Titans Introduce New Free Agent Signings

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Uh, shoot, boom.

Coach Sala is, I mean, just, you know,

one of the best coaches I've had.

I think he's a leader of men.

I think that he understands football.

He understands from a player perspective,

you know, how to relate to players.

I think that when you get a group of guys together,

it takes a special type of guy to be able to lead a group of men

and of different age groups.

And he does a great job of doing it.

I think that, man, he's so smart.

I love the defense.

And I love the people that he puts in place for it.

Oh, welcome everyone to another episode of The Music City

Audible, a Tennessee Titans podcast.

I'm your host, Justin Graver, full-time NFL podcast producer

for Odyssey, and joining me, as always,

the managing editor of TitanSize.com and the publisher

of NFL Draft on S-I, my co-host Justin Mello.

Justin, that was John Franklin Myers speaking over Zoom

to Titan's media on Wednesday afternoon,

a fusing praise for Titan's head coach, Robert Sala.

We're gonna talk about that today.

What did these players have to say in their introduction

to Titan's media and Titan's fans as the Titans,

a little behind the time, I guess, took them a while

is what I'm trying to say.

To get these players in front of a microphone

and get questions asked, then we've seen,

it was like last week, Thursday and Friday,

around the league, a lot of big free agent signings were put

on the podium for different teams.

Titans finally do it yesterday.

We're gonna react to what they had to say.

Justin, how's it going?

I'm doing well, doing well, and I want our audience to know,

I've never lied to you.

I told you that we'd be back today

talking about the Tennessee Titans, and here we are.

And I also told you,

I wasn't gonna tell you what today's topic was,

because we reserved the right to change it.

And I'm glad I did that, because we did change it.

And today we're talking about,

we didn't know this was happening, flat out.

I mean, maybe you did.

I didn't know this was happening.

I just, the first quote that popped up on my timeline,

maybe you say, oh, cool, the Titans, new phrase,

the signings are finally speaking with the media,

at least the big money ones, the ones that you guys,

and we actually care.

They'd have put Kyle and Granson out there.

I don't think I saw Cordell Wilson out there,

but we saw John Franklin Meyers.

We saw Lonte Taylor, Jermaine Johnson, Cordell Flott.

We got a lot of great quotes from those guys.

I've got thoughts on all of them,

some of the things that they said,

also analytical in terms of how I see them

fitting the defense or my reaction,

to how they claim they fit the defense.

Questions, concerns, analysis, you name it,

back to you, Graver.

Well, also, Juan Dale Robinson spoke,

he didn't mention not just their fit in the defense,

but their fit in the offense, the role that they,

basically, it's like, how do you see your role

in the defense was the question,

but the answer was like, this is what's been communicated to me.

Like, is Lonte Taylor gonna be the nickel cornerback

playing in the slot?

Well, he answered that question.

Is John Franklin Meyers gonna move outside sometimes?

Well, he answered that question.

So we're gonna react to those things,

and those are the most telling things about

where the roster stands,

where they view the strengths and weaknesses,

what they still need to add,

because we literally know where some of these guys

are gonna be lining up now,

which we've been speculating about for a while.

Before we get to what these players had to say,

though, just in quick update on the Titan's cap situation,

because all the contracts that they've been signing,

they're finally starting to hit the books,

spell track over the cap, all these sites

that track the cap spending are updating,

and we have all but one Titans contract now accounted for,

including we have Calvin Ridley's restructure accounted for,

the only contract we're waiting on so far now,

is the tackle that they signed the other day,

who I don't even think we talked about this on the,

do we talk about this?

I don't remember if we talked about this.

No, we didn't.

I don't think we talked about him at all.

What's his name?

Deculous?

Is that his hand?

Deculous?

I don't know how to say it for sure.

I wrote a good article on Titan's size this morning,

where I spoke to a chargers buddy of mine

who covers the team, and he gave me some great insight,

and I put it into a story.

I quoted him, I don't like it, I hate it.

I don't know how to say it.

I mean, he was pro football focuses,

essentially the worst tackle in the NFL last year.

Remember when White Gravy did a rap

and said that Justin Herbert's online was committing treason?

This was one of the main culprits who was committing treason.

He played 476 snaps last year at left tackle due to injury,

and he gave up, I like, put it this way,

I think he gave up tied for the 12th most sacs

at tackle in the NFL when he actually

played the 65th most snaps in past protection as a tackle.

That is bad.

His PSF past pro grade is like 30,

his overall grade was like 35, and it's accurate, right?

Anyone who watched the chargers last year

knew the backups were bad.

I hate it.

I don't know how else to say it.

I hate it.

Ollie Udo is way better than this guy.

I don't know why they wouldn't just bring him back,

because I'm talking way too much

about this guy.

But it's like, he's like the number three tackle right now.

Like that's important, that's a good important job.

The swing tackle role and he's terrible.

It's a downgrade of epic proportions, right?

Like in all honesty, and I don't know.

Let me pitch something at you because I'm with you.

If this guy has to play as a tackle,

right tackle or left tackle, any number of snaps this season,

it's bad.

Like let's just call it what it is, it's bad.

Yes.

I'm not signing.

You wonder even with how bad this player is.

You wonder if even makes it out of training camp.

But Justin, you tweeted a clip of him run blocking.

And in fact, you didn't talk about how terrible he was as a player.

All you did in this tweet, which I suspect was to gain a little bit of engagement, some

traction there, was talk about, wow, this guy can run block.

Now, I'm not trying to call you out.

I do the same thing all the time.

You just leave out the negative, put only the positive stuff in a tweet, and guess what?

It's going to do better than if you just get negative in a tweet, apologies to the world

for us, play in the game.

Here's the thing.

Titans last year used Oli Udo most often how as the backup tackle when JC Latham had

to miss a few snaps or Dan Moore, no, most often was six lineman on the field, heavy personnel,

run blocking packages.

You did play for both of those guys, though, did like what those guys got hurt and he played

for both.

Yeah, for sure.

But the way that they used him primarily, they used him.

My point is they used him when both those guys were healthy as a sixth offensive lineman

to come in and and seal off an edge or whatever in the run game.

This guy who's a terrible pass protector, but a decent ish run blocker, better than a tight

end, better than a typical tight end as a run blocker.

Could that just be a role they have for him?

They are still going to need a swing tackle if that is the role, but someone who's like

the eighth offensive lineman in terms of pecking water on the depth chart, but maybe the sixth

when they go into heavy packages and they want that extra alignment on the field.

I don't know.

I'm just trying to come up with some logical reason that they would willingly want to put

this player on their football team because otherwise I can't get there.

I can get on board with that.

The problem for me is that it's him and Brandon Crenshaw Dixon at back at right now.

Like it's a really bad situation.

All you do was better and all you do was fine as the sixth lineman too, so why not just

bring him back?

I mean, but when I did some digging, I don't think.

If anyone's mentioning this, this guy had a cup of coffee with Robert Salas Jets, more

than a cup of coffee.

I mean, he was there for a couple months.

So I found that interesting.

He was there with all those guy, me and Tony Odin was there that year.

All defensive guys though, right, Aaron Whitecotton was there.

And then I want to say he had a brief stint with Dave Ziegler and the New Orleans Saints

as well.

So I found a couple of connections, but that's not good enough for me, man.

Like all you do is better than this guy and I want to just brought Udo back.

I don't know.

Well, we didn't, we weren't intending on having the deculus conversation here, but here

we've done it.

We've had it.

Neither of us like the signing as a sixth is a swing tackle player.

But I like the only way I can get on board is if they tell us the plan is we're still

going to add another tackle to be our swing tackle.

But we like this guy as a heavy package offensive lineman.

And that to me feels like a little bit of a waste of a roster spot on game days.

If you're activating this guy, but you don't actually want him to be one of the five, whatever

it is, what it is, the reason I brought him up at all was to say he's the only contract

not on the books yet.

And the Titans currently sit with, I believe a league leading $63 million left in top 51

cap space.

Now if you count for the draft picks that they'll have to pay, that will drop to about

55.9 million effective cap space.

That's a ton of money.

That's a ton of money to have after being the highest spending team already in free

agency.

So you want Bobby, okay, you want Kevin Zitler, you want to go pay one of these one year

end of their career contract ed rushers, like a Joey Bosa or whatever, assuming he doesn't

go join his brother in San Francisco, like you could do all three of those things and

have plenty of money left over to keep and roll into the season and roll over into next

off season.

So pretty good spot for the Titans to be in terms of their books.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I'm not advocating for Juan Jennings either, but the point is they've got so much

money that they can do things.

You typically want to roll over, like we said, between 20 and 30 million, that still gives

them like 20 to 25 million to spend.

And I'm including the rookie class that you just mentioned in that.

So plenty of money to go get a Kevin Zitler or a Bobby, okay?

I wonder if they're reserving some of this, like for, you know, not just cap, I mean cash,

like a roll, like a Jeffrey Simmons thing, a Peter Skaronsky thing, that could explain

why maybe they're being a little more, you know, patient, if you will, with or more

reserve that I think I'm looking for is the word I'm looking for with this money.

I mean, they've already spent 294 committed to one hundred and nine, they haven't spent

294.

They're going to cut a lot of that money before they actually got to pay it, but they've

committed 294 million over 130 and guaranteed.

So they spent over 130 and guaranteed money.

So it's not like they're being frugal by any stretch or the imagination, but the point

is they still got plenty of money if they want to go out and do a little bit more.

And I fully expect them to do a little bit more, not a ton more.

They've already done quite a lot, but I do expect them to do it a little bit more.

All right, Justin, we're going to get to this play, these player press conferences now,

what they said are reactions, but we accidentally talked way too long about Austin Deculus.

So we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.

All right, welcome back.

We're talking Titans introduced their free agent class, at least five of the free agents

that they signed, the biggest ones, the most notable ones.

And before I play any clips, I have a bunch of clips to play.

You heard one at the very top of the show introducing us today.

Let's talk big picture, things we can pull out, themes we can pull out, because every

single player that went and spoke with the exception of a Launte Taylor, has played

four coaches on the Titan staff elsewhere, and that's Juan Dale Robinson played obviously

for Brian Dayball, Carmen Priscilla was there, the corner back they signed from the Giants

Cordale Float, also teammates with Juan Dale Robinson, and also played for those other

two coaches, although they were on the opposite side of the ball, also played for Marc Juan

Manuel, the Titans new DB coach.

So there's lots of connections there.

And then on the other players that spoke John Franklin Myers, Germain Johnson, obviously

played for Robert Sala in New York, and then a Launte Taylor was with the Saints last

year.

He was he sounded excited.

He's never played for Sala, but I've got a clip on him talking about how he sees himself

in Sala's defense.

So that's we talked about this right at the top of the show that we know there are roles

we're going to get to that in a second.

But the overarching theme to me was how much the players, especially the ones who have already

played for Robert Sala.

How much they cannot wait to play for Robert Sala again.

These guys love love Robert Sala.

And even the Giants play the ex Giants players they signed are excited to reunite with the

guys that they've played for and play for Robert Sala that they like that everybody absolutely

loves Robert Sala.

I think this is like the quintessential definition of a players coach who also is schematically

provides a schematic advantage to his roster.

And it kind of like we've heard a lot about it and we knew that these players obviously

liked and wanted to play for Sala when they rejoined him like we can infer that.

But hearing them talk about him, it's almost like it makes you giddy as a Titans fan with

the optimism that you have for this new era of the Titans.

Absolutely.

I think we've made this connection a couple of times over at Titan Size and a couple

recent articles.

I think the big difference between this free agency spending spree and the one that like

Rand Carthon went on was like the connections to the coaching staff and the fact that these

guys want to be here.

I mean, I'm trying to be fair here.

Someone called me out for Rand Carthon bias, apparently in the comments.

I don't think I have any bias like Calvin really had played for Nick Holtz.

So I guess there were a couple of, you know, when I brought there was a couple of Brian

Calan connections to right like Chino, Louisiana, and those all backfire nonetheless.

What?

Tyler Boyd.

Tyler Boyd was one as well.

Yeah.

That means low cost, you know, aging player.

But I still think the big difference here is the connections to the staff and the scheme,

the familiarity.

And the fact they want to play for them as leaders.

Calvin really didn't come here because he wanted to play for Nick Holtz, the leader.

You know, Nick Holtz was the passing game coordinator in Jacksonville, right?

Like, these guys are coming here having played for Robert Sala previously as their head coach

or as a defensive coordinator, defensive play caller, whatever you want to call it.

I think that's the huge difference is they've brought in guys who know what to expect,

who love the, and by the way, all these guys talking about, and I want to get to them individually

soon.

I'm going to cut myself off here.

All of them talking about what you said, they love him.

They're excited to play for him.

You know, all these things that they would do for him and they love the playbook and the

scheme and everything like, be dead honest with me.

And leave comment below if you disagree with me or if you agree.

Did you get the vibe that anyone was running through a wall for Brian Callahan, like, you

know where I was going is, did you get the vibe that anyone really thought of Brian Callahan

as a leader of men or a player's coach, anything that these guys said on Wednesday, did you

ever get the insinuation that anyone, anyone felt like that about Brian Callahan?

If I could sit down with Jeffrey Simmons for a candid one on one, right?

You know, like, you see it in his comments, right?

Like, if you could really, someone who loves Mike Raeble, someone who now is super excited

and loves Robert Sala, you think Jeffrey Simmons didn't think that Brian Callahan was terrible

at his job.

Like, no one felt that way about Brian Callahan.

Yeah.

I mean, we've talked about this before how I've joked that, like, you know, cam board

very close with his parents, his dad and his mom, his mom was like a high school, what

basketball coach, I think, and his dad was coaching him when he was young too.

And I'm sure that they've had conversations just about how terrible the head coach Brian

Callahan was.

Like, like, seriously, I would, if it was me and I was in a situation, like, I'd be calling

my dad after every game, like, and then that play call on third and three, like, can

you believe with the, like, I have to execute what the coach, like, I just think that

that was happening.

None of that's happening with Robert Sala.

And because you said the phrase, run through a wall for, let's start with this quote from

a, this is a germane, I threw it out there.

It didn't mean to do it.

Here we are.

Well, you teed me up great, Justin, because let's start, I mean, I wasn't going to start

with your main Johnson, but I'm going to now, I don't have very many clips to play of

Germain Johnson, but here he is talking about Robert Sala and what it means to be back

with his old coach from the New York days.

First, I mean, this defense, if you're a delinquent, you're not playing a style defense.

I mean, just look to, because it is a diggin' and it is very violent, and you will wreak

havoc.

But like I said, his character and how he goes about coaching, he's the same guy every day.

He does not, he does not, he does not give in on his standard and what he has for everybody

and for the team.

I just a very consistent messenger in that aspect and yeah, just like everything, he comes

with everything he's about, I told him as soon as I got traded, just point out the wall

and I'll run through it.

I mean, how's that for a quote?

Just point out the wall and I'll run through it.

Johnson seems ecstatic to be back in this Robert Sala defense where he knows his skill set

will be used at the maximum capabilities.

He's only here for one year right now, Justin.

I kind of feel like they're going to maybe wait and see how he performs, see if he really

has his explosion back, but it would surprise me if they traded a second round pick into

Vandrey Sweat for one year of Jermaine Johnson when they don't have really a future at the

edge position, at least as we enter the draft, they don't, maybe they will after the draft.

Well, I think, you know, they're only going to have two more years of Tavandrey Sweat

because they don't like him, right, and they willingly sent him packing.

So I don't think that's a big deal.

I think we've got to keep our heads here like this guy is coming off not a, not a great,

a bad season.

I mean, it downright bad season three sacks, not enough pressures, not enough hits for

how much he played and how many opportunities he had.

I don't think there's any stretch of the imagination where you're siding into an extension

before you see what he's got this year and I bet he's probably not all that excited

in doing that either because he probably wants to bounce back and try to play his playing

through a better payday because he's talking extension right now.

He's got zero leverage in my opinion.

He probably wants to bet on himself and try to win some of that leverage back.

So no, you let this year play out.

I don't care about the Tavandrey Sweat thing because they didn't like him.

You let this year play out.

You see how he does.

You see if he gets hurt again.

If he bounces back and then you make a decision from there.

But I love the court and I would wager that he liked this staff a lot better than the

one he played for last year.

I mean, I would almost guaranteed that.

So he showed very pumped to be back with the familiar surroundings.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

And that was again, the theme of this is guys who have played for Sala couldn't be more

excited to play for Sala.

He was also asked about going one for one as a recruiter, getting John Franklin Meyers,

going after him on social media and then getting being able to team up with him again.

Anyway, I mean, I think Jermaine Johnson is ecstatic to be back alongside Robert Sala.

Yes.

But also Aaron Whitecotton, Tanzel Smart, who was his teammate in New York is now the Titans

defensive line coach, Gus Bradley.

I don't know.

Jermaine Johnson playing coach on Tanzel Smart.

Sorry.

But yeah.

Right.

Sorry.

And then getting to work with Gus Bradley, who is part of that circle with Robert Sala,

but Jermaine Johnson hasn't actually played for excited.

I think that, you know, the Titans could, if Jermaine Johnson gets back to form, now it's

not like he was a 12-sec guy.

His career high was seven and a half sacks.

But in this Robert Sala defense, it rotates a lot of guys, gets a lot of productivity from

a large group versus focusing, you know, Miles Garrett style 17, 18, 23, whatever sacks

onto one player.

Everybody eats in this defense.

And I think it's, I liked what Jermaine Johnson said.

I liked his demeanor.

He seems very confident and excited and ready to go.

And obviously ready to run through a wall for Robert Sala.

So let's talk about some other players that Titans put out there on zoom.

Let's go to the offensive side.

Because I think Wondail Robinson had number one of the funniest moment of the entire press

conference, which went viral on social media.

I'm sure if you've seen it already.

And the other part about Wondail Robinson talking about the position that he's going to play

the most.

Let's start with the funny moment when Cam Ward crashed Wondail Robinson's press conference

zoom.

Wondail.

What's going on with you to play with Cam Ward?

Oh, my God.

My dog.

I appreciate you.

But now, I say, you know, I'm ready to play with you.

That's part of the reason I came.

My favorite part about this is that Wondail first doesn't realize it's Cam Ward.

Yeah.

He hears the question.

He's about to start answering it.

And then it clicks in his brain.

It's like, Oh, my gosh.

This is Cam on the zoom right now.

What a moment.

That was hilarious.

And then he sat down with Taylor's R's R for like a little one-on-one actual interview

thing and was asked about, you know, playing with Cam Ward, playing in this offense that

has an established quarterback established, at least in the sense that there's no competition

for who's going to be the starter, et cetera, et cetera.

We'll see if he really establishes himself.

You and I feel that he will.

But I don't want someone to come in the comments and say, established.

Anyway, talked about how, you know, he hasn't had that in a long time that, you know, playing

in New York, it was always like a question of like either this guy, being Daniel Jones

has to go prove himself where he's injured and missing a lot of the season because Daniel

Jones has never really stayed healthy in his career.

Or it's like, we drafted Jackson Dart, but is it going to be Jackson Dart to start the

year?

We're going to start with Russell Wilson.

And then, okay, here comes Dart, but Dart's in and out of the line up.

Here comes Winston.

Anyway, he was like, I'm really excited that I get to play with that where we know we

have that guy.

And it's one guy because I haven't really had a lot of that in my career.

And that clip, being posted on Twitter, sent giants fans into a tizzy, like they were

going crazy over that.

And they were calling me, they've saying some pretty mean, nasty things about one tail

Robinson.

And it's like, chill out.

Anyway, you haven't had any stability at quarterback for a long time.

I mean, boohoo, right?

Like, hopefully you have it now, like Jackson Dart, but he just got there in Robinson was

there for four years, you know, even prior to that.

So boohoo, right?

Like, whatever.

Excited about what he said to a lot of what he said, talked about playing inside outside

as well.

Now, I'm a little, I don't want to say hesitant, but I feel like the Titans have a lot of

Z receivers and slot receivers.

I don't know how all of it fits together because I think Chimerae DK is a Z or a slot.

I think Calvin Ridley is a Z or a slot.

So one of these guys, I mean, they could interchange.

But I assume that Robinson will be pretty much making a full time living at slot.

But I mean, when they're in two receiver sets, he'll probably play some Z, I don't know,

but I'm curious to see how that all fits in all honesty because I feel like not a lot

of slots, a lot of Zs, no Xs, it's on Brian Dable to figure out how to deploy all these

smaller receivers who aren't great at beating press coverage.

Can you say that?

Great segue.

Paul Caharski is the one who brought it up to one day, he said one day, everyone seems

to peg you as a slot guy.

But I guess a lot of people don't realize you played over 40% of your snaps last year

from out wide.

How do you feel?

Where do you feel your best at and how do you see yourself fitting in to Brian Dable's

offense in Tennessee?

Here's one they'll have to say to that.

Tell us about what you can do outside and how much you expect to be outside.

Yeah, I mean, I expect to play outside, I feel like I did it pretty well this past

year and just gotten more and more confidence each and every time that I was out there.

Just being more of a slot only in my previous three years and I had done it in college,

but obviously I'd had some time off, so it took a little bit to get used to, but definitely

training more for playing on the outside and doing certain things like that for the season

itself.

How different are the two jobs?

They're different in their own ways, but similar at the same time too, you know, you

know, just kind of depending on the alignment and exactly where you are on the outside.

Like, a lot of times I'm not just lined up by myself on the outside, so I can always sometimes

still treat it like this slot and use some of the same releases and the same setup.

So, you know, just a couple of different routes that you can run from out there.

So it sounds like he's planning to play both inside and outside.

It sounds like the outside usage for Wondail Robinson, we can assume this or we can go

watch tape and learn this from that is that he's not the ex.

He's not the isolated boundary receiver up against the line of scrimmage facing press

coverage on his own no motion before the snap.

No, if he's going to be playing outside a lot of that time, it's with another receiver

there and he might still be in motion.

He's probably to a yard or two off the line of scrimmage in that role, which would put

him, as you said, at the Z spot, where shimmery decay can also play where we believe Calvin

Ridley is best suited.

So it is going to be an interesting dynamic to sort through for Brian Dable.

I think this is kind of a good problem to have.

You have an embarrassment of riches.

The flip side of that is you don't really have an X that you can rely on.

You got a second year or fourth round pick in L.A.C.I.

Manner's basically the only X receiver profile on the team.

Maybe the other one I would point to is Bryce Oliver, who is like a restricted free

agent tender for this year and is mostly a special team's player.

Calvin Ridley can play there some of the time, but ideally, again, he's best as a Z.

Greg Coussell was on Buck Rising Show earlier this week, actually talking about how he sees

the Titans deploying their receivers.

He said he thinks shimmery decay is a Z more than a slot, like he's a guy that's going

to play outside, but you move around the formation, and I agree with that as well.

And Wondale is probably going to play slot primarily just because these other guys are

good at the Z spot, too.

And you don't like last year when the Giants lost Malik neighbors, they needed somebody

outside.

And so Wondale had to step up and fill that role.

It's not necessarily what he was planned to always be, but he showed that he can make

plays from the outside too.

So you don't want to limit him to only slot snaps, but I definitely don't expect him

to be over 40% lined up on the outside in this offense.

That would put that number probably closer to 20, 25%.

But I do think that that's how they're going to deploy them.

And it's interesting to hear Wondale say, yeah, I'm going to be playing outside a little

bit at least.

Well, Brian Dable was there those other years, keep in mind when he did use him as a slot

only, right?

Like you said, I think they were kind of forced to use them outside more due to the neighbor's

injury.

So if the Titans stay healthy, you know, knock on what I agree with you, I think he's

probably looking low, like, you know, like closer to 20% outside usage.

And like you said, it'll be multiple receivers aligned in the same area, a little off the

line of scrimmage.

So you could hide them, get that free release, make sure he's five, what is he, five nine?

Like you're not asking him to beat press man coverage consistently against six one corners.

It's just not realistic.

So I appreciate that they'll have that capability.

But I still think when he's outside, what exactly the way he alluded to, you're probably

still getting a little creative with the use of he even said it kind of feels like the

slot a little bit based on the alignment and what we're doing.

So that's probably what you can anticipate when he's out there.

Yeah.

Totally agree.

The last thing I think that he said that was interesting to me is just about why he chose

to come play for Tennessee.

We heard the, you know, cam board being part of it.

But the other part was, and he was asked directly like the, I think Steve layman had this

question.

And it was, you know, you've been connected to the Titans, almost everyone was predicting

you to sign with the Titans, were there other teams in the mix or were you always just

going to go wherever Brian Dable went?

And one day I was like, huh, no, it's never just going to go wherever Brian Dable went.

I don't think that's necessarily why everyone was projecting me to Tennessee.

It was a combination of factors.

He didn't say that exactly.

But it was a combination of factors.

Brian Dable familiarity certainly helped.

He's also from Kentucky, which is close to Nashville.

He's closer to home.

And the team had a big need at receiver.

They need playmakers on the outside and he can come fill that need here.

Because they have the quarterback in place and that's a big part of it for him too.

So there were a lot of factors that led him to Tennessee.

I just thought it was funny.

The way Steve phrased that question was like, were you always going to go wherever Brian

Dable went?

He was like,

Money matters.

I'm sure he didn't say it, but I'm sure he was thinking like, well, like it had to make

an offer that was good because if someone else did, I would have taken that one instead

probably, right?

Like, this guy was a later pick.

He hasn't made a ton of money in the NSL.

Second rounder.

Second rounder.

True.

He hasn't made me still like a second round contract, not a ton of money in the NFL.

This is where you make the majority of your money.

So he wasn't just going to go anywhere.

It was about getting paid, right?

And setting yourself up for the rest of your life and your kids as well.

We've got three more players to talk about.

Do you want to take one final break?

Yes.

All right, welcome back.

We're going to talk about the corner backs that we're going to introduce.

The first, let's get through John Franklin Myers, because we haven't talked about John

Franklin Myers at all.

We played the clip at the top of the show him talking about Robert Sala, but he's another

guy with this inside outside flexibility who played a lot of both spots with Robert Sala

went to Denver and was more of just a defensive tackle, pure defensive tackle, not really

anything else.

Here's what he had to say about his role playing in Sala's defense.

You know, I think my super probably is that I can kind of play every position in that

way.

He's going to utilize me to be able to do that.

And I'll say that he did it at the Jets.

I was able to play outside and inside at the Broncos.

I played a little more inside words.

You know, I wasn't exactly a fan of when I got there, but I grew to love it, grew to understand

it so much.

And I think it'll help me going forward when I do kind of transition back to kind of doing

both again.

And it doesn't sound like it's an if I transition back to doing both again.

It's when.

And we know the Titans have, you know, a pretty big need or at least a hole at the edge

position there.

And whether or not they filled out in the draft, like you're not going to necessarily

be relying on a rookie to come in and play significant snaps from day one, even the

fourth overall pick, even if you think the fourth overall pick should be capable, and

he might be capable.

I'm not saying they won't do that, but they're not going to rely on it.

They're going to bank on it.

It could be part of the plan to see if he can do it.

And if not, we have John Franklin Myers and Jeffrey Simmons, who can both bump outside

as needed, rush the passer.

John Franklin Myers, we heard the clip Robert Sala talking with Jocena Anderson, not

too long.

Well, that was a year ago that he was talking with her, but we played it on the show last

week.

Talking about how he likes to bump John Franklin Myers outside on early downs, because he's

a strong edge setter in the run game.

So I think we're going to see a lot of that.

John Franklin Myers prepared and expecting to do that here as well.

And I thought it was interesting that he said, when he got to Denver, he wasn't a fan

of playing inside on that more full time basis.

And then he gave us a little coach speak like, I'm a good player, a good team player, teammate

with a good attitude.

I grew to love it.

And I learned a lot about how that can help me on the outside too.

But I like that it's like, I don't necessarily view myself as an inside only guy.

And I didn't love that that's how I was used in Denver.

So I'm happy to be back with a coach who sees my full potential and ability to play both

inside and outside.

Well, a lot of Titans fans have been talking about him before that clip and before this

one as well.

Of course, as like a inside exclusive type of player, love to hear that he's got that versatility.

I think it's very important because obviously, as we've said, don't love what the Titans

have at edge.

So if you include him in that mix, it obviously starts to look a lot better.

I don't want to throw a blanket on it, but I feel like you're moving pieces around

the chessboard.

Because now, I don't know how much I like what's inside next to Jeffrey Simmons when he's

on the outside.

Right?

Because now we're looking at Jordan Elliott and Solomon Thomas.

Two guys they brought in surprise, surprise who previously played for Robert Salah.

That's why they brought them in.

And they are going to be rotational players.

No doubt about it.

You do become more reliant on them, or at least one of them, when Franklin Myers is playing

outside because that guarantees that one of them essentially has to be on the field

more or less.

And remember, they've got at that position, that in three position, they got rid of

to Vandre Sweat, they got rid of Sebastian Joseph Day, James Lynch played in there a

little bit too.

They got he just signed yesterday.

I think with the bears, I believe it was in free agency.

So as much as I like the idea of Franklin Myers ticking outside because he's so effective

out there and I love the versatility, my question just moves around, right?

It goes through.

I don't love what they have at edge.

It goes to, I don't know that I really like what they have next to Simmons in that situation.

So maybe I'll be proven wrong.

Like we'll see what Elliott and Thomas do here.

They'll have the benefit of playing next to Simmons who's going to command a lot of attention

and leave them with advantageous opportunities and matchups.

Can they take advantage of that?

TBD.

And to your point, you're talking about rotating guys in there, keep them fresh.

That was something Draman Johnson said that I didn't share earlier.

The quote was, we rotate, so we're always fresh out there.

If there's even a hint of fatigue, we're rolling, which means they're going to be rotating

a lot of those guys at that position.

That's why they're about eight deep right now on the defensive line if you include the

tackles and the edge players.

And think about it.

Sorry, not to cut you off, but like if Franklin Myers can play out there, you're talking

about him.

You're talking about Jermaine Johnson, you're talking about Jacob Martin, you're talking about

Femiola Desjo, and you're talking about Jalen Harrell.

And that's before we've gotten to the draft, right?

So even as constructed, they've got enough NFL caliber bodies to rotate.

They've got one really good football player in John Franklin Myers, and then they have

a bunch, you know, the rest of the guys are projections.

I would say, I mean, Jacob Martin, ironically, and us, the one who's not a projection, because

I think you know what he is.

But the other three, it's like, well, I don't know what Femi is in year two.

Can Jalen Harrell keep taking steps?

And who is Jermaine Johnson, you know, after another year removed?

But the point is, if, you know, JFM is playing out there, it's not about rotation.

I just gave you five 53 man roster players.

Like, I would say guaranteed 53 man roster players, who could rotate out there and chip

in.

All right.

And if they're worried about the depth inside when they do move those guys outside, I think

it generally, it's easier to find capable defensive tackles in the middle of the draft

versus capable edge players, especially when you're playing next to an all pro.

Yes.

And if they do go with Jermaine, I love at the top of the draft or somebody else who isn't

an edge player, and they feel weak in the, in the edge room, so they got to move the

tackles to edge.

And then you can backfill that with tackles in the draft, because again, your, your value

that you find there later in the draft is, you're going to be able to find guys that

can contribute at a higher rate than you'll find edge guys who can contribute.

Let's talk about the corners.

The corners had a lot of interesting things to say.

I'm going to start with Alante Taylor, because he's the other guy that we had a lot of

question marks about, do the Titans still need a slot corner?

Is Marcus Harris your slot corner?

Is Alante Taylor an outside corner in base defense, which they're not going to play a lot

of, who bumps inside to nickel when they go into three corner back, look, well, maybe

not.

Alante Taylor had to say about playing the slot, and then now coming into the Tennessee

man, I see myself really just playing on the outside, having a little bit of conversation

with coach and things like that since I got into building.

I think my role is kind of clear, but if need be, and if game plan situations need me

to slide back into the slot, then obviously I've played there, so I'll be comfortable

if need to be.

So he mentioned the last time he played slot corner back at a high rate was earlier in

his career, when the need presented itself and they needed somebody who could just go

play that position, and he's willing to do it because he's a good teammate and willing

to do whatever it takes for the team to win.

But it sounds like from this quote that he wasn't trying to give too much away, but at

the same time, it seems fairly clear to me that the coaching staff has told him, hey,

your role here is to play on the outside.

And if somebody gets banged up or a specific matchup presents itself or we feel like you

could really help us on the inside, maybe we'll play you there a little bit, but for

the most part, we see you in our system as an outside corner.

And Alante Taylor talked also about Robert Salah, we'll get to that in a second, why

he wants to play for Salah, but mentioned specifically some guys who had played inside

earlier in their career and then played outside under Salah, I'll get to that in a second,

but Alante Taylor as an outside corner, do the Titans need a nickel?

Do they, can Marcus Harris fill that role for them?

Do they need to look draft somebody, maybe round four, round five, somewhere in that range

that they can get somebody to come and play that spot?

What do you think about Alante Taylor's comments here?

I swear this dawned on me the other day randomly because I'm always thinking about football

and the Tennessee Titans.

And I regretted saying something on the pod, I regretted posing the question about where

he was going to play, because the one thing I wish I took into account in that moment

when we talked about it, that I didn't, and hearing him talk to me just told me, you had

to write the second time, you didn't get it right the first time.

They didn't pay $20 million a year for a nickel corner.

No chance, right?

That's not the going rate.

He's going to play outside in this scheme.

Everything he said to me confirmed it, the contract they signed them to confirm it in

my opinion, I think he's strictly going to be a boundary guy.

And that tells me there is no play outside, kick inside.

I think he's going to be exclusively outside.

Obviously, the other corner we're going to talk about in a minute is going to be opposite

him in Cornell Flot.

And I do think that makes Marcus Harris the favorite to be the nickel in those situations.

Joshua Williams is an outside corner too.

I think Joshua Williams is the new Darryl Baker.

He's the first guy off the bench outside, but you're not going to play him inside.

Right now, it's Marcus Harris inside Kevin Winston can maybe do it occasionally as a

safety member.

You brought in Tony Adams who can give you some snaps and three safety looks if you want

Winston to play like a big nickel occasionally.

And they've also got this guy on the roster right now, Michael Robinson, who they claimed

off waivers towards the end of the year last year, who was a draft pick of the Green Bay

Packers.

I thought that was a really shrewd move at the time.

He got to play a little at the end of the year and looked okay.

I'm not saying he's going to start, but he's at least going to compete for a 53 man roster

spot.

And if he does make the team, he gives you another option, at least that backup nickel.

Yeah, it's interesting though, because I don't know where this came from or why he thinks

this, but we haven't talked about Cornell Flot at all yet.

Cornell Flot had something interesting to say.

I'll just read you the quote here.

He said, I feel like me, Alante and Williams, we're going, we plan to be the best trio in

the league.

So who knows?

I mean, this is going to be an interesting thing to see how it gets deployed.

I'm going to play my last Alante Taylor clip here.

This is basically why he wanted to come play for Robert Salah in Nashville.

Obviously, he is from Tennessee.

So he's coming back home.

Things lined up for him there.

This is for the vault as well, right?

Right.

He went to Tennessee.

It is a longer clip, but I think a really interesting one.

And also touches on what I was just saying before about the 49ers player who was an inside

outside corner, but under Salah last year, full time outside.

If you know who I'm talking about, you know football, but Taylor is going to tell us who

it is also.

And you know, Coach Salah is just one of those names and coaches that you see what they've

done.

You see the success that he's had as a coordinator.

And you just want to play for him, right?

I've kind of talked about it before, you know, DJ Reed and sauce over there with the jets

with him, the improvements and just the success rate that those guys had.

And then you look at Lenore and San Francisco and just him playing the inside outside before

Coach Salah got there.

And then when Coach Salah got there, moving them to just playing outside and seeing how

well he played there.

So just that alone, I'm like, man, like I've always wanted to play for him.

And then when Tennessee hired him, I was like, wow, I can go back home.

Like this is an opportunity.

It's a team that needs corners.

And I think it would just fit.

It felt really good last year when New Orleans came and we played in Nashville just to see

my family, my friends and just kind of play in front of the home crowd.

And it's crazy.

It just kind of all just sort of go to self back around a lot of options, a lot of dissecting,

a lot of praying, a lot of tough decisions that needed to be made.

But I think ultimately I ended up exactly where I needed to be.

And I'm super, super, super excited to really just get started.

So I mean, another guy who's never played for Salah, but that just speaks to Salah's

reputation around the league.

I'm going to guess and I'm purely guessing here.

There's no way he knew that about Lenore, right?

Like without being told, which tells me that in the free agency pitch, that's a free

agency pitch thing.

I know you've played inside and outside a lot.

I see he was an outside corner.

I had a guy in San Fran, who was an inside guy.

We made him an outside guy.

We had a lot of success doing that.

We're going to do the same for you.

That's a free agency pitch.

He knows he's playing outside.

The contract tells us he's playing outside.

I'll be shocked if he's not pretty much exclusively a boundary corner.

Yeah.

No, that's a great point.

And you know, talking about free agency pitches, there's another guy they had to make

a free agency pitch to because the giants really wanted cordial flat back 24 year old corner.

It was reported that he's viewed as an ascending corner in that New York building.

I'm sure the Titans view him the same way.

He was even asked, you know, you've been talked about as an ascending corner.

Is that how you see yourself?

And he said, yeah, I do feel like my best football is ahead of me.

I feel like every player wants to be in that position where they feel like they're best

footballs ahead of them.

But here's what he said about because there was that report and we talked about this

report on the show when it happened that the Titans that he was ready to sign back with

the giants.

And the Titans came in with this last second Hail Mary pitch that sort of swayed him and

changed his mind and convinced him to come sign in Tennessee.

And Eastern Freeze asked specifically about that and whether that reporting was accurate.

Not necessarily.

That wasn't the way it really went down.

I don't know what it got there from to be honest, but pretty much it was just negotiation

with my agent and Salah.

Obviously, I know that, you know, Salah interested in me, you know, that, you know, built

that, that feel corner would be a good spot for me at his defense and, you know, really

just how it went was the last call was to say, are you excited to be a Titan and Dan?

We went from there.

So first of all, this is why most of the time the players do their press conferences

from the podium because they can't frame themselves up in a shot.

I mean, what's he doing?

He's on the far edge of the frame.

Like, what are you doing there, Cortelle?

Like look, look in the phone and see where you're positioned and just move it slightly.

Anyway, yeah.

So apparently it wasn't like he's about to sign with New York.

And here comes Tennessee swooping in and stealing him away.

It was more like the Titans had a pitch for him.

They view him as a field corner, as he said, it's, you know, then another word for outside

in this Salah defense.

And he's excited to come play for Robert Salah.

He gets to reunite again with Mark Juan Manuel, who he mentioned in his press conference

and another point, reunite with Carmen Brasillo and Brian Dable, Juan Dale Robinson, who

he would practice against in training camp.

And he was asked about that too and talked about how physical Daniel Belinger, good point.

But he talked about how physical Juan Dale can be in practice and that, you know, he's

feisty, great hands, good at the catch point, et cetera, et cetera.

So lots of cool stuff from Cortelle Flott.

The last thing that he was asked about was do you think it's like, he was like, do you

think that reuniting getting the band back together essentially, all these ex giants,

all these ex jets and Tennessee, like, how do you see this going essentially?

And he's like, well, I think that must have a different plan because we didn't get

the results that we wanted there, but it's great to be back with all these guys.

And I didn't mention this before, but John Franklin Myers had a similar quote.

He said something like, it's great to be back with the guys you've bled with.

And I feel like that's sort of the theme of this free agency class.

And again, the overarching theme of these press conferences that we heard from these

players is that they are all excited to be back together.

I think people are blowing the giants jets stuff out of proportion, like they do.

They brought in too many guys who lost.

Those teams didn't have a quarterback.

This team is excited about having cam work.

Like that, that changes that the jets would have won.

If they had Patrick Mahomes at quarterback, they would have won with John Franklin Myers

in germane Johnson.

And, you know, the giants would have won if they didn't have Daniel Jones and Russell Wilson

and James Winston played there.

And what other bums played the last couple of years in relief for them?

I think it goes further than that, even like Brian Dable's giants had issues on defense,

where Shane Bowen was the defensive coordinator and Robert Salas hired him.

But yeah.

What did you say?

Brian Dable's fault for hiring him, but well, yeah, but that's not the point I'm making

here.

And then Robert Salas Jets teams had issues with the offense that it wasn't good enough,

even with Aaron Rogers.

It wasn't good enough.

You come behind the best parts of these two teams.

And maybe you can find a perennial winner.

And by the way, we can boil it down to this and we're going to get out of here in a second,

but it's very simple, right?

Like Robert Salas, they did everything in free agency to have him oversee the defense.

And they did everything in free agency on offense to have Brian Dable oversee it, right?

Like you bring it, you bring in Wendell Robinson, you bring in Austin Schlotman, you bring

in Daniel Belinger and you're like, you really want to coach this quarterback and cam

ward.

They think that they gave Robert Salas the pieces for his defense and they gave Brian Dable

the pieces for his offense.

And they love the plan that he had for cam ward to begin with period.

It boils down to that.

Nothing Flot said shocked me.

I mean, this guy's six feet tall.

He's obviously a field corner, a boundary outside guy, not the longest guy.

And he's pretty slender as well, but he's an outside corner all day long.

That's where he's going to play here.

And one more note, just on the overall free agency class and how this can affect the

win total this year.

So this comes from John Todd, who's been at sports info solutions.

He's now an NFL researcher at NFL media.

He tweeted one week into the new league year, the Titans at $313 million have spent the

most total value in 2026 free agency.

Every team that led the NFL in free agent spending from 2019 to 2025.

It's the last six years saw an increase of at least three wins.

The following season, including plus 10 by the 2025 Patriots, you talked about it

earlier.

I've talked about it a lot.

This whole free agency approach to go after guys with that familiarity.

So it's not quite draft and developed, but it's guys that your coaching staff has drafted

and developed elsewhere and now brought back together.

I'm really optimistic for what this Titans team could do in 2026.

I don't think they're going to be the Patriots and go all the way to the Super Bowl.

But I mean, week 15, week 16 in the hunt for the playoffs feels very much within reason.

I don't want to get expectations too high, because that's how you have, you know, ultimately

disappointment.

But I don't know.

My expectations are kind of high.

I just let's have a fun season.

Let's win a lot more games.

Let's be competitive.

Let's be fun to watch on offense defense.

That's what I'm hoping for that's going to do it for today's episode of the Music City

Audible Podcast, I think that is going to do it.

I just wanted to say, Justin, as we sign off here, that March madness has begun.

I am a huge fan of March madness.

I think this is the best four days in sports, like this is the best sports weekend on the

calendar every year, regardless of sport.

You can see if you're watching us on YouTube, I'm wearing my Texas Longhorns t-shirt.

We got to play BYU tonight.

I've got Texas beaten them in my bracket and that's very much a heart pick and not a head

pick, but we'll see what happens.

I just wanted to wish everybody luck in their brackets, but their bracket pool is hopefully

by the time you're listening to this, your bracket's not busted already.

But as we record this, the tournament is just getting underway.

I just turned on TCU Ohio State and I'm excited for this weekend, but we'll be back tomorrow.

We're going to do a mock draft on the live stream.

I think Justin, ultimately what we're going to do is we've been thinking about how we're

going to conduct this.

I'll do mine.

You do yours and instead of letting the people do their own third one, maybe they just

sort of tell us throughout the draft who's that they're liking better and maybe the people

will want us to like combine and merge our mocks by the end of it, but we get a lot of feedback

from the live chat.

So make sure you are tuned in 10.30 a.m. central on this channel.

We will be live.

Make sure you're subscribed.

Make sure you like this video.

Drop your thoughts in a comment below.

Until tomorrow, Justin.

And final one, do you?

Y'all stay safe out there and tighten up.

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