May 3, 2024 • 53 mins
Outspoken Owen Reed attended the Titans draft party at Nissan Stadium on Thursday night - he describes what the vibes were like in the building when the team drafted Alabama OT JC Latham. Then, he and Stoney Keeley run through the Titans draft class before getting to this week's listener questions.
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From Sobros HQ in Nashville, Tennesseeto wherever you're cheering on your Tennessee Titans.
The Sobers Network presents the Unofficial TitansPodcast. Welcome back for another episode
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of the Unofficial Titans Podcast right hereon so Bros Network. Mine's right,
asses tight. As we tackle thisweek's episode for you, we are going
to be recapping the twenty twenty fourTennessee Titans draft. Hall got some got
some dogs, got some dogs thisyear, And of course I how rude
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of me. I am big natural. Stony Keeley, host for the Unofficial
Titans Podcast, the EIC at Sobrosnetworkdot com, the third wheel on football
and other f words, and NFLDraft analyst for stacking the inbox all over
the internet streets these days. Youcan follow me on Twitter at Stony Keeley.
Collectively, I'm at Sobros Network onall major social media platforms, and
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here to give his thoughts on thetwenty twenty four Tennessee Titans draft. Class
is my co host on the UnofficialTitans Podcast. He is Senderellaman one take
Oh coming to us from the dadZone, out Spoken, Owen read Owen
tgif Man. How you doing onthis fine Friday. Hey everybody, Hey
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Stony, It's Friday. The weekendsalmost here. Kendrick Lamar dropped a second
disc on Drake. It's a greatFriday. How are you doing? Man,
I'm I'm I'm okay. I'm I'mhanging in there. I'm kind of
resting, recouping a little bit.I can't keep up with all the tracks.
I know that's gonna it's gonna makeme sound like a boomer, But
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I I don't know why everybody's madat each other and expressing anger through the
art of the song is just youknow, I don't know. It's a
little off to me. Man,I'm like, shouldn't these should these guys
just fistfight? I don't understand howany of this stuff works. Back in
my day, you'd you'd politely asksomeone if they wanted to step outside into
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the parking lot at the Thirsty Turtleout in Lebanon, Tennessee, and you'd
settle your differences out there. ButI don't, just I just don't.
I don't know. I don't getit. You know, there's a lot
of avenues to express anger, andviolence is one of them. But you
can also rap about somebody. Ifyou feel like it, it's fine.
The avenue that works for you.Yeah, whatever gets you to a healthier
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space, that's that's what we uh, that's what we recommend here. Now.
I'm I'm like rested. I thelast three weeks leading up to the
draft were they were pretty rough.Man. By the time the draft actually
got here, I was feeling prettybad, like waking up in the morning
and having like bags under my eyes. I was eating a bunch of fast
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food, just trying to like dowhatever was the quickest, the quickest way
I could get back to watching tapeas we're trying to wrap up our draft
guide. I think I ended updoing something like forty to fifty of the
two hundred and seventy five prospects inthe last well, actually I got to
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three hundred prospects, but I didlike forty to fifty of those in the
last three weeks. And it wasit was crazy, man, Like I
was having headaches, I was havingtrouble sleeping, and I was I was
very thankful to get through the homestretch and doing a seven hour broadcast on
Saturday with Zach and Easton and JT. While it was a ton of fun.
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We got that thing over with andI just sat there Saturday night just
kind of like staring out the window, just like, oh man, it's
it's over. We did it.And this week I've watched a couple of
new movies that I've never seen before. I finally got around to watching Roadhouse.
I thought it was fantastic. Iwatched Driveaway Dolls, thought it was
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not so fantastic. I've started workingon a new poem. I've got an
outline together for a new short story. It feels like a whole new world
for me. But we're not done. We're not done with the draft coverage
yet. Also, I should say, I guess people are saying this is
a complete sicko move, but Idid. I did go yesterday to get
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my notebook to start working on thetwenty twenty five draft class. So there's
been a you know, I've caughta little bit people tell me I have
a problem. I need to seekhelp. Not even doing this for a
team, I'm just doing it fordraft coverage. But that's that's been my
week, man, And I'm feeling, uh, I'm feeling pretty rested and
ready to go. It's like there'sa brand new me. I've even lost
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a couple of pounds this week fromtrying to get back on the on the
wagon. So we're doing good.We're doing good here today. It sounds
like we're both in a pretty goodspace to tackle this episode. So let's
dig right into it. Owen,let's start with the the JC Latham pick,
first round seventh Overall, I'm curious. I'm really excited to get your
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take on the draft because I knowyou're not down in the in the mud
on Twitter with everybody fighting with eachother. So I just kind of want
to know your initial reaction when hisname was called, and have you have
you have you changed it all sinceyour feelings? Have your feelings changed it
all since the initial initial selection?Yeah? So I actually went to Nissan
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Stadium for the Titans draft party,oh sick, which is always fun.
Uh, you know, cool environment, a lot of vendors. Uh,
you get to check out the lockerroom, they bring former players, current
players. It's always fun. It'smy favorite thing to do with the Titans
every year. So when the firstround started, you know, everybody kind
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of sat down and took their seatsand you could kind of feel, you
know, the air gets sucked outof the stadium when the Chargers announced Joe
Alt, because I know a lotof Titans fans were really set on it.
Yeah, and you know, youjust kind of saw that desperation amongst
people as we were like, Okay, well maybe we have a chance with
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Neighbors and he gets called. Maybewe have a chance with you know,
a doomsday and he gets called I'msorry? Was that right? They the
order went Alt and then Neighbors,and then the Titans were on the clock.
But I was in the camp thatlike when he was there, I
was like, yeah, I thinkI would take a duneesay in this spot.
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But they they ended up going witha guy that they said was Bill
Callahan's favorite player in the entire draft. And you know, you can't really
argue with that. He's an offensivelineman, guru the hell of a coach.
But you know, you just youcan't help but have concerns when you
know he's going from the right tothe left. So what was the hardest
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the hardest move to make? Sowhat was what was the mood like in
Nissan Stadium whenever his name was announced? Was it just kind of disappointment where
people kind of let down or werethere people there that were actually high on
the pick from the jump. Yeah, there was not a lot of excitement
in Nisan Stadium. It kind offelt like everybody kind of stood up and
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gathered their things and it felt likewalking out after a loss. Really,
not that it it's a bad pick, but it just it wasn't a pick
that was really on anybody's radar,I would guess as far as the fan
base goes. And it wasn't reallya sexy pick either, So yeah,
it definitely it was taken very rough. Man. It's crazy because we were
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at the four forty Sports Draft partyon Thursday night and the mood was kind
of similar, like the pick wasannounced and there was not really a whole
lot of reaction to it. Italmost kind of felt like it was the
same sort of thing. People werekind of disappointed in it. Not the
offensive lineman I would have selected.I would have gone oulu Fashanu in that
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spot, but I wanted Roma doonsay. He was my favorite player in the
entire draft, and I get thevision behind the pick. I mean it
is the biggest area of need andprops to Ran Karthon for getting in the
press conference and just right away sayinghe's going to be the left tackle.
I mean, they didn't really leaveit up for debate or leave any mystery
to it. It was from thejump, No, our intention is to
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move him to the left side.He's going to be our left tackle.
I was surprised to see that.The more it seemed like the reaction on
Thursday night was one very much ofdisappointment. But I felt like once people
actually went back and started watching JCLatham tape and kind of catching up on
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some of the stories. He dida press conference where I think he comes
across as a very fiery, wellput together young man, like I feel
like he's going to be a tonesetter for this offensive line, and I
think as those nuggets came out,people started to get on board with the
pick a little bit more. Wasthat the case for you or are you
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still kind of a little hesitant aboutthis one? I guess I got to
put both cans on that. Iwould say initially it was disappointment because I
was like, you know, whythe hell are we going right tackle?
That doesn't make a whole lot ofsense, especially that high up. But
like you said, you know,there's more of the you know, videos
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came up of highlight reels and youknow, he's got a twelve inch hand
and this guy's massive, and BillCallahan was bigger on him. I was
like, Okay, I'm starting tofeel a little better about this. Yeah,
it's really interesting. I think itwas. Tron Davenport came out and
said, like, I wish becausewe did the media mock for Jim Wyatt
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and I don't remember who he predicted, but I think I'm probably butchering this
entire story. But like he said, I wish I had paid a little
more attention to the signs that werethere, because they were there all along.
There are people in this market thatI don't know if anybody has said
it out loud, but there arepeople in this market that think they might
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have taken JC Latham over Joe Altif Joe Alt was available. That's how
high they were on him. Theywere sniffing around throughout the process. They
had a really good meeting with him, and apparently, you know, they
hashed out all of the transition stuffright tackle to left tackle. Jac Latham
played left tackle in high school.The only reason he played right tackle at
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Alabama is because nick Saban felt likethey couldn't move Caden Procter. They needed
him on the left side and theyneeded to get their best five out there,
so JC switched to the right side, but apparently he was supposed to
switch back to the left tackle spotfor his for the twenty twenty three season,
but Nick Saban basically said, no, we can't put We can't put
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Procter on the right side, sowe need you to hold that down,
and he was willing to do thatfor the betterment of the team. And
I think that's another thing that kindof speaks volumes about the guy. I
really liked his tape. I havevery few nitpicks with his game. I
think there are some instances where hisfootwork kind of gets away from him a
little bit. I think there areinstances with the depth of his past sets,
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or maybe he's a little off themark. It's not a consistent thing.
It's every once in a while he'sa little off the mark and maybe
sets too deep and gives up theinside, or maybe doesn't set deep enough
and ends up chasing guys around theedge. But I think this is a
really good pick. I think it'sa healthy pick when you're rebuilding your franchise,
and I think that it is goingto have an exponential impact on the
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offense. If you can just getsomewhere in between what they were last year
and an elite unit, I thinkit changes the entire complexion of the season.
So I don't really have a gripeabout it. And the more I
started drinking on Thursday night, themore I started thinking about it, Like,
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you know what, if you cantake the power and the dominance that
he showed at right tackle, ifyou think that you can harness that and
spit it out at the left tacklespot, then you've got a dog and
you've got a guy that's gonna beyour left tackle for the next decade.
I think that's an element of thegame that Latham did have in spades,
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the power, the aggressiveness. Ithink that's something that is innate within somebody
that you can't necessarily coach out ofsomebody. And I don't know that Olufashan
who had that. And if that'sthe case, and if you think you
can just seamlessly move him from theother side, go get your guy.
I've got no qualms with it.But what do you think about the impact
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that potentially shoring up the left tacklespot would have on this offense as a
whole. Owen, Yeah, absolutely. I mean the last left tackle that
we got was Lawan, and yousaw how not only was he like the
guy at that position, but italso kind of le to a leadership position.
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Yeah. They really set the tonefor what that line was going to
be and set them up for successlater on. So I think it's very
big And if that is your guyand you found that, you know that
fix is a major problem in yourgame. So let's let's talk about the
second round pick, because this isone that has been Oh man, it
has been a street fight on socialmedia this week. People are talking about
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to and Andre Sweat, the defensivetackle out of Texas, going thirty eighth
overall in the second round. Mepersonally, I'm a fan of the pick.
I really like Devandre Sweat. Hewas thirty six overall on my big
board, so not a reach atall in my opinion. But man,
there are a lot of people thatare questioning the decision to go with a
defensive lineman in the second round.What do you think of Devandre Sweat?
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Owen, I'm with you. Ireally like the pick. I don't know
a whole lot about him. Iknow that there were characters, concerns as
far as the DUI went and otherthings. Yeah, but and also the
way, you know, has beencalled into question that he's just too big
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right now. But I think allthose things are things that could be worked
with, and I don't think theywent unseen by the Titans. I think
that they saw the potential and said, hey, you know what we saw
on Tate beats out this other stuffthat we think we could work with.
So I'm a fan of it.When it came to the defensive line,
it was you know, Jeffrey Simmonsand a lot of names that we just
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didn't recognize. So I think it'sanother one that definitely addressed a big need
and I like it. Yeah,And Jeffrey simmons response to the pick is
pretty telling if you ask me.I don't know if you saw this,
but he went on Twitter after theselection and basically thanked Ran Carthon or I
don't remember if he called Rand Carthonand thanked him, but he tweeted out
something along the lines of finally gotanother dog on the defensive line, and
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you know, I'm kind of readingthat like Buddy Tough, seeing jeff Simmons
what he was going through last yearwith that constant rotation of guys Tier Tart
not really being a reliable, consistentpresence next to him, to feel like
you've got a guy that to me, what I like about to and Andre
Sweat the most is yes, he'sbig, Yes he's a gap eater,
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Yes he's a run stuffer, butI think he's got some really quick hands
that he can use to generate powerand pass rush from the interior, which
to me is something that we haven'treally seen with this Titans defensive line in
a long time, right, andand Jarrell Casey was doing it on his
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own for a number of years.They never got him any help. It
looked like we were going down thatpath with Jeffrey Simmons for a little bit.
But they add to and Andre Sweat, and now you've got two guys
that are pretty pretty mean, nastydudes. Sweat more of the big space.
I love the way he plays therun game. He's just so big
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and so strong. He plays withsuch good foot drive that he's really hard
to contain. But then you youpair in the fact that he can he
can throw a long arm at somebody, he can throw speed to power at
somebody. He's effective with his hands, a crosswipe, a swim move.
He's got these tools like this isgoing to be a formidable unit. And
like I talked about with the offensiveline, the exponential impact it has on
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the rest of the defense. Ifyou improve the defensive front, it makes
it easier for your linebackers to cleanup against the run. It makes it
easier for your edge rushers to gethome to the quarterback because they're they're likely
going to be facing more one onones. If teams have to choose like
are you double teaming Sweat, areyou double teaming Simmons? Are you double
teaming both of them? And ifthat's the case, somebody's going to be
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open. It really to me,it's not the sexy edge rusher. It's
not you know, the the DariusRobin, send the Chop Robinson, any
of those guys that are just goingto be lining up out wide and pinning
their ears back and rushing the quarterback. But this is a move that to
me, does signal, Hey,we are going to shore up the trenches.
We're gonna help our offensive line We'regoing to help our defensive line and
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we're gonna build out from that.So I was ecstatic about the pick.
It sounds like you were pretty highon it too. What about the rest
of this class? Are there anyof the other picks that really stood out
to you that you're particularly stoked about. Uh, you know a lot of
people are saying our third pick linebackercorrect Cedric Gray, North Carolina. Yeah,
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a lot of people are calling thata sleeper pick that could be a
big pick up in a Day onestarter. Yeah. I think he is.
I think he's going to be thegreen dot linebacker. And I just
I admire Ran Carthon and Brian Callahanfor coming out and saying jac Latham's going
to be a left tackle, andI kind of feel like they should do
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the same. Just just named CedricGray the starter. He's got the range,
he's got the athleticism. Yeah,he plays hard like he fits what
this team is looking for in theirdefensive players. Like, don't don't waste
time trying to sort it out thissummer. Just get him out there running,
get reps with the ones right offthe bat. This dude, this
dude could be a real steal forthem. I I was gonna say Jarvis
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Brownley Jr. The cornerback out ofLouvoie, he uh lands in a really
good spot in my opinion, becausethe expectations are not going to be for
him to be an impact player rightaway. But he is another guy that
is in the mold of what DenardWilson looks for in a defensive back,
and I think it's a perfect spot. He's got a little versatility. He
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could play inside, he could playoutside. I personally, I think he's
going to be good outside. Ithink he's a good contingency plan for life
after Lugerius Sneid, life after chidobayO Woozie, or if either of those
go down with an injury. Ithink if something happens to Roger McCreery,
he could move inside to the slotand play well. And I've even heard
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some analysts this week say he mightbe a potential candidate to move over to
safety as well, which is anotherarea that this team still needs help with.
Versatility, tenacious player that has someskill. I know he's not the
most athletic guy. That's, inmy opinion, probably the likeliest reason for
him sliding to the fifth round.There's not a lot of straight line speed
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with him. He's not a burner, he's not the twitchiest guy, but
man, he is a really smartplayer that can undercut a route, really
superb route recognition, and he justdoesn't let you get off the line of
scrimmage, which is it's awesome tosee the vision come together for this regime
because you can see a little bitof lagerious need in Jarvis Brownlee Junior,
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and if they've got a guy that'sany anywhere remotely close to that, this
is going to be a steal.So I really really liked the first four
picks of the draft. The finalthree not so much. Jakwan Jackson not
the wide receiver I would have selected, but I get the vision. James
Williams is another guy that he's kindof a tweener. I think he's too
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light to play. I thought hewas like too light to play linebacker,
but not twitchy and rangy enough toplay safety. I thought he was kind
of a tweener. It sounds likethey turned in the card at linebackers,
so they're gonna add him to thatroom and if they can, you know,
bulk him up a little bit andteach him a little bit of better
play recognition, diagnosis ability, andkind of limit the space. Right if
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you're a linebacker, you don't haveas much green grass to cover as you
do if you're a safety. Somaybe that helps the game. And the
vision is like he's gonna help outon special teams now and maybe one day
step into the linebacker rotation. Andthen Jalen Harrell pretty athletic, pretty fun,
little developmental edge rush prospect. Ithought personally, Owen, they checked
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just about every box that they neededto check. I had been saying for
a while, like there's a reallygood crop of undrafted running backs. They
got two of them in Washington's DylanJohnson and Tennessee's Jabbari Small. I think
that really beefs up the running backroom. No issues there. Tight ends
still a bit of a question mark, but I think the way the board
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fell, I have no issues withthem not drafting one. They added a
couple of tight ends in undrafted freeagency, really athletic kid from Temple,
and then they got one of theseIowa tight ends that you figure, you
know, follows in the footsteps ofthe other guys. He's going to be
pretty good Iowa seems to crank outgood tight ends, so I really thought
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that they checked a lot of theboxes. But looking at the class as
a whole, Owe, what doyou think about their strategy to attack certain
positions? Do you think that theydid about as good of a job as
they could of addressing need with guysthat fit the style they want? Yeah,
I think overall, if you lookback at it, it looks like
they had a vision for what theywanted and executed it. You know,
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there's gonna be question marks on it, and only time will tell, But
just like you said, with whatthey had, I think they worked well
with it. I'm with it,man. I was surprised by the final
three picks because they weren't guys thatwe really knew they were sniffing around,
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other than Jakwan Jackson, because weknow I think it was Tit Tolbert.
I think it was the receiver's coachwas actually at Tulane's pro day, so
got a good look at the kid. But I wasn't aware that they were
sniffing around James Williams. I wasn'taware they were sniffing around Jalen Harrell.
You factor in the jarvis Brownlee athletictesting, Cedric Gray athletic testing to and
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Andre Sweat, and then j C. Latham just foregoing the athletic testing altogether,
which apparently was because of an injury. By the way, I don't
know if that's been cleared up ornot, but that was reported last week
was that he didn't do the athletictesting because of a risk of aggravating an
injury. But to me, Iwas kind of surprised that Jalen Harrell was
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the only guy that really tested wellathletically from like the explosive drills or the
explosiveness drills, the agility drills,the speed drills, stuff like that,
and it kind of made me lookat this draft class through a different lens,
like, Okay, well, they'veclearly got access to analytics that we
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don't have. The simplistic metrics thatwe use to test athleticism usually pretty fair
indicators of success, but didn't lineup with what the Titans did, right,
the information that most of us averagejoes have access to, said,
this draft class is loaded with okayathletes, okay to maybe even poor athletes
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from a testing standpoint, But whenyou look at the characteristics of how these
guys play. JC Latham's a dollto and Andre Sweat's a dog. Cedric
Gray is a dog. Jarvis BrownleyJunior certainly a dog. James Williams is
a dog. I got my questionsabout him as a prospect, but there's
no denying that that man will lowerthe boom on somebody in the open field.
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So I'm I'm kind of looking atthis thinking, Okay, well,
maybe they Obviously they do have accessto information that we don't have, metrics
that we have like in game GPSstuff to track speed and all sorts of
analytics. There's a million different analyticsfirms out there that we know Chad Brinker
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and his staff are taking advantage ofthat we quite frankly don't have the money
to get access to because we're notan NFL franchise. So I keep saying,
like, if Ran or Chad orBrian, anybody who's listening to this
podcast, just at Thesobrosnetwork at gmaildot com, slide me some account access
over there so I can do somebetter scouting next year. But I'm gonna
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land this plane. I promise tolook at this rebuild and say, Okay,
maybe maybe the athleticism, the raw, agility, explosiveness. Testing isn't
the most important thing. Maybe themost important thing as we rebuild this entire
roster is to get tone setters.Guys that have decent enough tape that we
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think will be good fits in ourlocker room. But guys that play hard,
play with aggression, they play afeisty brand of football. Like this
is sort of to me, I'mkind of looking at it as this is
the class that's going to come inand kind of provide the fire for this
franchise moving forward, and it ifI put it in that context, it
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makes me warm up to the classoverall a little bit more. But what
do you what do you think aboutthat idea that this this rookie class could
be the future tone setters for theTitans. No? I agree, Uh,
I'm with you on that. Ithink, like you said, there's
no denying the dog in the pigs. Yeah, in all of really absolutely,
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I feel like there's there's solid tapeto go behind each tape and what
you went with and why you wentwith them. So yeah, I'm with
them that they could they have potentialfor uh longevity. All right, let's
let's get to some Uh, let'sget to some user questions here. User
questions, listener questions here. Okay, this one comes to his courtesy of
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Kablarnage. Based on how the Titansdrafted wide receiver this year, it feels
like T Higgins is being targeted duringnext offseason if D hop isn't resigned,
thoughts, I would say Owen thatI I kind of feel like DeAndre Hopkins
is going to be in this team'splans moving. I mean, at this
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rate, at his age, Iwould be surprised if to do what he
does. I mean, like Isaid, I've said before, unless he
just completely falls off a cliff.I think he kind of likes it here.
He seems to like it here anyway, and I think the Titans have
the room to make it happen.I kind of feel like DeAndre Hopkins is
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going to be an extension candidate nextoffseason, so I don't have a gut
feeling that he's going to be leavinganyway. And I kind of feel like
if they were gonna make T Higginshappen, this would have been the offseason
to do it. And I justdon't know. I think this is gonna
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answer a question we're gonna We're gonnaget too later. But I kind of
feel like the Titans are putting themselvesin a position to get a premium wide
receiver in the draft next year,maybe a premium, premium edge rusher in
the draft next year. So Idon't I just don't see them shelling out
big money for for T Higgins nextoffseason when signing Hopkins might be the safer
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route and they just paid all thatmoney to Calvin Ridley and if things go
according to plan, they're not goingto have too many like franchise cornerstone piece
type of needs in the draft nextseason. I don't really feel like T
Higgins is going to be a targetfor this team next offseason. What do
you think? Yeah, I'm withyou too. I think another aspect that
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a lot of people have been talkingabout lately is that Tyler Boyd came in
to visit. Yeah, you know, was in Nashville yesterday, left without
signing a deal. But doesn't meanit's to no. Well, it was,
and he visited with the Titans andthe Chargers this week, but the
Chargers signed DJ Shark, so itlooks like he might not be going to
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LA and our guy pretty Ricky onTwitter is saying that he expects uh Tyler
Boyd to sign with the Titans.So that's that's interesting there. If that
comes to fruition, Yeah, absolutelyso. I mean, I just don't
know if T Higgins is going tobe the guy they're gonna you know,
go after uh you know, butan interesting thought all the same. Daniel
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asks a really good question besides Levis, who are the most important Titans players
this season, both for the futureand the current season. I would start
with JC Latham because, like Isaid, the offensive line was such a
dire need. You're you're switching himfrom right to left. If if this
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move pans out, I mean thiscould like at that point, now you're
cooking with gas right, like you'vesolved your biggest need. You you can
you can really get the passing offensegoing. If you know, Will Levis
has more time to operate and guysaren't shooting gaps and crashing the line on
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every play and putting your left tackleon his ass. I think it kind
of unlocks the rest of this offense. So if you if you've got that
pick right, man, I reallythink it can it can do Wonders for
this team. What do you whatdo you think of looking at this roster?
Who is the most important? Yeah? I think Latham's a big one.
(31:27):
I think Taj Sharp will be bigthis season. You know he's kind
of sorry, yes, Spears,I always do that, so I'm guilty
of it too, players that arejust so close to each other. Sorry
Spears. Uh. I think it'sbig. It's a big year for him.
(31:48):
You know, we're kind of leaningon him after you know, Henry's
leaving, and I know they're kindof trying to move towards a more dynamic
offense. But we need to knowis this going to be a a big
hole for us now or are wegoing to kind of is he going to
fit the new mold of what wewant out of this offense? Yeah?
I would add on defense, Ithink I would look at the edge rushers.
(32:14):
I think the secondary is suddenly,to me, on paper, one
of the best in the league.And obviously Jeffrey Simmons is Jeffrey Simmons.
If Devandre Sweat is even remotely whatwe think he's going to be, the
front is going to be pretty strong, formidable. But man, I'm curious,
like they they waited a while toaddress the edge rusher. They didn't
(32:37):
sign a free agent. It's ArdentKey who flashed at times as a pure
He's just a pure pass rusher,like that's what you bring him in to
do to get to the quarterback.But I don't think he offers a whole
lot of versatility. Harold Landry isa hammer, we know that, but
I'm just it seems like in thisday and age, it takes three guys
(32:59):
to form a rotation. And soI would say, if if Harold Landry
and or arden Key can can getback to sacking the quarterback at a high
level, I think that is thatis the weak link on on the defense
right now, in my opinion,is the the edge rush strap, the
edge rush depth. Any any thoughtson the defensive side when we're talking about
(33:23):
this question, Owen, Hmmm,I don't know. I think it's gonna
be a big year for our corners. Yeah, just once again, we're
moving into a new system and wewent for two big guys, two big
names. I want to see ifthis is going to work and if that's
the dynamic we're going to go withfair enough rowdy GC asks not a question,
(33:49):
but please make me feel better aboutChigakonkuo as tight end one. Had
a pretty rough twenty twenty three campaign, and we did nothing to address the
tight end spot outside of UDFA wouldhave liked to have seen us bring in
another proven tight end due to thelack of actual NFL experience in house rowdy.
I'm cool with jigacon Quo as tightend one. I'm I'm actually pretty
(34:13):
cool with the top two tight ends. I was a big I was a
big fan of Josh Wiley the seasonhe was having before he got hurt.
I think he could develop into areally nice, overall jack of all trades
style of tight end. And thenI think with chigacon Quo, this coaching
staff probably going to lean into hiselectricity a little bit more. You would
(34:36):
think, like he's a dynamic playmaker, great athlete in the open field.
You use that, you use that, and I don't feel like the previous
regime really did that to the fullestextent, And so that gives me hope
that chigacon Quo can take another stepforward in his development this year. I
(34:58):
also don't think I don't don't thinkI would call his twenty twenty three quote
pretty rough. I think it startedoff pretty slow, but there were times
he started flashing like this guy's goingto be something, this guy is going
to get there at the next level. What's your overall optimism like for Chicka
kon Quo as the top tight endthis season one. I'm with you too.
(35:20):
I don't feel a whole lot ofpressure on it. Yeah, he's
got the star tight end that otherteams have, but I think just the
pieces that we've added, having CalvinRidley there is going to help open things
up for him. I think thathaving a more dynamic offense is going to
help open things up for him.So I think there's optimism there. I
don't feel a big, big pressureon the tight end right now. Tyler
(35:44):
says tinfoil hat question. Do youthink Ran trades Burkes potential overproduction for an
edge rusher who hasn't lived up tothe hype, basically a change of scenery
trade, maybe like Burk's for PeytonTurner. I did like Peyton Turner coming
out of college. I thought hewould have been a I thought he would
(36:05):
be further along than he is rightnow. But I would have said the
same thing for Traylon Burks as well. I don't think man from everybody,
everybody seems to think that the TylerBoyd news is bad news for Traylon Burks.
But I think the Tyler Boyd newsis the worst news for Kyle Phillips
(36:27):
and Jawan Jackson myself, just myopinion. I can't give too much away.
I will say this Friday Night's fourforty Sports Draft party, our special
guest was Derek Mason. We gotto sit there, talk to him a
little bit, ask him some questions. Really really wonderful, fantastic evening,
(36:47):
and we talked about Traylon Burks.And again, like you had to be
in the room, that conversation stayswithin those four walls, which is a
you know, maybe that's I shouldsell next year's party a little bit there,
so you never know what's gonna happen. But I came away from the
conversation with Derek Mason thinking, Idon't know that they view him as strictly
(37:08):
a slot receiver. That's been apopular topic of discussion moving Traylon Burkes back
into the slot. I think they'regonna move him around the formation a little
bit. I don't think that heis going to be strictly a slot guy,
and so it kind of made methink that there might be some faith
in Traylon Burks to actually develop andtake a next take the next step and
(37:30):
get better. So what we're hearingin the press conferences, of course,
anything can change if the right offeris made, But I kind of feel
like Burke's is a guy that they'regoing to make a concerted effort to get
involved a little bit more because hedoes still have potential. So I I
(37:51):
don't think that Traylon Burks is goingto end up on the trading block.
What's your what's your your feeling onon Burks as we go into year three
for him? Yeah, I think, just going back to the original question,
I don't know that there's a bigmarket for him, and I know
that every time, you know,Tennessee fans get unpopular with a player,
you know, our immediate thought isto trade them, and it's like,
(38:14):
you know, trade them for what. I don't know if there's anything that
other teams see that they would wantto take a risk on. But I'm
also with you in the sense thatI don't think it's time to give up
on them yet. I think there'sstill potential productivity, and I think this
could be a big year to proveit, the general says, getting an
early fantasy question in about ty J. Spears, what's your best guess as
(38:37):
to how he has used next year? Is it a true fifty to fifty
split both he and Pollard on thefield at the same time a lot,
or do you think it's the Pollardshow and the usage splits are similar to
last year Man's I'm I'm close tolike all of the above. I would
not be surprised if they like Pollardbetter and want to give him the line's
(39:02):
share of the workload. But mygut says it's going to be closer to
fifty to fifty, And it mighteven be a situation where it's like drive
for drive, where like Spears getsone drive, then Pollard gets the next,
then Spears than Pollard and they're alternating. I wouldn't be surprised to see
both of them on the field atthe same time. I think both of
(39:22):
these guys are very similar in style, and I think that enables this team
to kind of do whatever they wantto do on offense, regardless of who's
out there. I would say forfantasy purposes. If you can get your
hands on both of them and kindof see how it plays out, I
think that would be the move.I don't know that I'm starting either of
these guys week one until I geta better sense of how Brian Callahan's going
(39:45):
to deploy these guys. I reallylike ty J Spears. I think he's
going to have a big season intwenty twenty four. But I also this
is just from having faith in thetalent and having scouted them at Tulane and
watching his rookie year, the flashesthat he showed. I think there's reason
to believe that if he does getthe opportunity, he's going to have a
(40:08):
pretty monstrous twenty twenty four. Thequestion is just are they going to use
him enough? How do they wantto deploy these guys? And if he
doesn't get the opportunity, what doeshis production ceiling then look like? And
I don't think we're gonna know untilwe're a few games into this season.
Owen, what do you think aboutty J Spears and Tony Pollard as fantasy
prospects? Uh? Yeah, Ifeel the same way that you do.
(40:32):
I think early on in the season, for sure, you're going to see
a split unless there's a just aclear cut, you know, number one
guy that comes forward as far asfantasy goes. I don't know if I
touch either of them early on,just because that role is so uncertain.
I think it will take a whilein the season for that to develop.
(40:53):
Travis asksis, what do you needto see this year in order to know
that Levis is the guy? Man? I see I'm in the camp where
I'm kind of already sold that Levisis the guy. He's at least the
guy that you want to build aroundfor the next four years, like the
rookie contract, Like this is aguy. I think you see the competitive
(41:15):
traits, you see the fire withinthe guy. He's not afraid of the
moment. He's comfortable out there.You just kind of need to get him
to rein in some of the recklessrookie mistakes. And I think if we
see that with an offseason where heis the unquestioned starter, because we do
have to remember last summer he wasquarterback three going throughout training camp, but
(41:37):
now he's the guy, and Ithink all you want to see for me
from where I sit, I justwant to see him not take a step
back. If he doesn't take astep back, I'm good. Let's go.
What do you think about will Levis? What do you need to see
from him in order to have thatfaith that he's the guy moving forward?
Yeah? I feel like he's theguy right now too. I think that,
(41:58):
you know, once again in hisoffense is kind of getting set up
around him. Now it's not,you know, up in the air limbo
like it was last offseason. AndI think just to see him progress under
an offense that's meant for him,that's designed with him as QB one,
you just want to see, likeyou said, progress, no steps back.
(42:24):
Our boy. Eldon showed back upagain this week. Most likely free
agent signed for the following positions,and why also if you think they will
sign one for those positions safety,edge, offensive tackle, wide receiver,
which he acknowledges, maybe a layupconsidering Tyler Boyd. We feel pretty confident
that Tyler Boyd's going to be aTennessee Titan at this point, and tight
(42:47):
end any other positions you think they'llthey will need looking for. So Eldon,
I kind of feel like at thispoint we might get a couple of
more free agent signings. I wouldnot be surprised if they did make a
push for a Justin Simmons or aMarcus May. We know the conversations have
been ongoing with them. The prevailingtheory right now is that the price tags
(43:08):
are too high and teams have justbeen waiting until after the draft to see
if the price is gonna come down, or you know, if they were
able to snag a safety they likein the draft, maybe they don't need
one. They don't need to spendthe money. That's the one position that
I kind of I do feel likeprobably still needs to be a priority right
(43:29):
now. Edge rusher. I thinkthere are some interesting names out there,
Carl Lawson chief among them. Iadmit that I haven't kept up with Carl
Lawson since he signed with the NewYork Jets, but the season he was
entering free agency, he was oneof the guys that I was pounding the
table for the Titans to sign,and they didn't sign him, so he
goes on to New York. Butthat name sticks out to me as well.
(43:52):
As far as the tackle goes man, I don't know, because I
feel like they feel good about J. C. Latham. They trade for
Leroy Watson maybe it was just insurance. But we're at a point in the
offseason where looking at the available offensivetackles. I know we've had had our
fun talking about Andres Pete, butthe free agent tackles that are left are
(44:15):
kind of old, retread guys thathave some durability concerns, and I just
don't know what the upside is there. Maybe maybe Andres Pete. I think
someone reported that they had been onthe phone with him. We're kind of
waiting to see how the draft goes, so maybe he's a guy that could
come in and help fortify your righttackle competition this summer. But I think
(44:38):
they're happy with j C. Lathamwide receiver. Yeah, we talked about
like Tyler Boyd, and there areprobably like five other Tyler Boyds that are
still out there right now, sohard to go wrong there. And then
tight end, Listen, I mightbe in the minority on this one.
I'm okay if they pass on aveteran tight end. I think the best
option that's still out there right nowis Logan Thomas from Washington, but he's
(45:02):
got some serious injury concerns. MercedesLewis is out there, would be I
would be fine with either of thoseguys signing, but I also I'm pretty
high on Chig and Josh Wiley,so I'm I'm in the minority of,
Hey, let's let these guys,these undrafted guys duke it out in training
camp, see if a third tightend emerges, and ultimately we'll get to
(45:25):
My overarching theme with this is thatmaybe they add a safety relatively soon.
But I think the free agent spotsleft are guys that you kind of watch
the waiver wire in July and Augustand you see who's being cut from other
teams that you might be able toadd, and I kind of feel like
we're going to save a few openspots for that. But free agency owen
(45:49):
any particular position that you think theyshould They should be hitting pretty hard right
now. I kind of I hateto keep echoing you, but I feel
the same way I think. Outsideof safety, there's just not a lot
of moves to make. Honestly,Eldon follows up with immediate needs you think
will need to be addressed for twentytwenty five, just based off what they
(46:10):
have covered in twenty twenty four.Yeah, this was the question I alluded
to earlier. I think they've positionedthemselves pretty nicely for twenty twenty five to
get a premium wide receiver in thedraft and to get a premium edge rusher
in the draft. Maybe free agencyis in play for the edge rusher.
I haven't looked at the class fornext year, but I know next year's
(46:34):
class is pretty loaded up on defense, and so I think I think they've
done a great job this offseason sofar of checking boxes. And now we're
if unless these picks obviously the bigcaveat here, If these picks are just
total bust, then you got tokind of, you know, start from
scratch there. But if they've hiton a few of these guys, they're
(46:59):
going to start getting in position totake the premium luxury picks. Right.
You might not necessarily need a widereceiver, but you're in a spot where
maybe Hopkins does leave, maybe CalvinRidley doesn't work out, none of these
young guys end up emerging, soyou you go get the wide receiver edge.
(47:20):
You know, maybe ardent Key andHarold Landry don't work out, it's
it's another need for this team.You can go get a premium guy.
That's kind of where I'm leaning,right, now, but what would you
what would you say to this one? Yeah, from what's come out so
far, from too early project projecteddraft classes, it does seem like a
(47:43):
defensive heavy one. Yeah, soit might be a good chance to go
edge. It's probably one that we'renot going to fill this year, so
I could I could see that asthe spot we go for sure. Ellen's
last question, which of your favoritedraft prospects went to a great situation for
them and which which went to aplace you think they may fail. So
(48:05):
I've got two answers for the favorites. I really love Dominic Pooney going to
San Francisco, a really versatile offensivelineman that might take a little bit of
time to develop. I don't thinkhe's going to be needed right away in
San Francisco, but he's a guythat can can pitch in at center,
he can pitch in at guard.He might even be able to play tackle.
It might be worth getting a lookat him there. But this is
(48:25):
a guy that, man, Idon't think if you're Dominic Pooney, I
don't think he could have landed ina better spot. I think he's a
really good player, and I thinkhe's going to be I think we're going
to look up in a couple ofyears time and be like, man,
this is this is a guy,this is a this is a dude that's
going to have some longevity in theNFL. I also really like my deep
cut Travis Glover, landing with GreenBay, plays left tackle. I don't
(48:49):
know what the prospects are of himmoving to the right side, but I
think having him and Jordan Morgan thatthey drafted in the first round two really
good prospects to have on the leftside, and you can kind of let
both of those guys decide, Okay, who's going to be the guard,
Who's going to be the tackle ofthe future. But I liked that spot
for Travis Glover because I think he'sa much better prospect than he was given
(49:10):
credit for, and I think he'sgot a shot to win one of those
two jobs. As for my leastfavorites, we're gonna stay in Green Bay.
I really loved safety Evan Williams outof Oregon safety Katan Oladappo out of
Oregon State. Both of those guyswere on my Hidden Gym's list in the
draft guide. Both of them endedup on the Green Bay roster along with
(49:31):
Georgia safety Javon Bullard. So GreenBay drafted three safeties. So what I
hate about that is that one ofmy guys that I really loved in this
draft class is probably going to bethe odd man out. And I don't
know if maybe there has been sometalk that maybe Ola Dappo, because of
his frame, because of his size, maybe switching to linebacker. I wouldn't
(49:54):
do that personally. I think he'sgood enough to play safety in the league.
But I kind of feel unless thesetwo dudes somehow edge out Javon Bullard,
who is a higher draft pick,I feel like one of these guys
is gonna be the odd man outand I hate to see that because I
liked both of their tape. Okay, final question. Final question comes to
(50:15):
us from Canadian Titan. That's ourbuddy Ethan. Should picking your nose be
frowned upon? It feels really greatsometimes and we all know that everyone does
it. Is it time to bebrave and start digging for gold in public?
Owing your thoughts? Okay? Soyeah, I agree with part of
that. Everybody picks their nose andit's just something that everybody does. Does
(50:37):
that mean do it all the timein public. No, you know,
be discreet about it. But youknow, if you do catch somebody picking
their nose, don't give them thethird degree. You know, maybe they
add an itchy booger up there.I say, let it go, but
be discreet about it. Yeah.Maybe we don't like celebrate it right,
Maybe we don't. Maybe we stillhave some reservations about winning where we do
(51:00):
it. But I will say,like, yes, there is. There's
nothing like that feeling when you're allclogged up and then you can just reach
up there and the relief that comeswhen you can alleviate the pressure and you
can breathe again. There's nothing likeit. But you know, I don't
know. I still think I'm personallya ways away from feeling comfortable just out
(51:22):
there slinging boogers all over the place. But you know what I get the
I get the sentiment we can anythingthat empowers people. I'm I'm for it.
Well that's it, Owen, Thatis it. That is all we've
got for this week's episode. Anyparting shots before we get on out of
here today. No, man,I'm excited to sit through the summer and
(51:45):
hear all the theories on how theseason's going to go. I'd take that
back. I'm not looking forward tothat. I'm ready for football. But
in the meantime I meet I guessI'll just watch the baseball and give ready
for Paul well Man. We've gotoff season content coming up again. It's
another year of off season content wherewe're going to dig into Titan's history.
(52:08):
We're gonna talk about some of themore broader topics like it's a it's a
fun time of year for the UnofficialTitans Podcast. So I'm looking forward to
that. I gotta I gotta shootyou over the list of topics for this
summer and we could start prepping forthat. But that's gonna do it for
us. Thank you all for tuningin. As a reminder, you can
(52:28):
get my coverage of the Tennessee Titansand the NFL Draft. That's stacking the
inbox dot Com. Five dollars amonth is a tremendous value. You get
the Draft guide if you want toread up on my reports on all of
the Titans draft class, they're allincluded in this year's guide. I wasn't
surprised like I was with Coltondale lastyear. I did it successfully you know,
(52:50):
mission accomplished there, so you cancheck that out. Stacking the Inbox
dot Com, we've got merch includingour roll the Dice, Play the Board
t shirts. Still, we'll gotsome Coach Better Playbetter shirts, but I
think those are going to be outof production before long. But that's up
sobroshop dot com and rate Review.Subscribe to the Unofficial Titans Podcast. Wherever
(53:10):
you take in your shows, We'reout there in these Internet streets. Baby,
we ain't too hard to find foroutspoken Owen Reed, I am big
natural Stony Keeley And until next time, you stay classic Titans fans
From Sobros HQ in Nashville, Tennesseeto wherever you're cheering on your Tennessee Titans.
The Sobers Network presents the Unofficial TitansPodcast. Welcome back for another episode
(00:33):
of the Unofficial Titans Podcast right hereon so Bros Network. Mine's right,
asses tight. As we tackle thisweek's episode for you, we are going
to be recapping the twenty twenty fourTennessee Titans draft. Hall got some got
some dogs, got some dogs thisyear, And of course I how rude
(00:56):
of me. I am big natural. Stony Keeley, host for the Unofficial
Titans Podcast, the EIC at Sobrosnetworkdot com, the third wheel on football
and other f words, and NFLDraft analyst for stacking the inbox all over
the internet streets these days. Youcan follow me on Twitter at Stony Keeley.
Collectively, I'm at Sobros Network onall major social media platforms, and
(01:21):
here to give his thoughts on thetwenty twenty four Tennessee Titans draft. Class
is my co host on the UnofficialTitans Podcast. He is Senderellaman one take
Oh coming to us from the dadZone, out Spoken, Owen read Owen
tgif Man. How you doing onthis fine Friday. Hey everybody, Hey
(01:42):
Stony, It's Friday. The weekendsalmost here. Kendrick Lamar dropped a second
disc on Drake. It's a greatFriday. How are you doing? Man,
I'm I'm I'm okay. I'm I'mhanging in there. I'm kind of
resting, recouping a little bit.I can't keep up with all the tracks.
I know that's gonna it's gonna makeme sound like a boomer, But
(02:04):
I I don't know why everybody's madat each other and expressing anger through the
art of the song is just youknow, I don't know. It's a
little off to me. Man,I'm like, shouldn't these should these guys
just fistfight? I don't understand howany of this stuff works. Back in
my day, you'd you'd politely asksomeone if they wanted to step outside into
(02:28):
the parking lot at the Thirsty Turtleout in Lebanon, Tennessee, and you'd
settle your differences out there. ButI don't, just I just don't.
I don't know. I don't getit. You know, there's a lot
of avenues to express anger, andviolence is one of them. But you
can also rap about somebody. Ifyou feel like it, it's fine.
The avenue that works for you.Yeah, whatever gets you to a healthier
(02:53):
space, that's that's what we uh, that's what we recommend here. Now.
I'm I'm like rested. I thelast three weeks leading up to the
draft were they were pretty rough.Man. By the time the draft actually
got here, I was feeling prettybad, like waking up in the morning
and having like bags under my eyes. I was eating a bunch of fast
(03:15):
food, just trying to like dowhatever was the quickest, the quickest way
I could get back to watching tapeas we're trying to wrap up our draft
guide. I think I ended updoing something like forty to fifty of the
two hundred and seventy five prospects inthe last well, actually I got to
(03:35):
three hundred prospects, but I didlike forty to fifty of those in the
last three weeks. And it wasit was crazy, man, Like I
was having headaches, I was havingtrouble sleeping, and I was I was
very thankful to get through the homestretch and doing a seven hour broadcast on
Saturday with Zach and Easton and JT. While it was a ton of fun.
(04:00):
We got that thing over with andI just sat there Saturday night just
kind of like staring out the window, just like, oh man, it's
it's over. We did it.And this week I've watched a couple of
new movies that I've never seen before. I finally got around to watching Roadhouse.
I thought it was fantastic. Iwatched Driveaway Dolls, thought it was
(04:23):
not so fantastic. I've started workingon a new poem. I've got an
outline together for a new short story. It feels like a whole new world
for me. But we're not done. We're not done with the draft coverage
yet. Also, I should say, I guess people are saying this is
a complete sicko move, but Idid. I did go yesterday to get
(04:45):
my notebook to start working on thetwenty twenty five draft class. So there's
been a you know, I've caughta little bit people tell me I have
a problem. I need to seekhelp. Not even doing this for a
team, I'm just doing it fordraft coverage. But that's that's been my
week, man, And I'm feeling, uh, I'm feeling pretty rested and
ready to go. It's like there'sa brand new me. I've even lost
(05:09):
a couple of pounds this week fromtrying to get back on the on the
wagon. So we're doing good.We're doing good here today. It sounds
like we're both in a pretty goodspace to tackle this episode. So let's
dig right into it. Owen,let's start with the the JC Latham pick,
first round seventh Overall, I'm curious. I'm really excited to get your
(05:30):
take on the draft because I knowyou're not down in the in the mud
on Twitter with everybody fighting with eachother. So I just kind of want
to know your initial reaction when hisname was called, and have you have
you have you changed it all sinceyour feelings? Have your feelings changed it
all since the initial initial selection?Yeah? So I actually went to Nissan
(05:54):
Stadium for the Titans draft party,oh sick, which is always fun.
Uh, you know, cool environment, a lot of vendors. Uh,
you get to check out the lockerroom, they bring former players, current
players. It's always fun. It'smy favorite thing to do with the Titans
every year. So when the firstround started, you know, everybody kind
(06:18):
of sat down and took their seatsand you could kind of feel, you
know, the air gets sucked outof the stadium when the Chargers announced Joe
Alt, because I know a lotof Titans fans were really set on it.
Yeah, and you know, youjust kind of saw that desperation amongst
people as we were like, Okay, well maybe we have a chance with
(06:43):
Neighbors and he gets called. Maybewe have a chance with you know,
a doomsday and he gets called I'msorry? Was that right? They the
order went Alt and then Neighbors,and then the Titans were on the clock.
But I was in the camp thatlike when he was there, I
was like, yeah, I thinkI would take a duneesay in this spot.
(07:04):
But they they ended up going witha guy that they said was Bill
Callahan's favorite player in the entire draft. And you know, you can't really
argue with that. He's an offensivelineman, guru the hell of a coach.
But you know, you just youcan't help but have concerns when you
know he's going from the right tothe left. So what was the hardest
(07:29):
the hardest move to make? Sowhat was what was the mood like in
Nissan Stadium whenever his name was announced? Was it just kind of disappointment where
people kind of let down or werethere people there that were actually high on
the pick from the jump. Yeah, there was not a lot of excitement
in Nisan Stadium. It kind offelt like everybody kind of stood up and
(07:55):
gathered their things and it felt likewalking out after a loss. Really,
not that it it's a bad pick, but it just it wasn't a pick
that was really on anybody's radar,I would guess as far as the fan
base goes. And it wasn't reallya sexy pick either, So yeah,
it definitely it was taken very rough. Man. It's crazy because we were
(08:18):
at the four forty Sports Draft partyon Thursday night and the mood was kind
of similar, like the pick wasannounced and there was not really a whole
lot of reaction to it. Italmost kind of felt like it was the
same sort of thing. People werekind of disappointed in it. Not the
offensive lineman I would have selected.I would have gone oulu Fashanu in that
(08:41):
spot, but I wanted Roma doonsay. He was my favorite player in the
entire draft, and I get thevision behind the pick. I mean it
is the biggest area of need andprops to Ran Karthon for getting in the
press conference and just right away sayinghe's going to be the left tackle.
I mean, they didn't really leaveit up for debate or leave any mystery
to it. It was from thejump, No, our intention is to
(09:05):
move him to the left side.He's going to be our left tackle.
I was surprised to see that.The more it seemed like the reaction on
Thursday night was one very much ofdisappointment. But I felt like once people
actually went back and started watching JCLatham tape and kind of catching up on
(09:26):
some of the stories. He dida press conference where I think he comes
across as a very fiery, wellput together young man, like I feel
like he's going to be a tonesetter for this offensive line, and I
think as those nuggets came out,people started to get on board with the
pick a little bit more. Wasthat the case for you or are you
(09:50):
still kind of a little hesitant aboutthis one? I guess I got to
put both cans on that. Iwould say initially it was disappointment because I
was like, you know, whythe hell are we going right tackle?
That doesn't make a whole lot ofsense, especially that high up. But
like you said, you know,there's more of the you know, videos
(10:13):
came up of highlight reels and youknow, he's got a twelve inch hand
and this guy's massive, and BillCallahan was bigger on him. I was
like, Okay, I'm starting tofeel a little better about this. Yeah,
it's really interesting. I think itwas. Tron Davenport came out and
said, like, I wish becausewe did the media mock for Jim Wyatt
(10:37):
and I don't remember who he predicted, but I think I'm probably butchering this
entire story. But like he said, I wish I had paid a little
more attention to the signs that werethere, because they were there all along.
There are people in this market thatI don't know if anybody has said
it out loud, but there arepeople in this market that think they might
(11:00):
have taken JC Latham over Joe Altif Joe Alt was available. That's how
high they were on him. Theywere sniffing around throughout the process. They
had a really good meeting with him, and apparently, you know, they
hashed out all of the transition stuffright tackle to left tackle. Jac Latham
played left tackle in high school.The only reason he played right tackle at
(11:24):
Alabama is because nick Saban felt likethey couldn't move Caden Procter. They needed
him on the left side and theyneeded to get their best five out there,
so JC switched to the right side, but apparently he was supposed to
switch back to the left tackle spotfor his for the twenty twenty three season,
but Nick Saban basically said, no, we can't put We can't put
(11:46):
Procter on the right side, sowe need you to hold that down,
and he was willing to do thatfor the betterment of the team. And
I think that's another thing that kindof speaks volumes about the guy. I
really liked his tape. I havevery few nitpicks with his game. I
think there are some instances where hisfootwork kind of gets away from him a
little bit. I think there areinstances with the depth of his past sets,
(12:11):
or maybe he's a little off themark. It's not a consistent thing.
It's every once in a while he'sa little off the mark and maybe
sets too deep and gives up theinside, or maybe doesn't set deep enough
and ends up chasing guys around theedge. But I think this is a
really good pick. I think it'sa healthy pick when you're rebuilding your franchise,
and I think that it is goingto have an exponential impact on the
(12:35):
offense. If you can just getsomewhere in between what they were last year
and an elite unit, I thinkit changes the entire complexion of the season.
So I don't really have a gripeabout it. And the more I
started drinking on Thursday night, themore I started thinking about it, Like,
(12:58):
you know what, if you cantake the power and the dominance that
he showed at right tackle, ifyou think that you can harness that and
spit it out at the left tacklespot, then you've got a dog and
you've got a guy that's gonna beyour left tackle for the next decade.
I think that's an element of thegame that Latham did have in spades,
(13:20):
the power, the aggressiveness. Ithink that's something that is innate within somebody
that you can't necessarily coach out ofsomebody. And I don't know that Olufashan
who had that. And if that'sthe case, and if you think you
can just seamlessly move him from theother side, go get your guy.
I've got no qualms with it.But what do you think about the impact
(13:41):
that potentially shoring up the left tacklespot would have on this offense as a
whole. Owen, Yeah, absolutely. I mean the last left tackle that
we got was Lawan, and yousaw how not only was he like the
guy at that position, but italso kind of le to a leadership position.
(14:01):
Yeah. They really set the tonefor what that line was going to
be and set them up for successlater on. So I think it's very
big And if that is your guyand you found that, you know that
fix is a major problem in yourgame. So let's let's talk about the
second round pick, because this isone that has been Oh man, it
has been a street fight on socialmedia this week. People are talking about
(14:26):
to and Andre Sweat, the defensivetackle out of Texas, going thirty eighth
overall in the second round. Mepersonally, I'm a fan of the pick.
I really like Devandre Sweat. Hewas thirty six overall on my big
board, so not a reach atall in my opinion. But man,
there are a lot of people thatare questioning the decision to go with a
defensive lineman in the second round.What do you think of Devandre Sweat?
(14:50):
Owen, I'm with you. Ireally like the pick. I don't know
a whole lot about him. Iknow that there were characters, concerns as
far as the DUI went and otherthings. Yeah, but and also the
way, you know, has beencalled into question that he's just too big
(15:11):
right now. But I think allthose things are things that could be worked
with, and I don't think theywent unseen by the Titans. I think
that they saw the potential and said, hey, you know what we saw
on Tate beats out this other stuffthat we think we could work with.
So I'm a fan of it.When it came to the defensive line,
it was you know, Jeffrey Simmonsand a lot of names that we just
(15:33):
didn't recognize. So I think it'sanother one that definitely addressed a big need
and I like it. Yeah,And Jeffrey simmons response to the pick is
pretty telling if you ask me.I don't know if you saw this,
but he went on Twitter after theselection and basically thanked Ran Carthon or I
don't remember if he called Rand Carthonand thanked him, but he tweeted out
something along the lines of finally gotanother dog on the defensive line, and
(15:58):
you know, I'm kind of readingthat like Buddy Tough, seeing jeff Simmons
what he was going through last yearwith that constant rotation of guys Tier Tart
not really being a reliable, consistentpresence next to him, to feel like
you've got a guy that to me, what I like about to and Andre
Sweat the most is yes, he'sbig, Yes he's a gap eater,
(16:18):
Yes he's a run stuffer, butI think he's got some really quick hands
that he can use to generate powerand pass rush from the interior, which
to me is something that we haven'treally seen with this Titans defensive line in
a long time, right, andand Jarrell Casey was doing it on his
(16:41):
own for a number of years.They never got him any help. It
looked like we were going down thatpath with Jeffrey Simmons for a little bit.
But they add to and Andre Sweat, and now you've got two guys
that are pretty pretty mean, nastydudes. Sweat more of the big space.
I love the way he plays therun game. He's just so big
(17:03):
and so strong. He plays withsuch good foot drive that he's really hard
to contain. But then you youpair in the fact that he can he
can throw a long arm at somebody, he can throw speed to power at
somebody. He's effective with his hands, a crosswipe, a swim move.
He's got these tools like this isgoing to be a formidable unit. And
like I talked about with the offensiveline, the exponential impact it has on
(17:29):
the rest of the defense. Ifyou improve the defensive front, it makes
it easier for your linebackers to cleanup against the run. It makes it
easier for your edge rushers to gethome to the quarterback because they're they're likely
going to be facing more one onones. If teams have to choose like
are you double teaming Sweat, areyou double teaming Simmons? Are you double
teaming both of them? And ifthat's the case, somebody's going to be
(17:52):
open. It really to me,it's not the sexy edge rusher. It's
not you know, the the DariusRobin, send the Chop Robinson, any
of those guys that are just goingto be lining up out wide and pinning
their ears back and rushing the quarterback. But this is a move that to
me, does signal, Hey,we are going to shore up the trenches.
We're gonna help our offensive line We'regoing to help our defensive line and
(18:15):
we're gonna build out from that.So I was ecstatic about the pick.
It sounds like you were pretty highon it too. What about the rest
of this class? Are there anyof the other picks that really stood out
to you that you're particularly stoked about. Uh, you know a lot of
people are saying our third pick linebackercorrect Cedric Gray, North Carolina. Yeah,
(18:38):
a lot of people are calling thata sleeper pick that could be a
big pick up in a Day onestarter. Yeah. I think he is.
I think he's going to be thegreen dot linebacker. And I just
I admire Ran Carthon and Brian Callahanfor coming out and saying jac Latham's going
to be a left tackle, andI kind of feel like they should do
(18:59):
the same. Just just named CedricGray the starter. He's got the range,
he's got the athleticism. Yeah,he plays hard like he fits what
this team is looking for in theirdefensive players. Like, don't don't waste
time trying to sort it out thissummer. Just get him out there running,
get reps with the ones right offthe bat. This dude, this
dude could be a real steal forthem. I I was gonna say Jarvis
(19:23):
Brownley Jr. The cornerback out ofLouvoie, he uh lands in a really
good spot in my opinion, becausethe expectations are not going to be for
him to be an impact player rightaway. But he is another guy that
is in the mold of what DenardWilson looks for in a defensive back,
and I think it's a perfect spot. He's got a little versatility. He
(19:45):
could play inside, he could playoutside. I personally, I think he's
going to be good outside. Ithink he's a good contingency plan for life
after Lugerius Sneid, life after chidobayO Woozie, or if either of those
go down with an injury. Ithink if something happens to Roger McCreery,
he could move inside to the slotand play well. And I've even heard
(20:07):
some analysts this week say he mightbe a potential candidate to move over to
safety as well, which is anotherarea that this team still needs help with.
Versatility, tenacious player that has someskill. I know he's not the
most athletic guy. That's, inmy opinion, probably the likeliest reason for
him sliding to the fifth round.There's not a lot of straight line speed
(20:27):
with him. He's not a burner, he's not the twitchiest guy, but
man, he is a really smartplayer that can undercut a route, really
superb route recognition, and he justdoesn't let you get off the line of
scrimmage, which is it's awesome tosee the vision come together for this regime
because you can see a little bitof lagerious need in Jarvis Brownlee Junior,
(20:51):
and if they've got a guy that'sany anywhere remotely close to that, this
is going to be a steal.So I really really liked the first four
picks of the draft. The finalthree not so much. Jakwan Jackson not
the wide receiver I would have selected, but I get the vision. James
Williams is another guy that he's kindof a tweener. I think he's too
(21:11):
light to play. I thought hewas like too light to play linebacker,
but not twitchy and rangy enough toplay safety. I thought he was kind
of a tweener. It sounds likethey turned in the card at linebackers,
so they're gonna add him to thatroom and if they can, you know,
bulk him up a little bit andteach him a little bit of better
play recognition, diagnosis ability, andkind of limit the space. Right if
(21:36):
you're a linebacker, you don't haveas much green grass to cover as you
do if you're a safety. Somaybe that helps the game. And the
vision is like he's gonna help outon special teams now and maybe one day
step into the linebacker rotation. Andthen Jalen Harrell pretty athletic, pretty fun,
little developmental edge rush prospect. Ithought personally, Owen, they checked
(21:56):
just about every box that they neededto check. I had been saying for
a while, like there's a reallygood crop of undrafted running backs. They
got two of them in Washington's DylanJohnson and Tennessee's Jabbari Small. I think
that really beefs up the running backroom. No issues there. Tight ends
still a bit of a question mark, but I think the way the board
(22:18):
fell, I have no issues withthem not drafting one. They added a
couple of tight ends in undrafted freeagency, really athletic kid from Temple,
and then they got one of theseIowa tight ends that you figure, you
know, follows in the footsteps ofthe other guys. He's going to be
pretty good Iowa seems to crank outgood tight ends, so I really thought
(22:40):
that they checked a lot of theboxes. But looking at the class as
a whole, Owe, what doyou think about their strategy to attack certain
positions? Do you think that theydid about as good of a job as
they could of addressing need with guysthat fit the style they want? Yeah,
I think overall, if you lookback at it, it looks like
they had a vision for what theywanted and executed it. You know,
(23:03):
there's gonna be question marks on it, and only time will tell, But
just like you said, with whatthey had, I think they worked well
with it. I'm with it,man. I was surprised by the final
three picks because they weren't guys thatwe really knew they were sniffing around,
(23:23):
other than Jakwan Jackson, because weknow I think it was Tit Tolbert.
I think it was the receiver's coachwas actually at Tulane's pro day, so
got a good look at the kid. But I wasn't aware that they were
sniffing around James Williams. I wasn'taware they were sniffing around Jalen Harrell.
You factor in the jarvis Brownlee athletictesting, Cedric Gray athletic testing to and
(23:48):
Andre Sweat, and then j C. Latham just foregoing the athletic testing altogether,
which apparently was because of an injury. By the way, I don't
know if that's been cleared up ornot, but that was reported last week
was that he didn't do the athletictesting because of a risk of aggravating an
injury. But to me, Iwas kind of surprised that Jalen Harrell was
(24:10):
the only guy that really tested wellathletically from like the explosive drills or the
explosiveness drills, the agility drills,the speed drills, stuff like that,
and it kind of made me lookat this draft class through a different lens,
like, Okay, well, they'veclearly got access to analytics that we
(24:30):
don't have. The simplistic metrics thatwe use to test athleticism usually pretty fair
indicators of success, but didn't lineup with what the Titans did, right,
the information that most of us averagejoes have access to, said,
this draft class is loaded with okayathletes, okay to maybe even poor athletes
(24:52):
from a testing standpoint, But whenyou look at the characteristics of how these
guys play. JC Latham's a dollto and Andre Sweat's a dog. Cedric
Gray is a dog. Jarvis BrownleyJunior certainly a dog. James Williams is
a dog. I got my questionsabout him as a prospect, but there's
no denying that that man will lowerthe boom on somebody in the open field.
(25:17):
So I'm I'm kind of looking atthis thinking, Okay, well,
maybe they Obviously they do have accessto information that we don't have, metrics
that we have like in game GPSstuff to track speed and all sorts of
analytics. There's a million different analyticsfirms out there that we know Chad Brinker
(25:38):
and his staff are taking advantage ofthat we quite frankly don't have the money
to get access to because we're notan NFL franchise. So I keep saying,
like, if Ran or Chad orBrian, anybody who's listening to this
podcast, just at Thesobrosnetwork at gmaildot com, slide me some account access
over there so I can do somebetter scouting next year. But I'm gonna
(26:02):
land this plane. I promise tolook at this rebuild and say, Okay,
maybe maybe the athleticism, the raw, agility, explosiveness. Testing isn't
the most important thing. Maybe themost important thing as we rebuild this entire
roster is to get tone setters.Guys that have decent enough tape that we
(26:26):
think will be good fits in ourlocker room. But guys that play hard,
play with aggression, they play afeisty brand of football. Like this
is sort of to me, I'mkind of looking at it as this is
the class that's going to come inand kind of provide the fire for this
franchise moving forward, and it ifI put it in that context, it
(26:49):
makes me warm up to the classoverall a little bit more. But what
do you what do you think aboutthat idea that this this rookie class could
be the future tone setters for theTitans. No? I agree, Uh,
I'm with you on that. Ithink, like you said, there's
no denying the dog in the pigs. Yeah, in all of really absolutely,
(27:12):
I feel like there's there's solid tapeto go behind each tape and what
you went with and why you wentwith them. So yeah, I'm with
them that they could they have potentialfor uh longevity. All right, let's
let's get to some Uh, let'sget to some user questions here. User
questions, listener questions here. Okay, this one comes to his courtesy of
(27:38):
Kablarnage. Based on how the Titansdrafted wide receiver this year, it feels
like T Higgins is being targeted duringnext offseason if D hop isn't resigned,
thoughts, I would say Owen thatI I kind of feel like DeAndre Hopkins
is going to be in this team'splans moving. I mean, at this
(28:00):
rate, at his age, Iwould be surprised if to do what he
does. I mean, like Isaid, I've said before, unless he
just completely falls off a cliff.I think he kind of likes it here.
He seems to like it here anyway, and I think the Titans have
the room to make it happen.I kind of feel like DeAndre Hopkins is
(28:23):
going to be an extension candidate nextoffseason, so I don't have a gut
feeling that he's going to be leavinganyway. And I kind of feel like
if they were gonna make T Higginshappen, this would have been the offseason
to do it. And I justdon't know. I think this is gonna
(28:45):
answer a question we're gonna We're gonnaget too later. But I kind of
feel like the Titans are putting themselvesin a position to get a premium wide
receiver in the draft next year,maybe a premium, premium edge rusher in
the draft next year. So Idon't I just don't see them shelling out
big money for for T Higgins nextoffseason when signing Hopkins might be the safer
(29:10):
route and they just paid all thatmoney to Calvin Ridley and if things go
according to plan, they're not goingto have too many like franchise cornerstone piece
type of needs in the draft nextseason. I don't really feel like T
Higgins is going to be a targetfor this team next offseason. What do
you think? Yeah, I'm withyou too. I think another aspect that
(29:36):
a lot of people have been talkingabout lately is that Tyler Boyd came in
to visit. Yeah, you know, was in Nashville yesterday, left without
signing a deal. But doesn't meanit's to no. Well, it was,
and he visited with the Titans andthe Chargers this week, but the
Chargers signed DJ Shark, so itlooks like he might not be going to
(30:00):
LA and our guy pretty Ricky onTwitter is saying that he expects uh Tyler
Boyd to sign with the Titans.So that's that's interesting there. If that
comes to fruition, Yeah, absolutelyso. I mean, I just don't
know if T Higgins is going tobe the guy they're gonna you know,
go after uh you know, butan interesting thought all the same. Daniel
(30:23):
asks a really good question besides Levis, who are the most important Titans players
this season, both for the futureand the current season. I would start
with JC Latham because, like Isaid, the offensive line was such a
dire need. You're you're switching himfrom right to left. If if this
(30:45):
move pans out, I mean thiscould like at that point, now you're
cooking with gas right, like you'vesolved your biggest need. You you can
you can really get the passing offensegoing. If you know, Will Levis
has more time to operate and guysaren't shooting gaps and crashing the line on
(31:06):
every play and putting your left tackleon his ass. I think it kind
of unlocks the rest of this offense. So if you if you've got that
pick right, man, I reallythink it can it can do Wonders for
this team. What do you whatdo you think of looking at this roster?
Who is the most important? Yeah? I think Latham's a big one.
(31:27):
I think Taj Sharp will be bigthis season. You know he's kind
of sorry, yes, Spears,I always do that, so I'm guilty
of it too, players that arejust so close to each other. Sorry
Spears. Uh. I think it'sbig. It's a big year for him.
(31:48):
You know, we're kind of leaningon him after you know, Henry's
leaving, and I know they're kindof trying to move towards a more dynamic
offense. But we need to knowis this going to be a a big
hole for us now or are wegoing to kind of is he going to
fit the new mold of what wewant out of this offense? Yeah?
I would add on defense, Ithink I would look at the edge rushers.
(32:14):
I think the secondary is suddenly,to me, on paper, one
of the best in the league.And obviously Jeffrey Simmons is Jeffrey Simmons.
If Devandre Sweat is even remotely whatwe think he's going to be, the
front is going to be pretty strong, formidable. But man, I'm curious,
like they they waited a while toaddress the edge rusher. They didn't
(32:37):
sign a free agent. It's ArdentKey who flashed at times as a pure
He's just a pure pass rusher,like that's what you bring him in to
do to get to the quarterback.But I don't think he offers a whole
lot of versatility. Harold Landry isa hammer, we know that, but
I'm just it seems like in thisday and age, it takes three guys
(32:59):
to form a rotation. And soI would say, if if Harold Landry
and or arden Key can can getback to sacking the quarterback at a high
level, I think that is thatis the weak link on on the defense
right now, in my opinion,is the the edge rush strap, the
edge rush depth. Any any thoughtson the defensive side when we're talking about
(33:23):
this question, Owen, Hmmm,I don't know. I think it's gonna
be a big year for our corners. Yeah, just once again, we're
moving into a new system and wewent for two big guys, two big
names. I want to see ifthis is going to work and if that's
the dynamic we're going to go withfair enough rowdy GC asks not a question,
(33:49):
but please make me feel better aboutChigakonkuo as tight end one. Had
a pretty rough twenty twenty three campaign, and we did nothing to address the
tight end spot outside of UDFA wouldhave liked to have seen us bring in
another proven tight end due to thelack of actual NFL experience in house rowdy.
I'm cool with jigacon Quo as tightend one. I'm I'm actually pretty
(34:13):
cool with the top two tight ends. I was a big I was a
big fan of Josh Wiley the seasonhe was having before he got hurt.
I think he could develop into areally nice, overall jack of all trades
style of tight end. And thenI think with chigacon Quo, this coaching
staff probably going to lean into hiselectricity a little bit more. You would
(34:36):
think, like he's a dynamic playmaker, great athlete in the open field.
You use that, you use that, and I don't feel like the previous
regime really did that to the fullestextent, And so that gives me hope
that chigacon Quo can take another stepforward in his development this year. I
(34:58):
also don't think I don't don't thinkI would call his twenty twenty three quote
pretty rough. I think it startedoff pretty slow, but there were times
he started flashing like this guy's goingto be something, this guy is going
to get there at the next level. What's your overall optimism like for Chicka
kon Quo as the top tight endthis season one. I'm with you too.
(35:20):
I don't feel a whole lot ofpressure on it. Yeah, he's
got the star tight end that otherteams have, but I think just the
pieces that we've added, having CalvinRidley there is going to help open things
up for him. I think thathaving a more dynamic offense is going to
help open things up for him.So I think there's optimism there. I
don't feel a big, big pressureon the tight end right now. Tyler
(35:44):
says tinfoil hat question. Do youthink Ran trades Burkes potential overproduction for an
edge rusher who hasn't lived up tothe hype, basically a change of scenery
trade, maybe like Burk's for PeytonTurner. I did like Peyton Turner coming
out of college. I thought hewould have been a I thought he would
(36:05):
be further along than he is rightnow. But I would have said the
same thing for Traylon Burks as well. I don't think man from everybody,
everybody seems to think that the TylerBoyd news is bad news for Traylon Burks.
But I think the Tyler Boyd newsis the worst news for Kyle Phillips
(36:27):
and Jawan Jackson myself, just myopinion. I can't give too much away.
I will say this Friday Night's fourforty Sports Draft party, our special
guest was Derek Mason. We gotto sit there, talk to him a
little bit, ask him some questions. Really really wonderful, fantastic evening,
(36:47):
and we talked about Traylon Burks.And again, like you had to be
in the room, that conversation stayswithin those four walls, which is a
you know, maybe that's I shouldsell next year's party a little bit there,
so you never know what's gonna happen. But I came away from the
conversation with Derek Mason thinking, Idon't know that they view him as strictly
(37:08):
a slot receiver. That's been apopular topic of discussion moving Traylon Burkes back
into the slot. I think they'regonna move him around the formation a little
bit. I don't think that heis going to be strictly a slot guy,
and so it kind of made methink that there might be some faith
in Traylon Burks to actually develop andtake a next take the next step and
(37:30):
get better. So what we're hearingin the press conferences, of course,
anything can change if the right offeris made, But I kind of feel
like Burke's is a guy that they'regoing to make a concerted effort to get
involved a little bit more because hedoes still have potential. So I I
(37:51):
don't think that Traylon Burks is goingto end up on the trading block.
What's your what's your your feeling onon Burks as we go into year three
for him? Yeah, I think, just going back to the original question,
I don't know that there's a bigmarket for him, and I know
that every time, you know,Tennessee fans get unpopular with a player,
you know, our immediate thought isto trade them, and it's like,
(38:14):
you know, trade them for what. I don't know if there's anything that
other teams see that they would wantto take a risk on. But I'm
also with you in the sense thatI don't think it's time to give up
on them yet. I think there'sstill potential productivity, and I think this
could be a big year to proveit, the general says, getting an
early fantasy question in about ty J. Spears, what's your best guess as
(38:37):
to how he has used next year? Is it a true fifty to fifty
split both he and Pollard on thefield at the same time a lot,
or do you think it's the Pollardshow and the usage splits are similar to
last year Man's I'm I'm close tolike all of the above. I would
not be surprised if they like Pollardbetter and want to give him the line's
(39:02):
share of the workload. But mygut says it's going to be closer to
fifty to fifty, And it mighteven be a situation where it's like drive
for drive, where like Spears getsone drive, then Pollard gets the next,
then Spears than Pollard and they're alternating. I wouldn't be surprised to see
both of them on the field atthe same time. I think both of
(39:22):
these guys are very similar in style, and I think that enables this team
to kind of do whatever they wantto do on offense, regardless of who's
out there. I would say forfantasy purposes. If you can get your
hands on both of them and kindof see how it plays out, I
think that would be the move.I don't know that I'm starting either of
these guys week one until I geta better sense of how Brian Callahan's going
(39:45):
to deploy these guys. I reallylike ty J Spears. I think he's
going to have a big season intwenty twenty four. But I also this
is just from having faith in thetalent and having scouted them at Tulane and
watching his rookie year, the flashesthat he showed. I think there's reason
to believe that if he does getthe opportunity, he's going to have a
(40:08):
pretty monstrous twenty twenty four. Thequestion is just are they going to use
him enough? How do they wantto deploy these guys? And if he
doesn't get the opportunity, what doeshis production ceiling then look like? And
I don't think we're gonna know untilwe're a few games into this season.
Owen, what do you think aboutty J Spears and Tony Pollard as fantasy
prospects? Uh? Yeah, Ifeel the same way that you do.
(40:32):
I think early on in the season, for sure, you're going to see
a split unless there's a just aclear cut, you know, number one
guy that comes forward as far asfantasy goes. I don't know if I
touch either of them early on,just because that role is so uncertain.
I think it will take a whilein the season for that to develop.
(40:53):
Travis asksis, what do you needto see this year in order to know
that Levis is the guy? Man? I see I'm in the camp where
I'm kind of already sold that Levisis the guy. He's at least the
guy that you want to build aroundfor the next four years, like the
rookie contract, Like this is aguy. I think you see the competitive
(41:15):
traits, you see the fire withinthe guy. He's not afraid of the
moment. He's comfortable out there.You just kind of need to get him
to rein in some of the recklessrookie mistakes. And I think if we
see that with an offseason where heis the unquestioned starter, because we do
have to remember last summer he wasquarterback three going throughout training camp, but
(41:37):
now he's the guy, and Ithink all you want to see for me
from where I sit, I justwant to see him not take a step
back. If he doesn't take astep back, I'm good. Let's go.
What do you think about will Levis? What do you need to see
from him in order to have thatfaith that he's the guy moving forward?
Yeah? I feel like he's theguy right now too. I think that,
(41:58):
you know, once again in hisoffense is kind of getting set up
around him. Now it's not,you know, up in the air limbo
like it was last offseason. AndI think just to see him progress under
an offense that's meant for him,that's designed with him as QB one,
you just want to see, likeyou said, progress, no steps back.
(42:24):
Our boy. Eldon showed back upagain this week. Most likely free
agent signed for the following positions,and why also if you think they will
sign one for those positions safety,edge, offensive tackle, wide receiver,
which he acknowledges, maybe a layupconsidering Tyler Boyd. We feel pretty confident
that Tyler Boyd's going to be aTennessee Titan at this point, and tight
(42:47):
end any other positions you think they'llthey will need looking for. So Eldon,
I kind of feel like at thispoint we might get a couple of
more free agent signings. I wouldnot be surprised if they did make a
push for a Justin Simmons or aMarcus May. We know the conversations have
been ongoing with them. The prevailingtheory right now is that the price tags
(43:08):
are too high and teams have justbeen waiting until after the draft to see
if the price is gonna come down, or you know, if they were
able to snag a safety they likein the draft, maybe they don't need
one. They don't need to spendthe money. That's the one position that
I kind of I do feel likeprobably still needs to be a priority right
(43:29):
now. Edge rusher. I thinkthere are some interesting names out there,
Carl Lawson chief among them. Iadmit that I haven't kept up with Carl
Lawson since he signed with the NewYork Jets, but the season he was
entering free agency, he was oneof the guys that I was pounding the
table for the Titans to sign,and they didn't sign him, so he
goes on to New York. Butthat name sticks out to me as well.
(43:52):
As far as the tackle goes man, I don't know, because I
feel like they feel good about J. C. Latham. They trade for
Leroy Watson maybe it was just insurance. But we're at a point in the
offseason where looking at the available offensivetackles. I know we've had had our
fun talking about Andres Pete, butthe free agent tackles that are left are
(44:15):
kind of old, retread guys thathave some durability concerns, and I just
don't know what the upside is there. Maybe maybe Andres Pete. I think
someone reported that they had been onthe phone with him. We're kind of
waiting to see how the draft goes, so maybe he's a guy that could
come in and help fortify your righttackle competition this summer. But I think
(44:38):
they're happy with j C. Lathamwide receiver. Yeah, we talked about
like Tyler Boyd, and there areprobably like five other Tyler Boyds that are
still out there right now, sohard to go wrong there. And then
tight end, Listen, I mightbe in the minority on this one.
I'm okay if they pass on aveteran tight end. I think the best
option that's still out there right nowis Logan Thomas from Washington, but he's
(45:02):
got some serious injury concerns. MercedesLewis is out there, would be I
would be fine with either of thoseguys signing, but I also I'm pretty
high on Chig and Josh Wiley,so I'm I'm in the minority of,
Hey, let's let these guys,these undrafted guys duke it out in training
camp, see if a third tightend emerges, and ultimately we'll get to
(45:25):
My overarching theme with this is thatmaybe they add a safety relatively soon.
But I think the free agent spotsleft are guys that you kind of watch
the waiver wire in July and Augustand you see who's being cut from other
teams that you might be able toadd, and I kind of feel like
we're going to save a few openspots for that. But free agency owen
(45:49):
any particular position that you think theyshould They should be hitting pretty hard right
now. I kind of I hateto keep echoing you, but I feel
the same way I think. Outsideof safety, there's just not a lot
of moves to make. Honestly,Eldon follows up with immediate needs you think
will need to be addressed for twentytwenty five, just based off what they
(46:10):
have covered in twenty twenty four.Yeah, this was the question I alluded
to earlier. I think they've positionedthemselves pretty nicely for twenty twenty five to
get a premium wide receiver in thedraft and to get a premium edge rusher
in the draft. Maybe free agencyis in play for the edge rusher.
I haven't looked at the class fornext year, but I know next year's
(46:34):
class is pretty loaded up on defense, and so I think I think they've
done a great job this offseason sofar of checking boxes. And now we're
if unless these picks obviously the bigcaveat here, If these picks are just
total bust, then you got tokind of, you know, start from
scratch there. But if they've hiton a few of these guys, they're
(46:59):
going to start getting in position totake the premium luxury picks. Right.
You might not necessarily need a widereceiver, but you're in a spot where
maybe Hopkins does leave, maybe CalvinRidley doesn't work out, none of these
young guys end up emerging, soyou you go get the wide receiver edge.
(47:20):
You know, maybe ardent Key andHarold Landry don't work out, it's
it's another need for this team.You can go get a premium guy.
That's kind of where I'm leaning,right, now, but what would you
what would you say to this one? Yeah, from what's come out so
far, from too early project projecteddraft classes, it does seem like a
(47:43):
defensive heavy one. Yeah, soit might be a good chance to go
edge. It's probably one that we'renot going to fill this year, so
I could I could see that asthe spot we go for sure. Ellen's
last question, which of your favoritedraft prospects went to a great situation for
them and which which went to aplace you think they may fail. So
(48:05):
I've got two answers for the favorites. I really love Dominic Pooney going to
San Francisco, a really versatile offensivelineman that might take a little bit of
time to develop. I don't thinkhe's going to be needed right away in
San Francisco, but he's a guythat can can pitch in at center,
he can pitch in at guard.He might even be able to play tackle.
It might be worth getting a lookat him there. But this is
(48:25):
a guy that, man, Idon't think if you're Dominic Pooney, I
don't think he could have landed ina better spot. I think he's a
really good player, and I thinkhe's going to be I think we're going
to look up in a couple ofyears time and be like, man,
this is this is a guy,this is a this is a dude that's
going to have some longevity in theNFL. I also really like my deep
cut Travis Glover, landing with GreenBay, plays left tackle. I don't
(48:49):
know what the prospects are of himmoving to the right side, but I
think having him and Jordan Morgan thatthey drafted in the first round two really
good prospects to have on the leftside, and you can kind of let
both of those guys decide, Okay, who's going to be the guard,
Who's going to be the tackle ofthe future. But I liked that spot
for Travis Glover because I think he'sa much better prospect than he was given
(49:10):
credit for, and I think he'sgot a shot to win one of those
two jobs. As for my leastfavorites, we're gonna stay in Green Bay.
I really loved safety Evan Williams outof Oregon safety Katan Oladappo out of
Oregon State. Both of those guyswere on my Hidden Gym's list in the
draft guide. Both of them endedup on the Green Bay roster along with
(49:31):
Georgia safety Javon Bullard. So GreenBay drafted three safeties. So what I
hate about that is that one ofmy guys that I really loved in this
draft class is probably going to bethe odd man out. And I don't
know if maybe there has been sometalk that maybe Ola Dappo, because of
his frame, because of his size, maybe switching to linebacker. I wouldn't
(49:54):
do that personally. I think he'sgood enough to play safety in the league.
But I kind of feel unless thesetwo dudes somehow edge out Javon Bullard,
who is a higher draft pick,I feel like one of these guys
is gonna be the odd man outand I hate to see that because I
liked both of their tape. Okay, final question. Final question comes to
(50:15):
us from Canadian Titan. That's ourbuddy Ethan. Should picking your nose be
frowned upon? It feels really greatsometimes and we all know that everyone does
it. Is it time to bebrave and start digging for gold in public?
Owing your thoughts? Okay? Soyeah, I agree with part of
that. Everybody picks their nose andit's just something that everybody does. Does
(50:37):
that mean do it all the timein public. No, you know,
be discreet about it. But youknow, if you do catch somebody picking
their nose, don't give them thethird degree. You know, maybe they
add an itchy booger up there.I say, let it go, but
be discreet about it. Yeah.Maybe we don't like celebrate it right,
Maybe we don't. Maybe we stillhave some reservations about winning where we do
(51:00):
it. But I will say,like, yes, there is. There's
nothing like that feeling when you're allclogged up and then you can just reach
up there and the relief that comeswhen you can alleviate the pressure and you
can breathe again. There's nothing likeit. But you know, I don't
know. I still think I'm personallya ways away from feeling comfortable just out
(51:22):
there slinging boogers all over the place. But you know what I get the
I get the sentiment we can anythingthat empowers people. I'm I'm for it.
Well that's it, Owen, Thatis it. That is all we've
got for this week's episode. Anyparting shots before we get on out of
here today. No, man,I'm excited to sit through the summer and
(51:45):
hear all the theories on how theseason's going to go. I'd take that
back. I'm not looking forward tothat. I'm ready for football. But
in the meantime I meet I guessI'll just watch the baseball and give ready
for Paul well Man. We've gotoff season content coming up again. It's
another year of off season content wherewe're going to dig into Titan's history.
(52:08):
We're gonna talk about some of themore broader topics like it's a it's a
fun time of year for the UnofficialTitans Podcast. So I'm looking forward to
that. I gotta I gotta shootyou over the list of topics for this
summer and we could start prepping forthat. But that's gonna do it for
us. Thank you all for tuningin. As a reminder, you can
(52:28):
get my coverage of the Tennessee Titansand the NFL Draft. That's stacking the
inbox dot Com. Five dollars amonth is a tremendous value. You get
the Draft guide if you want toread up on my reports on all of
the Titans draft class, they're allincluded in this year's guide. I wasn't
surprised like I was with Coltondale lastyear. I did it successfully you know,
(52:50):
mission accomplished there, so you cancheck that out. Stacking the Inbox
dot Com, we've got merch includingour roll the Dice, Play the Board
t shirts. Still, we'll gotsome Coach Better Playbetter shirts, but I
think those are going to be outof production before long. But that's up
sobroshop dot com and rate Review.Subscribe to the Unofficial Titans Podcast. Wherever
(53:10):
you take in your shows, We'reout there in these Internet streets. Baby,
we ain't too hard to find foroutspoken Owen Reed, I am big
natural Stony Keeley And until next time, you stay classic Titans fans
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