Tennessee Titans Thread

Discussion in 'The Mainboard' started by Pharoh, May 1, 2015.

  1. mustang66

    mustang66 Well-Known Member
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    It’s a miracle we are only down 7
     
  2. DaveGrohl

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    Talk about someone who I don’t want on the team next year. Butler is garbage
     
  3. DaveGrohl

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    From 3rd and 18 to a fucking touchdown. Thanks, Butler.
     
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  4. DaveGrohl

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    Best part is that Hilton was short of the marker anyway :laugh:
     
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  5. Cornelius Suttree

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    Henry with a 1,000-yard season to his name

     
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  6. DaveGrohl

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    Fuck you, Gabbert. How the hell is this guy still in the league? We can’t find someone better? I don’t believe it.
     
  7. DaveGrohl

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    If he missed that throw I would have had an aneurysm
     
  8. Cornelius Suttree

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    can Casey please please suit up for the fourth quarter? Man we need to hit Luck a few times
     
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  9. Cornelius Suttree

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  10. Cornelius Suttree

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    Mannnnnnnn what a terrible decision
     
  11. UncleItchyBalls

    UncleItchyBalls Fan of: The Tide
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    This is a win with Mariota...
     
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  12. You and You

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    Jesus, Gabbert
     
  13. You and You

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    It pains me this garbage Colts team is going to be in the playoffs again.
     
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  14. Cornelius Suttree

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    Draft should be fun to follow. A piece along the OL, in the secondary and at WR/TE could go a long way
     
  15. nexus

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    Maybe don't lose to them. Twice.
     
  16. You and You

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    How in the world does Gabbert playimg both games against the Colts?
     
  17. You and You

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    Have to go O line and WR, CB. Picling anything else early will continue the head scratching this franchise never fails to offer.
     
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  18. Fecta23

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    I would go edge rusher over WR and CB. Butler is frustrating for what we paid him, but he is decent. Agree that OL needs to be priority number 1.
     
  19. Walt Disney

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  20. DaveGrohl

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    Hey Vrabel, this is where a veteran coach would chew the ref’s head off.
     
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  21. Damion

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    5 penalties is a row is a fucking joke
     
  22. Damion

    Damion Fan of: Firing Butch Jones
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    lol Gabbert is pure trash
     
  23. Cornelius Suttree

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    9-7 three straight years
     
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  24. Daddy Rabbit

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    Anyone have any info about getting tickets or whatever to the NFL draft?
     
  25. Damion

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    on the bright side its the first time we have had winning seasons 3 times in a row
     
  26. DaveGrohl

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    Looking back now, how bad did Jerome Boger fuck us with that Dolphins game?
     
  27. Cornelius Suttree

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    from Travis Haney at The Athletic

    Mariota’s season was a flat circle: Following a mysterious, deflating ending, where the Titans and their QB go from here


    The image defined the 2018 Titans. It was a visual to sum up a year-long journey and 17 meandering fall and winter weeks — a trek that ended with nine wins, seven losses and no playoffs for Tennessee’s pro football team.

    This year could have provided some level of clarity for this franchise regarding its quarterback. Instead, that final, lasting illustration left everyone involved with only more questions and additional uncertainty.

    Marcus Mariota stood near midfield late Sunday night, hands shoved into the pockets of his sweatshirt, with the hood raised over his head to shield him from a passing rain shower.

    He stood as Mariota typically stands, understated and unassuming. He can look that way in a uniform. Out of it and in team-issued sweats? He was often lost in the surrounding sea of bustle and bodies, indistinguishable at times among those on the home sideline at Nissan Stadium.

    That’s where and how Tennessee’s maybe-franchise quarterback watched this season effectively end, with backup Blaine Gabbert throwing a horrendous fourth-quarter interception to help Indianapolis escape with a win and the AFC’s final playoff berth.

    As Gabbert’s pass incredibly traveled 12 yards short of the intended target, finding the hands of a leaping Colts defender, Mariota’s eyes stayed level as Kenny Moore II returned the ball into Tennessee territory. And then his head dropped.

    There was nothing he could do. Yet, at that very moment, he was taking the blame because he was watching and not playing. It’s a recurring story. And a fascinating story. And a maddening story.

    It’s been an amazing thing to observe this season: Perhaps the quietest, most polite player in the NFL has somehow driven a stake down the middle of a fan base — by not doing something, by not playing football.

    The decision for him to sit Sunday night, however it was determined, only further split those emotional in their opinions about someone who outwardly shows little to no emotion at all.

    Sunday drew new lines in the battlefield for a subject who has zero interest in fighting about anything.

    Mariota is so protective of his personal space that he regularly avoids publicity opportunities from the team’s in-house writing and social media staff. Even a photo of him and his pets is too invasive, too much of a window into who he is. Mariota has to have the most frustrated, idle publicist team in all of professional sports.

    All the fuss is unnecessary, he reasons. He’d rather play and have the play do the talking. But, you know, that requires playing. When he doesn’t, or when there’s even the threat that he will not play, it becomes a turf war — and the Mariota dissenters are getting louder and growing in number.

    The thoughts are sometimes misguided. (He’s soft.) They’re sometimes extreme, and absurdly so. (Cut him.) On the other side, they’re too lenient at times. (Lay off him.)

    But no one’s really right and no one’s really wrong. There are no easy answers. There may be no answers at all for a while, if ever. There’s a real catch-22 regarding No. 8.

    Ideally, Mariota would have put up hulking numbers in another playoff-destined season in 2018, making Tennessee’s decision easy for such a universally liked and respected person. But this is about the player and not the person; it’s business. Instead, the ultimate choice will be deferred via Mariota’s 2019 option, a final stopgap to buy as much time as possible.

    It’s one thing that Susie in Sparta and Dennis in Dickson are all over the map about Mariota’s future. But what if you’re GM Jon Robinson or the Adams ownership group? What if, at some point in the near future, you’re the one actually deciding whether to make that pen stroke for $20-25 million a year? That’s a whole lot of money and it’s a heavy dose of real life; it’s not some Twitter battle about a quarterback someone keeps picking on their fantasy team, only to be continually disappointed.

    Even if you’re a season-ticket holder, and that is important, your investment pales in comparison to the monster call soon facing the Titans. It wasn’t his fault, but Mariota didn’t help the front office in 2018. We’re coming to a profound juncture without any real sense for the correct move. Only a limited sample size remains, with tension building in the interim. Hell, the tension is already here. It’s been here and it’s building.

    In the immediacy, we’re left to wonder exactly what kind of shape Mariota’s neck/shoulder/arm/elbow/hand/something are in and if there will be any long-term impact from this season. We know his general well being is why he was held out Sunday, according to reports, but we don’t know when or how his condition might improve in time.

    That part will likely remain mysterious, too, since Mariota’s penchant for privacy will only continue to shroud him in secrecy.

    After the loss against Indy, Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel — handed a real cluster many times in his first season as a head coach, including Mariota’s half-dozen mystery weeks — didn’t want to talk much about the quarterback who didn’t play. Or why he didn’t play.

    “I’m not going to go into much detail on where he’s at physically and the decision (not to play),” Vrabel said. “I’m not going to sit here and discuss Marcus.”

    Later, he did add a little bit more. But only a little bit.

    “It was just a decision that a lot of people came together and made,” Vrabel said. “He wasn’t out there tonight. He wasn’t available.

    “All players want to play. Every single guy wants to play. That’s why they’re in this business. That’s why they do what they do. Sometimes that’s not always possible.”

    The timeline is still foggy. A couple of players indicated that they learned Sunday morning — like the rest of the world — that Mariota would likely be held out.

    “It shocked me,” said linebacker Kamalei Correa, who grew up with Mariota in Honolulu. “Being the starting quarterback, being in such a huge role, that kind of hit us.

    “As soon as I saw him in the locker room (Sunday), I was like, ‘Look, man. I love you. I’m always here for you.’”

    During the pregame, Mariota was standing alone at the 20-yard line while his teammates rallied and huddled in the end zone. He looked and seemed worlds away from the rest of the Titans.

    “I know how much it hurt him. It hurt us not seeing him out there,” said center Ben Jones, one of the players closest to Mariota. “We want the guy out there at all times. We love him as a brother. He’s our best friend. We hate to see him not get to go out there.”

    The season began with an injured Mariota helplessly watching Gabbert try to lead a comeback in Miami. It ended with the same story against a division opponent that the Titans cannot, for the life of them, seem to beat.

    The 25-year-old dealt with some sort of nerve issue throughout the season, going back to Week 1, though the team has indicated that the Week 11 and Week 16 “stingers” were not the same as the initial injury.

    Regardless, Mariota missed almost four full games over six weeks of the season. He sat all of the Week 2 win against Texans and the Week 17 win-and-get-in showdown against the Colts.

    He missed most of the second half against the Dolphins in the opener, the first quarter or so against the Jaguars in Week 3, roughly the second half of the first Colts game — and then nearly the same amount of time last week against the Redskins.

    The Titans went 3-3 in those Mariota-impacted games, another fitting batch of scrambled facts that leave no clear-cut sense of what to make of Mariota’s season or his future.

    In 2018, Mariota set the franchise record for completion percentage (68.9). His 7.6 yards per attempt were back in the neighborhood of his peak 2016 season. His 11 touchdowns were nothing to write home about, but he had eight of them after the Week 8 bye — as he was getting healthy from the initial nerve inflammation and the offense was finding its way with a first-time play-caller.

    Mariota didn’t play poorly. He led the Titans to resounding, franchise-lifting wins against three playoff-bound teams: the Eagles, Cowboys and Patriots. (Two of those teams played in last season’s Super Bowl.)

    The problem, quite clearly, is that he just didn’t play enough.

    Do the Titans win Sunday night with Mariota? The odds would have at least increased, as evidenced by the line moving about 2 points after the reports surfaced.

    When Gabbert threw that pick, it was 24-17 and confidence was rising on the Tennessee sideline. And then, just like that, it was all over.

    It was the first Sunday night game in Nashville since 2009 and maybe the biggest game, generally, in about the same span. And yet fans woke up Sunday morning to the deflation that Mariota would be out.

    A franchise that’s had its share of hope and then subsequent dismantling of hope — and so often against the Colts — was dealt another blow.

    “Battered fan syndrome is real with this team,” one fan said in the parking lot before the game.

    One woman standing behind the Titans bench during the pregame was holding a Mariota sign she’d made. Thirty minutes before kickoff, she was bawling. She was ugly crying and didn’t care who saw. She’d bought a ticket and wanted to see Mariota. But not like this. Not in the sweats. Not for this game.

    It’s football, sure, but this stuff matters to a lot of people.

    And it matters to Mariota, who was relegated to be a spectator for, by far, the biggest game of the season. He got out of the postgame locker room about as quickly and quietly as he could, shuffling past reporters who were trying to get into the room. He limped a little bit, favoring an injured foot — what was reported Sunday as a partially torn plantar fascia, something that’s extremely painful for anyone not trying to play quarterback in the NFL.

    “It’s tough, losing like this,” said Correa, a few lockers down from the spot Mariota had just left. “His last game was last week (against Washington). It’s a hard way to go out.

    “But this is about more than football. That’s my brother, man.”

    Someone from Alabama — and not their native Honolulu — also called Mariota a brother. In a thick Southern accent, Jones did so repeatedly.

    Jones also said he calls Mariota every day during the offseason, even waking him up “at the crack of dawn” when Mariota is visiting Hawaii. Jones will no doubt spend some of that time in the coming months lifting up and encouraging Mariota as he heads toward a season that will decide his entire future in the NFL.

    “I just know what he puts into it and he doesn’t get the credit he could sometimes,” Jones said. “He’s just a tough son of a bitch and I’m glad he’s on our team.”
     
  28. Cornelius Suttree

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    Exit Interview: Tennessee Titans
    Tennessee came within one game of the playoffs under first-year head coach Mike Vrabel. The team has a lot to build upon, but not until it answers the Marcus Mariota question.

    What Went Right
    It’s been a roller coaster year for the Titans, but they were one game away from the postseason and have now posted their third straight winning season. The only other teams that currently have such a streak are the Seahawks, Chiefs, Patriots, Cowboys, and Steelers. That’s pretty elite company for Tennessee, and there is a lot to build on considering this was head coach Mike Vrabel’s first year at the helm.

    Also, Derrick Henry treated the once-vaunted Jaguars defense like they were a pee-wee team, embarrassing a divisional rival. So that has to feel good for Titans fans.

    What Went Wrong
    How long can the Titans wait for Marcus Mariota? This is the quarterback’s fourth year in the league, and for the fourth straight year, his season can basically be described as ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

    New offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur, who came over from the Rams, was supposed to revitalize Mariota. But the Titans QB—and the team’s entire offense—has been wildly inconsistent this season. Mariota’s had five games with a passer rating of about 100, but also four games below 75, and entering Week 17, the Titans had the seventh-highest variance in weekly performance on offense, per Football Outsiders. Mariota came into Sunday 22nd in passer rating, 24th in QBR, and 27th in adjusted net yards per attempt. He has thrown nearly as many interceptions (eight) as touchdowns (11).

    To be fair to Mariota, he’s dealt with numerous injuries this season, beginning with an elbow injury in Week 1 that left him with a tingling sensation and numbness. This is becoming a pattern—Mariota has missed time in all four of his seasons. Here’s a list of the maladies he’s had in his career:

    • October 18, 2015: MCL sprain
    • December 20, 2015: MCL sprain
    • December 24, 2016: Fibula fracture
    • October 1, 2017: Hamstring and ankle injuries
    • September 9, 2018: Elbow injury
    • December 22, 2018: Stinger
    How can a team evaluate a player who is constantly missing time? The Titans have already picked up Mariota’s fifth-year option so he’ll be under contract in 2019, but teams usually extend their quarterbacks before the final year of a contract, so the Titans are set up for a big decision this offseason. The team must take a risk either way — the Titans can lock themselves in to an unproven passer by handing him a considerable contract, or let him play out the fifth-year option and potentially franchise-tag him in 2020. It’s not an enviable position to be in.

    Free Agency
    With $44 million in projected cap space, the Titans have the 13th-most money to spend in the NFL, though they may have to re-sign at least a few guys. In particular, outside linebackers Brian Orakpo and Derrick Morgan could be a priority. Both are set to hit the open market, and if the Titans were to let them go they’d have a huge hole in their pass rush, an area that they probably need to upgrade anyway. It is likely that at least one of these guys will return.

    After that, the Titans could look to outside help to fill some of their team needs. Getting a pass catcher to pair with Corey Davis is at the top of the list, and Golden Tate will be the best player on the market. If the bidding for his services gets too pricey though, Tennessee could always turn to the draft.

    The Draft
    The Titans don’t have their sixth-round pick next year but have all the rest of their selections, and will pick in the mid-first round in April. Tennessee could use its first pick on any number of pass catchers: Arizona State’s N’Keal Harry, Ole Miss’s D.K. Metcalf, NC State’s Kelvin Harmon, and Oklahoma’s Marquise Brown could all be first-round picks. The Titans could also address a number of other positions, including outside linebacker and their interior offensive line.

    https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2018/12/30/18162395/exit-interview-tennessee-titans
     
  29. Cornelius Suttree

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    from Joe Rexrode at The Tennessean (that's our local paper, for you Oregon bandwagon fans)

    Andrew Luck kills Titans again, but Marcus Mariota is the issue as the season ends

    The Titans’ season is over, done in Sunday night by a familiar nemesis and a better opponent and an injury-shredded roster, and despite the best atmosphere at Nissan Stadium in years.

    Those rowdy Titans fans who stepped up would have witnessed a stirring achievement, a fifth straight win to finish 10-6 and in the playoffs despite the absence of Marcus Mariota and his troubling neck/elbow/nerve situation, despite the absence of defensive star Jurrell Casey and several other starters. This would have been a first win over Andrew Luck in 11 tries, coming back from deficits of 14-0 and 24-10. This would have put Mike Vrabel back in the NFL Coach of the Year discussion. This would have been remembered as The Jayon Brown Game.

    But it didn’t happen because Luck controlled things – overcoming a terrible pick six to Brown that briefly changed the game – in a 33-17 rout, giving the Colts the AFC’s last playoff spot instead.

    "At the end of the day when you're not in the playoffs, it's a disappointing season," safety Kevin Byard said, succinctly and accurately. And now we can return to what we were doing all day before the Titans and Colts kicked off in a rare win-and-in finale for two teams. You know, the same thing we’ve been doing for much of the past couple of years.

    We can get back to arguing about the future of Mariota with this franchise. The entirety of the 2018 season has made that picture only cloudier.

    Frankly, the past couple of weeks have changed my feeling on it. Maybe the same is true for you. Maybe you’re all in for Mariota and believe his latest injury is no big deal, even though an ESPN report Sunday morning said an “independent spine specialist” told the Titans that further damage in this game could “put Mariota's ability to throw the football at significant risk beyond this weekend.”

    Maybe you’ve been a hardcore Mari-doubtah all along and feel vindicated in screaming for the Titans to move on from him and start over.

    Either way, I looked out onto that field from the press box Sunday night and saw one position player I’d call a lock for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That’s No. 12 in White, who threw for 285 yards and three touchdowns to become the first NFL quarterback in the modern era to be 11-0 against one opponent. He led his team to long touchdown drives on his first two possessions, totaling 182 yards and nearly 17 minutes of possession, and the Colts were never really in jeopardy despite his brutal mistake to Brown.

    A year ago it looked like Luck’s throwing shoulder might never be the same again, and now he has the AFC’s biggest surprise team – the consensus preseason pick for last in the AFC South – back in the postseason and pointing toward bigger things in the future.

    The Colts will travel to play division champ Houston. Luck and Deshaun Watson. Two quarterbacks the football fans of Indianapolis and Houston can envision bringing a championship home at some point.

    And in Nashville? Sorry, but how can the football fans in this town have visions of anything but scrounging for future playoff berths when their guy was watching from the sideline Sunday in a Titans hat and sweatshirt?

    Wondering whether Mariota ever will graduate from good to great is one thing – and considering the relative lack of weapons around him in four seasons and the terrible protection he’s received this year, it’s smart to reserve judgment. Wondering whether he’ll stay healthy enough to take that step is another thing. A growing thing.

    And let’s be clear: Anyone calling Mariota “soft” or proclaiming that late, great former Titans quarterback Steve McNair would have played in the same situation deserves to be stifled by the mute button. How stupid. Right around as stupid as the “Colts fear Blaine Gabbert more than Mariota” stuff we were hearing from some Colts media before the game.

    (If that’s true, by the way, the Colts should actually be forced to forfeit their playoff spot. Give it to the Steelers, Frank Reich.)

    As for McNair, he missed games too. And he played in an era when the words “concussion protocol” would have earned the same puzzled stare as the words “President Donald Trump.” Even in those caveman days of the NFL, I’m guessing the prospect of permanent nerve damage might have given McNair and his camp pause.

    That does not explain why Mariota practiced at all during the week, or why his previous injuries weren’t deemed long-term threats and this one is, and there is no clarity on what this means moving forward. Can this heal completely and become an afterthought, like the broken leg and knee, hamstring, foot and shoulder injuries he has suffered in his NFL career?


    Vrabel had little to say on the situation, which was no surprise, while Byard said he was hopeful all week of Mariota playing and didn't know he wouldn't until "everybody else knew."

    "Marcus is the ultimate competitor. I know it killed him," Titans left tackle Taylor Lewan said of Mariota missing the game. "I'm proud of him, and I'm proud of Vrabel for making that decision. Because I don't know if Marcus would have made a smart decision for himself, because he cares about the boys that much."

    Pressed on the idea that this was Vrabel's decision, Lewan backpedaled with this response: "I really don't know."

    Of more importance is Mariota's healing from here. The Titans have picked up Mariota’s option for 2019, when he will earn $20.9 million unless the club negotiates a long-term deal with him instead. I’ve long expected that and believed it the right move. But I think the end of this season means you have to let him play out next season and see what happens.

    And if you’re a Titans fan right now I think you’re proud of your team’s fight and this city’s support Sunday night. And glum about where things are going.

    https://www.tennessean.com/story/sp...ndrew-luck-nfl-playoffs-scenarios/2415021002/
     
  30. JohnLocke

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    Well that was a huge bummer to experience last night. It's a bizarre transition for me to go from Bama one night to the Titans the next.

    If there is anything to look up about it's that Henry found his legs the last half of the season and ran with a purpose. Hope that continues next year, Mariota bounces back from whatever this year was, and we stay healthy on defense.

    As far as the draft I desperately want a corner but I doubt the two ones we would want in the first last to us in Greedy and Baker. I've seen projections of Montez Sweat who is a monster edge rusher which I wouldn't be upset with. Orakpo and those guys are getting up there in age. No WRs that jump off the page to take in the 1st and I'm not sure about any OL guys.
     
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  31. DaveGrohl

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    Would not be upset to see us go with any of: WR, G/C, Edge, CB. Just depends on who’s available. I also haven’t seen a list of likely free agents we should target.
     
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  32. Daddy Rabbit

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  33. Daddy Rabbit

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    Colts would have owned the tiebreaker at 10-6.
     
  34. Cornelius Suttree

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    So QB is now very much in play with early draft picks because Mariota has proven so fragile
     
  35. DaveGrohl

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    BUT STILL
     
  36. Cornelius Suttree

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    from Barnwell's 17,000-word recap of lessons learned from the 2018 season:

    When a team falls in love with a quarterback, it stays in love

    The Titans, meanwhile, saw their playoff hopes come to an end when Marcus Mariota wasn't able to suit up for Sunday's play-in game against the Colts. The Titans should be applauded for making the prudent decision and protecting their quarterback's long-term health by sitting him out with a stinger, although it's unclear whether Mariota would have been effective if he had played. It might be too generous of a stance toward the Titans -- remember that they inserted Mariota as an injury replacement for Gabbert earlier this season despite the fact that Mariota was initially kept out with nerve damage in his elbow -- but even a playoff berth isn't worth Mariota's career.

    At the same time, though, health is a skill Mariota lacks. He has now missed games in each of his first four pro seasons with various injuries, and there doesn't seem to be an obvious solution beyond getting luckier. The Titans have cycled through offensive coordinators and invested in weapons for Mariota, but the best scheme for the former Oregon star is also one likely to put him in harm's way as a runner.

    Just as the Buccaneers need to reconcile the Winston of the last three-plus years with the guy who has been promising over the past month, the Titans need to accept that this is going to be Mariota's baseline. As tempting as it is to count on a 16-game season from Mariota, the far more likely scenario is that he misses two games and is banged up playing through another. Is Mariota good enough for the Titans when he is healthy to justify a big market despite missing those two to three games per year?

    The lesson: Self-evaluate well and invest in a high-quality backup. Yes, better than Gabbert, who looked hopelessly lost while trying to hit open receivers in a would-be playoff game Sunday. If both these teams want to stick with their young quarterbacks -- and it appears that they do, at least into 2019 -- they probably need to invest more in the backup position than just about anybody else in the league. Mariota and Nick Foles sounds a lot more imposing than Mariota and Gabbert, even if it costs the Titans $10 million per season for Foles.
     
  37. Cornelius Suttree

    Cornelius Suttree the smallest crumb can devour us
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    Orakpo retiring after 10 years in the league



     
  38. Daddy Rabbit

    Daddy Rabbit obviously silly and not productive
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  39. Cornelius Suttree

    Cornelius Suttree the smallest crumb can devour us
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    Mariota only needs rest, not surgery per ESPN

    a couple stories below from John Glennon at The Athletic

    sounds like Josh Kline is the #1 weak spot on the OL when you account for Conklin's injury

    Kenny Vaccaro was a good fit this season, but his future with the Titans is complicated

    When starting safety Johnathan Cyprien suffered a torn ACL early in training camp this year, the Titans appeared to be in dire straits.

    They needed a player who wasn’t just a stop-gap replacement for a few weeks but a capable starter for the entire season.

    It took just two days to find the right fit, as former first-round pick Kenny Vaccaro stepped virtually seamlessly into the role. He proved a quality complement to Kevin Byard throughout the season, a heavy-hitting tone-setter who didn’t look out of place in coverage.

    So, the question now is this: What comes next for Vaccaro and the Titans?

    A 27-year-old pending free agent, Vaccaro has made it clear he wants to remain in Nashville, where he found a comfort zone after five up-and-down seasons in New Orleans.

    But will the Titans seek to re-sign him? His play and the chemistry he developed with the team’s other defensive backs would seemingly suggest so.

    But it’s a complicated situation.

    Cyprien, who signed a four-year, $25 million contract before the 2017 season, is expected to return from his injury in 2019. So, assuming the Titans intend to keep Cyprien, would they be willing to add a third safety looking for starter money, a contract that might be similar to that of Cyprien? And if they did, would there be enough playing time for both Cyprien and Vaccaro to validate two such deals?

    “You see most of these teams having three-safety looks these days, so I wouldn’t mind having three safeties out there,” Byard said. “You can bring another safety in the box as a linebacker to cover these good running backs and tight ends they have nowadays. You can just do a lot more when you have a lot of great players on the back end. So, the more, the merrier.”

    A new guy in town
    The 15th overall selection in the 2013 draft — chosen 18 spots before Jacksonville chose Cyprien — Vaccaro found himself a free agent last March when the Saints opted against giving him a second contract.

    He’d finished his career in New Orleans on injured reserve, dealing with groin and wrist injuries.

    Vaccaro spent the next five months wondering where he would land next. But if the prolonged wait caused him any anxiety, he didn’t show it on the Titans’ practice field. Vaccaro made an immediate impression in Music City both on and off the field.

    “When he first came in, when he walked in the room for that very first meeting, he just fit in,” Titans defensive coordinator Dean Pees said. “And (his) first day of practice, I remember there were some pads popping out there and he was one of them. All of a sudden, we’ve got a new guy in town here.”

    Added cornerback Malcolm Butler: “As soon as he got here, he made a play — one of the most physical things we saw in camp. You knew he came in with a chip on his shoulder, coming off injury and all that.”

    Vaccaro said he felt a comfort level right away, in part because he already knew teammates like Brian Orakpo and Logan Ryan. He quickly grew close to Byard as well. But Vaccaro also gave plenty of credit to Pees, who seemed to know just how to use him.

    “He’s just one of the best coaches I’ve ever been around, as far as play-calling, as far as coaching, as far as player input,” Vaccaro said. “He’s coached secondary for a long, long time. So if things go wrong, he’s not the first to pin it on our group. He’s very secondary friendly. He kind of understands the positions and the situations we get in in the games.”

    ‘He’s something we need on this defense’
    Vaccaro missed three games this season because of a dislocated elbow, but he produced over 60 tackles, adding two sacks, two tackles for loss and an interception.

    The analytics website Pro Football Focus gave him a season-ending grade of 66.4, the second-highest of his six-year career and higher than Cyprien’s in 2017 (56.8). Opposing quarterbacks posted a rating of 91.8 when throwing at Vaccaro this year, compared to the 133.3 rating that quarterbacks posted against Cyprien in 2017, according to PFF.

    Vaccaro’s PFF grade didn’t stack up particularly well compared to his peers this year, as it ranked outside the top 40 for safeties who got more than 300 snaps. But teammates and coaches liked Vaccaro’s game, which helped the Titans’ defense finish eighth overall in the league — sixth against the pass.

    “I think we paired together great,” Byard said. “This guy, he’s a physical guy, an aggressive player, but he can also cover as well.

    “So, it’s not one of those deals where I had to always stay deep and be in the post. We can always swap and do different things. So, I think it’s always great to have a safety who has a lot of versatility the way Kenny does.”

    Vaccaro did nothing to downgrade his reputation as a “thumper,” either, making one of his more memorable plays during a 17-0 win over the New York Giants. The Brownwood, Texas native lost his helmet fending off Giants blockers but stuck his nose into the pile to help stop a running play nonetheless.

    “His helmet comes off, and he still wants to go chase after the ball,” Byard said of Vaccaro, who sustained a concussion on the play. “You can’t tell me that guy wasn’t zoned in on that play. So, he’s a tone-setter. He’s something we need on this defense.”

    ‘It would be a blessing to come back’
    Vaccaro hopes he’s found a home with the Titans, who were 9-4 with him in the lineup this season, 0-3 without him.

    “If you’re winning, everybody gets praised,” Vaccaro said. “It’s not so good when you come to a team — you’re a new acquisition — and you’re losing.”

    Vaccaro said before the Titans’ regular-season finale that the team hadn’t engaged in any new contract talks with him, but that was to be expected during the season. There are still more than two months until free agency starts, so both sides have plenty of time to reach a deal — if it makes sense.

    It does to Vaccaro, who’s taken to re-tweeting the dozens of fans who’ve expressed hope — via social media — that the Titans keep him on board.

    “We’ve been great on defense — and it’s a great locker room, great coaching staff, great organization from the owner down,” Vaccaro said. “It would be an honor and a blessing to come back and play here.

    “You never know how free agency plays out, though. Last year, I waited that whole time and then you sign with a team and start three days later. So, I don’t have any expectations. But it would be a blessing to come back here and play.”


    Same record, but things changed (for better and worse) for the Titans in Season 1 of the Mike Vrabel era

    When the Titans hired Mike Vrabel to replace Mike Mularkey last January, the idea was that Vrabel would take the team to a new level — a plateau Mularkey couldn’t reach.

    Strictly speaking, it didn’t happen in Year One, as the Titans finished with the same 9-7 mark that Mularkey’s teams finished with in 2016 and 2017.

    One could certainly make the case there was a slight step back this year as well since the 2018 Titans came up short of earning a return trip to the postseason.

    But the results of one season shouldn’t necessarily be taken as an end product as much as they should an indication of where things are headed.

    In other words, it’s possible the Titans — even while holding steady as far as wins and losses — began to make the kind of changes that will elevate this team in years to come. The adjustment to a new head coach and two new coordinators, after all, isn’t always a simple one to make.

    “I don’t think we took a step back. I think we got better as a team,” Titans left tackle Taylor Lewan said. “The record says the same thing but as a whole, together, we got better.

    “We’re growing, moving forward … The way the offense played toward the end of the season is something to be proud of. The defense held us together all year. Special teams did really well, too. So I think we’re a much more rounded team than we were in past years.”

    So just what appeared to get better this year, what got worse and what idled in neutral?

    Here’s a closer look at options in all three of those categories:

    Got Better
    Pass defense

    Despite the painful struggles of high-priced free agent Malcolm Butler for the first half of the season, this area was clearly better for the Titans in 2018 than it was in 2017.

    The Titans finished sixth against the pass this year, a huge leap from 25th last year. They allowed six fewer touchdown passes against and 22 fewer passing yards against per game. The 2018 team finished with one fewer interception than last year’s squad, but overall, the group of Butler, Adoree Jackson, Logan Ryan, Kevin Byard and Kenny Vaccaro was a strength — even setting a franchise record for sacks from the defensive backs. It will be interesting to see if the Titans re-sign Vaccaro, considering Johnathan Cyprien is expected back next year as well.

    Running game

    Through 13 games, I wouldn’t have made the argument the Titans had improved their running game. Dion Lewis was still considered the lead back at that point, and the Titans were going nowhere on the ground, ranked 17th in the league at the time.

    But Derrick Henry’s stunning run through December changed everything. Over the past four weeks, Henry — seemingly inspired by a conversation with former Titans back Eddie George — carried 87 times for 585 yards and seven touchdowns. That breaks down to an average of 146 yards per contest in the final four games. His running seemed to motivate the Titans’ offensive line and vice versa. Assuming we see the same Henry next year — and a four-game sample seems like more than a fluke — the Titans should feel confident he’ll make a large impact in 2019.

    Got Worse
    Edge rush

    If you would have told me before the season that consistent veterans Derrick Morgan and Brian Orakpo would combine for two sacks, I never would have believed it. Some of the lack of sack production was due to new responsibilities in a new system, but age and injury have to be considered factors as well for the 29-year-old Morgan and 32-year-old Orakpo, who combined for 14.5 sacks in 2017. Neither player is under contract for next season, so it’s possible they have played their final games in Tennessee.

    The promising news on the edge is that rookie Harold Landry posted 4.5 sacks this year, getting one in each of his final two games. A healthy offseason should allow Landry to add strength necessary to be a force against the run. Sharif Finch and Kamalei Correa — who is under contract for next year — add youthful potential at the position as well.

    Pass blocking

    The Titans saw their sacks allowed number jump over 34 percent in one season, going from 35 in 2017 to 47 this year.

    In defense of the offensive line, there were times I felt quarterback Marcus Mariota held on to the football too long, eventually allowing the pressure to overwhelm him.

    But the offensive line must take plenty of the blame as well. At right tackle, Jack Conklin didn’t look like the same player he was prior to knee surgery, surrendering four sacks in the nine games he played, per Pro Football Focus. The interior of the line struggled as well, especially right guard Josh Kline, who allowed four sacks, 33 hurries and 37 pressures, per PFF. No one else on the line was close to Kline’s numbers in those latter two categories. He’s under contract through 2021.

    Treading Water
    Marcus Mariota

    There were some things to like about Mariota’s 2018, as he posted the highest completion percentage (68.9 percent) and second-highest quarterback rating (92.3) of his career. Mariota also finished with a positive touchdown-to-interception ratio (11-to-8), bettering his career-worst ratio of 13 touchdowns to 15 interceptions of 2017.

    But questions still remain about Mariota, beginning with his durability after he had to sit out the season finale, reportedly because of the possibility of suffering significant long-term injury. Mariota missed three starts this season (he came off the bench in one of those contests), had to be replaced in three other games due to injury and was at less than 100 percent in other starts.

    Mariota also struggled with consistency and decision-making at times in his first season under offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur. But how much of those issues were related to the early loss of Pro Bowl tight end Delanie Walker, as well as the ineffectiveness of a young receiving corps?

    Mariota can be very good when he’s on, evidenced by the record-breaking accuracy display he showed during a loss to Houston. But at some point, he has to put up bigger numbers on a regular basis, no matter which receivers are on the field.

    Receiving game

    The good news here is that young pass-catchers like Corey Davis, Taywan Taylor and Jonnu Smith all produced bigger numbers in 2018 than last season. Davis’ 65 catches nearly doubled the 34 of his rookie season, and he totaled 891 yards and four touchdown catches, big improvements on the 375 yards and zero touchdowns in his 11-game regular season of 2017.

    But as the fifth overall pick of the 2017 draft, there will always be heavy scrutiny of Davis. Should the Titans already be getting more from him? Davis went over 100 receiving yards in a couple of big wins, against Philadelphia and New England. But he didn’t make much impact down the stretch, failing to hit 50 receiving yards in any of his past five games.

    Taylor made strides as well, more than doubling his number of catches in his rookie season 16 to 37. But the third-round draft pick in 2017 must be even more productive going forward. Thought of as a deep threat because of his speed, Taylor only caught three passes of more than 20 yards this season, one less than he did in his rookie year. He went through some quiet stretches as well, catching only seven passes for 75 yards during one four-game spell.

    Tajae Sharpe returned to the playing field after missing all of 2017 on injured reserve, and early in the season made his mark with several clutch third-down receptions. But bothered by injury during the second half of the season, Sharpe was a non-factor, making just four catches in the last five games.
     
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  40. Cornelius Suttree

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  41. Cornelius Suttree

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    uh did not expect to see this when checking end of year stats on Football Outsiders

    [​IMG]
     
  42. UncleItchyBalls

    UncleItchyBalls Fan of: The Tide
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    Henry put the team on his back the last month of the season. Hopefully he can finally put it together for an entire year in 2019. I'd be pretty optimistic about the next couple of years if Andrew Luck and the Colts weren't on the rise.
     
  43. animal_mother

    animal_mother Well-Known Member
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    Hopefully LaFluer will even have him on the field on 3rd and 3 when he’s the only offense player with a pulse...
     
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  44. Gods03

    Gods03 Well-Known Member
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    Honestly - LaFleur was better than many understand considering the hand he was consistently dealt. He’s getting interviews because football people do understand.
     
  45. westcoastbias

    westcoastbias Well-Known Member
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    Eh, Bridgewater is the best free agent qb and he's not a franchise guy. Gotta draft a backup in Rd 2-3 and hope you get a Prescott/Wilson/garapolo caliber guy that can play if needed and develop into a starter or be a long term backup to mariota or a 1st Rd qb pick in 2020.

    Titans are a lot more than a qb away from a superbowl next year. Put Rodgers, Wilson or mahomes on the Titans next year and they still wouldn't be superbowl favorites. I'm currently still in favor of paying mariota middle of the pack QB money and investing in upgrading other positions.
     
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  46. Cornelius Suttree

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    from John Glennon at The Athletic:

    Seven offseason questions: What does the future hold at QB and where does receiver help come from?

    Weeks of drama-filled playoffs still remain on the NFL schedule, but Titans fans are understandably already looking ahead following the team’s season-ending loss to Indianapolis.

    Having finished with 9-7 records for three consecutive seasons, the Titans aren’t in rebuilding mode, but this is a team that needs changes and upgrades in order to take the next step.

    Decisions made during the offseason will have a huge impact on whether the Titans will move forward, backward or remain in neutral next year.

    With that in mind, here are seven of the questions the Titans must answer as they look ahead to the 2019 season:

    Should the Titans sign Mariota to a long-term deal?
    The Titans have already committed to exercising the fifth-year option in Marcus Mariota’s rookie deal, so he’s scheduled to be paid almost $21 million in 2019.

    But will the Titans try to lock him up long-term this offseason?

    Based on recent quarterback contracts, a Mariota extension would be a pricey one for the Titans.

    For instance, Kirk Cousins signed a three-year, $84 million deal ($28 million average) with Minnesota last season, Matthew Stafford signed a five-year, $135 million deal ($27 million average) with Detroit in 2017 and Derek Carr signed a five-year, $125 million deal ($25 million average) with Oakland in 2017.

    All three of those players are older and have been more productive than Mariota, but don’t forget that Jimmy Garropolo signed a five-year, $137.5 million deal ($27.5 million average) with San Francisco in 2018 — on the basis of just seven NFL starts.

    The Jacksonville Jaguars signed Blake Bortles to a three-year deal for $54 million ($18 million average) in 2018. But would Mariota have interest in that kind of a contract if he knows he’ll get almost $21 million this year by playing out his option?

    In all likelihood, the Titans will play it safe this offseason, holding off on a long-term extension based on the fact Mariota hasn’t put up huge numbers yet — and because there are questions as to his durability.

    The Titans could choose to use the franchise tag in successive seasons on Mariota after 2019, as the Redskins did with Kirk Cousins in 2016 and 2017. The franchise tag for a quarterback in 2018 was about $23.2 million, and that figure will likely rise in coming seasons.

    Should the Titans stick with Gabbert or not?
    Backup Blaine Gabbert struggled mightily in his big opportunity, throwing a pair of interceptions and missing three or four open receivers in the season-ending loss to Indianapolis.

    He finished the year with four touchdowns and four interceptions, drawing the ire of Titans fans who wanted better.

    But that’s not to say Gabbert was a total disaster in 2017. He earned the Titans a victory in Week 2 despite the loss of the team’s top three offensive tackles, and he also guided the Titans to a comeback win over Washington after a Mariota injury.

    It wouldn’t cost the Titans much to get out of the final year in Gabbert’s contract, as both overthecap.com and spotrac.com show the Titans would only have to deal with $500,000 of dead-cap money.

    If the Titans bid an early farewell to Gabbert, they’d likely be looking at one of the following free-agent quarterbacks: Philadelphia’s Nick Foles (who would want too much money for a backup role), Cleveland’s Tyrod Taylor, New Orleans’ Teddy Bridgewater, Tampa Bay’s Ryan Fitzpatrick (Fitzmagic, Part Two?) or Arizona’s Sam Bradford.

    How do the Titans resolve the safety situation?
    As I wrote about earlier this week, the Titans have an interesting situation going on at the safety position.

    In 2017, the team signed safety Johnathan Cyprien to a four-year, $25 million deal, but Cyprien has only played in 10 games over two seasons, missing all of 2018 after suffering a torn ACL.

    In Cyprien’s absence, the Titans signed Kenny Vaccaro to a one-year deal for $1.5 million, and Vaccaro took full advantage of his opportunity. The former first-round pick of the New Orleans Saints missed three games to injury, but he proved a tough, hard-hitting complement to Kevin Byard in the Tennessee secondary, totaling 70 tackles, two sacks and an interception.

    The Titans would likely want to re-sign Vaccaro, but it’s hard to imagine the team paying starter’s money to both Cyprien and Vaccaro, considering only one would be on the field for the majority of the game.

    So what options are open to the team?

    If they hope to keep both Vaccaro and Cyprien on the roster, perhaps they approach Cyprien about re-structuring his deal and taking a pay cut. If they wanted to cut Cyprien, they’d get $5.25 million in cap savings — but also be stuck with $1.5 million of dead money under the cap, per overthecap.com.

    Where do the Titans turn for wide receiver help?
    There’s little doubt the Titans need to bolster their wide receiving corps. In 2018, only one wide receiver (Corey Davis) totaled as many as 40 catches, and the entire group produced only seven touchdown receptions.

    But do the Titans make it an early priority in the draft, bringing in another young player to an already youthful group? Draft analysts are saying this year isn’t a great one for receivers in the draft, so the Titans would be more likely to grab a receiver after the first round.

    The Titans may be active in the free-agent market at receiver as well, looking to add a veteran at a position that lacks experience.

    “It makes it easier (to have a veteran in the group), especially if you have the right guy,” Titans wide receivers coach Rob Moore said during the season. “You gotta’ have the right guy in the room because it can go the other way on you if you don’t.

    “But I think that for the most part, it never hurts having a veteran presence in the room, having a guy who’s got some stripes and has been through some of the things they’re going to go through, and can kind of walk them through those things at times. That never hurts.”

    A popular pending free agent is Philadelphia’s Golden Tate, a 30-year-old Nashville native who totaled 74 catches last season — and went for more than 90 receptions in his four previous years.

    Other pending free-agent names that might be of interest — depending on what type of receiver the Titans would be looking for — include Baltimore’s John Brown, Dallas’ Cole Beasley, Jacksonville’s Donte Moncrief, the Los Angeles Chargers’ Tyrell Williams, Tampa Bay’s Adam Humphries, New England’s Chris Hogan and Oakland’s Martavis Bryant.

    The potential of Pittsburgh’s Antonio Brown to hit the trade market is sure to produce plenty of league-wide speculation as well.

    Will the Titans go early with Byard and/or Henry?
    In June of 2018, the Titans ripped up the final year of tackle Taylor Lewan’s rookie contract, signing him instead to a contract extension that made him the highest-paid lineman in NFL history.

    The Titans could go in a similar direction this offseason with safety Kevin Byard and/or running back Derrick Henry, both of whom will be entering the final years of their rookie contracts.

    In addition to the security of locking up a pair of young talents, the Titans might reap some long-term financial gain by getting the deals done a year before contracts expire. Players are sometimes willing to take a little less overall if the long-term deal is done early.

    There’s little doubt Byard already is a franchise cornerstone, after earning a Pro Bowl invite in his second season and following that with four interceptions in 2018. The Titans might be more hesitant to dive in with Henry, since his sample size of excellence — the last month of the 2018 season — is smaller, potentially making a long-term contract more difficult.

    Will the Titans exercise the fifth-year option on Conklin?
    The 2018 season was not a particularly memorable one for right tackle Jack Conklin, the Titans’ first-round draft pick in 2016.

    Conklin missed the first three games of the season while recovering from a torn ACL, and when he returned, he didn’t appear to be the same player that made All-Pro as a rookie. He gave up five sacks in nine games, per STATS, compared to a combined 2.5 sacks allowed in his first two seasons.

    Conklin suffered a concussion that caused him to miss one game this season and then, after returning, suffered another knee injury that knocked him out of the final three games.

    Still, assuming Conklin returns to full health in the next couple of months, it would be hard to imagine the Titans not exercising their fifth-year contract option on him. The deadline for that to happen is early May.

    The 6-6, 308-pound Conklin may not be quite as good a fit for the Titans’ blocking scheme under offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur than he was in the previous regime. But Conklin still has the capability to be a top-quality lineman, and I think he’ll come back better in 2019 given even more time to rehab from that ACL injury.

    Should the Titans chase these veterans?
    A pair of well-respected starters on both sides of the ball — guard Quinton Spain and outside linebacker Derrick Morgan — will hit free agency in March unless they’re re-signed.

    The 27-year-old Spain is a great underdog story, an undrafted free agent who has started 42 of the Titans’ previous 48 games. He’ll no doubt be seeking an upgrade on the $1.9 million tender he signed last year as an undrafted free agent, so the Titans will have to decide if signing Spain to a multi-year deal at a higher cost is what they want. He’s proven reliable for the most part, but the Titans might be looking for a more mobile offensive lineman in the team’s new offensive scheme.

    Morgan, who’ll turn 30 on Sunday, had a difficult season, seemingly bothered by a number of nagging injuries. After averaging 6.6 sacks per season from 2012-2017, Morgan was held to 0.5 sacks in 2018. So it’s unlikely that his next contract will be close to his last, which was a four-year, $27 million deal.

    It’s also possible Morgan might prefer playing in a different defensive system than that of Dean Pees in 2018. I asked Morgan near the end of the regular season if he hoped to re-sign with the Titans, and he said he wasn’t looking ahead at that point, simply focusing on the season finale.
     
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  47. DaveGrohl

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    This is good stuff.

    Can we get a consensus on Vaccaro? Thought he was good, not great for us. Especially when considering that he was a last-minute addition for us.
     
  48. Cornelius Suttree

    Cornelius Suttree the smallest crumb can devour us
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  49. Cornelius Suttree

    Cornelius Suttree the smallest crumb can devour us
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    was thinking of ordering a framed SI cover for a friend's bday

    some older covers featuring Titans players in spoiler

    [​IMG]
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