that, but big picture, it's smart not to give him that money and see what he can do in 2019. You know, you talk about Marcus Mariota, it being a prove-it year for him. It's definitely a prove-it year for Jack Conklin. Is there a scenario where we see a training camp battle between Dennis Kelly and Jack Conklin for the starting right tackle spot? I think there should be. I mean, he was clearly the better player.

We said that last year. We were kind of rooting for the Titans to shut him down and play Dennis Kelly there. So I think there needs to be. I think the Titans need to go into this with an open mind, and I'm not sure why Jack Conklin would have that spot locked down simply because of how Kelly played at the end of last year. Yeah, so, I mean, I think that's an interesting thing.

I mean, you know, obviously they like Dennis Kelly and the role that they've had him in. You know, he played a huge part in a lot of different things last year. And, you know, are they worried that if he's on the field every snap, he's not going to be as effective? I mean, these are things that we don't know. But, yeah, I mean, at this point, there's no reason to just assume that jack

conklin is absolutely the starting right tackle now i mean i think he could outplay dennis kelly i think that's certainly a possibility but you've got options over there on the right side and that's the thing i mean again we'll talk about this a little bit more when we get into the the roster but you don't really have a lot of you know quote training camp battles for starting positions once we get there i mean the defensive line rotation is going to be interesting especially with simmons not being available at least for probably the first half of the year um you know but i mean on offense right guard is pretty much it and unless there's a competition at right tackle so you could be talking about the whole right side of the line that could kind of be up for grabs there but everybody else is pretty much you know pretty much has their spot so then

it's it comes down to you know i don't know what what what will they do at right guard do they entertain the thought with conklin but i mean i said on twitter yesterday we've talked about it i mean if you go back and read i mean you talked about it when when conklin first came out if you go back and read greg cosell's scouting report he said he thought conklin was a guard at the next level but for whatever reasons the titans have been whenever they've been asked about it they have shut that down very quickly they have said jack conklin's a tackle jack conklin has said he's a tackle but you know obviously he only has so much say in that but it is kind of weird that the titans have been so dead set against it maybe they just don't think

he'd be any more effective in there. And don't forget, this is multiple knee injuries we're talking about. It's not his first ACL tear. So that was apparently the deal with him coming out of Michigan State. He was playing on a bum knee. That's why you saw his play fall off. That's why you still saw the Titans take him so high, even though his play wasn't up to snuff, as

Cosell said. But that's concerning. Long-term wise, you just wonder if that knee is going to get right. You wonder if his mobility will get right. So, very much an unknown. Right tackle, right guard. To me, those are two potential battles. I mean,

looking elsewhere on the offense, I guess the only thing is how quickly do you bring A.J. Brown along? Could you see Tajay Sharp, Taewon Taylor, the more veteran guys kind of start getting more snaps with A.J. Brown coming in? But, yeah, not a lot of camp battles to speak of so far. Yeah, all right, so let's get a little bit more into that. Coming up, we'll talk about maybe the needs they have left and then how we think this roster shakes out.

Okay, so, yeah, I mean, we talk about receivers. I think that's an interesting conversation because, I mean, I think we all expect that A.J. Brown is going to be a big part of this offense in 2019. But like you said, how quickly does that happen in camp? You know, you hope that he beats out Taewon Taylor and Tajay Sharpe, which is based on what we've seen from those guys. But I do think the rotation there is going to be interesting. And I think there's a question of, you know, how much A.J. Brown can play outside,

how much he's going to play outside. I mean, we know they signed Adam Humphreys to be the slot receiver. A.J. Brown mainly played slot at Ole Miss, but from my understanding, later in the year he played more outside. So I think he can do it. But I think that rotation is going to be interesting to watch just to see how they play those out. And then guys like Taewon Taylor and Tajay Sharp could be fighting

for roster spots depending on what they do elsewhere. Sticking with the offense, really, like I talked about, offensive line, I think we pretty much know tight end. You've got Delaney. You've got Johnnu, you know, quarterback. I think people are going to try to want to make that a battle, but it's Mariota as long as he's healthy. Running back gets a little bit interesting just because you obviously,

you have Derrick Henry. You hope that you can get similar production of what you got out of him at the end of the year last year. That moves Deion Lewis back into the role I think that they signed him to be in to be that complementary back. I think he's much more effective there. But then you could have a little bit of a battle between an undrafted guy I know you like.

You could have a little bit of a battle there for that third spot. Maybe David Flewellen doesn't make this roster. It seems like he's been here for like 20 years. Maybe David Flewellen, you know, doesn't make this roster for the – it seems like he's been here for like 20 years. But he keeps making it. We don't really know why other than, you know, according to Mike Keith, he's really good on teams. But, you know, you could maybe upgrade that from an athletic profile and get a guy that maybe has a chance to come in and play some,

to spell maybe even Henry and Lewis, but a guy that can do more things for you maybe than David Flewellen can. to come in and play some, to spell, maybe even Henry and Lewis, but a guy that can do more things for you maybe than David Willingham. Yeah, after day two, I was begging the Titans to get some sort of change of pace at the running back position. You can just get those guys with crazy value on day three because the NFL has just devalued the position so much. But John Robinson ended up doing it after the draft and signing Alex Barnes out of Kansas State.

6'1", 225 pounds. That's a guy that is similar in stature to David Flewellen. But this guy's a really, really good athlete. Put up 34 reps on the bench. Ran a 4.59, which isn't all that impressive. But when you consider the size that he is uh that that's pretty impressive stuff so 1300 yard rusher last year at k-state uh ran for 12 touchdowns got 20 balls for 194 yards uh averaged well over five yards of carry so uh i'm looking at that battle

you know that's kind of a back-end roster battle between Barnes and Flewellen. I don't think Deion Lewis is in any trouble there simply because of what Lewis brings to the offense. It's pretty different than what Barnes and Flewellen brings, but I think the Titans offense has a good shot

to upgrade there athletically by keeping Barnes over Flewellen. Now, of course, Barnes has to go produce in the second half of these preseason games. But that's something I'm definitely keeping an eye on. Yeah, that'll definitely be something to watch. And then on defense, like I said, I mean, the defensive line rotation is going to be a little bit interesting. You know, they signed Brent Urban from the Ravens on Friday of the draft, a guy that's obviously familiar with D&Ps and his system.

So I think you've got him rotating in there with Jarrell Casey. You've still got Angelo Blackson. You've still got Daquan Jones. So you've got a few pieces there while they wait on Jeffrey Simmons, but I do think that group is still a little bit of a problem outside of Jarrell Casey. You just don't have a lot that's been proven there. Obviously, we hope that Simmons comes in and makes a huge upgrade,

but we'll have to wait to see that. And then like we talked about, when you get the linebackers, I mean, we pretty much know the inside linebackers, that's a good group. They're going to mix and match those guys. You've got a lot of talent there. And then the edge rotation will just be kind of interesting to watch um we hope harold landry like you said takes that big step forward this year have confidence that he's going to be able to do that but then after that it's just going to kind

of be correa finch walker i mean cameron wake obviously is going to have his role but it'll be interesting to watch how those guys rotate in behind what you think are going to be pretty defined roles for Harold Landry and Cameron Wake. Yeah, and just to go back to the defensive line real quick, I'm not too worried about it. I think this is just an average group. You know, it's nothing special outside of Casey, but you've got Brent Urban, who started 16 games for the Ravens last year.

So I think that's an upgrade in terms of depth. Obviously you've still got Daquan Jones and Austin Johnson there. I'd expect them to maybe sign a nose tackle. Maybe that's already on the roster in D-liner, who they signed to a futures deal, 6'2",

334 pounds. I would expect them to see that. We've seen them do that late seemingly every year John Robinson has been there, which is why it was ridiculous to even think about him taking Dexter Lawrence with the 19th pick. So I don't think they're done on the defensive line there, but the signing of Brent Irvin makes me feel at least okay about this group. And then, of course, we'll see when Jeffrey Simmons comes on back.

Yeah, and then in the secondary, I mean, again, I think you pretty much know what's going to happen there. You've got your top three corners. You've got a guy on LaShawn Sims that you feel good about. Todd Smith coming back, a guy that has played well for them in the past. You know, Hamp Cheevers is an undrafted free agent that they have reportedly signed. People are really high on him. He's small. I think that's why he went undrafted free agent that they have reportedly signed. People are really high on him.

He's small. I think that's why he went undrafted. He's like 5'9". But you feel pretty good about that group, the safety group we talked about already. So, again, I think that the starting roles on this defense are pretty well defined right now. You're mainly going to be looking at kind of those back end of the roster battles as far as when we get into training camp. Yeah, I think in the secondary and maybe in the entire defense, the most intrigue is where

Imani Hooker fits in. Is he going to be that slot corner? Is he going to play safety? Is he going to do both? You know, they listed him as a DB on the team side. They did the same thing with Kirk Shank last year. And, you know, Kirk Shank him as a DB on the team site. They did the same thing with Crookshank last year. And, you know, Crookshank's another X factor. Where does he fit in there?

So this safety rotation, really the cornerback rotation, is Hooker going to play some dime linebacker, you know, as he did at Iowa? It's just a guy that can do a lot of different things. So I'm going to be interested to see in pre-season uh where he slots in where he starts out uh and then kind of where he rotates in once the regular season starts because was it crookshank last year that they always just listed as a db yeah yeah they would never like don't you think we're going to get kind of that similar thing it seems like it's already started because i'm just looking on the on the team site here they've got him with his defensive

back uh and then him and Crookshank are the only two with something like that. Because they really refused to ever define Crookshank for a little while. I think once the season came in, it was obvious that he was a safety. But yeah, again, those are the type of players they like. They're versatile. They can do multiple things. And it seems

like they got a pretty good one there in Hooker. Alright, that'll do it for today's show. Coming up over the next few weeks, we'll obviously do more draft recap uh but we're trying to get some people on uh you know we've had mike keith and jim wyatt jonathan hutton uh some some of those types of guys on uh do some interviews with them about the draft about this team uh talk we can talk to them about the nashville draft the city hosting the draft and how how cool all that stuff was. So we'll get into more of that in the coming weeks.

We'll have OTAs and that kind of stuff to talk about as well in the month of May. Then it goes pretty quiet through June, and then toward the end of July we pick up on training camp. Like I said, just subscribe to the podcast so that you'll get the shows as soon as we post them. I didn't mention at the top, but we do have the voicemail line if you want to call in and any type of reaction to the draft, 615-787-8762. Call in there, leave us about a minute-long message, and we'll get to those on a show in the future. Again, subscribe to the show, follow us on Twitter.

I'm at jmwarrismcm, Terry's at tlamberttn. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening to Locked on Titans, and we'll talk to you again later.