Titans Staff Unified on Draft Picks

I think stevens was a great pick..

The DE position is the true test of these guys. We have used 5 draft picks at end the last 2 drafts and we signed kearse to boot. We better get some production out of somebody..

 

Yes, they were catchable. If you think our receivers have 40 inch verticals, stretchable hands, and rocket packs.

are you serious?

 

62.3% of Vince's passes thrown last year were completed, or caught, or catchable, or thrown well enough for 5'11 guys to catch. Actually, it was probably closer to 65% once you factor in the drops. So, yes, I'm serious.

Stats don't lie.

 

we all know that we are a run 1st team and we will proably never have a high powered passing offense but we at least have to have a threat to go deep... if everyone knows we cant go deep it makes it that much easier to stop our offense... other teams will play thier safetys up to stop the run without having to worry about getting beat deep this will affect our short passing game and our running game... without a deep wide reciever our offense is to predictable...at least dinger had bennet when he was here before and bennet was very good at catching the deep ball but right now i cant name one reciever on our roster that can go deep...

 

i never said runningbacks couldnt catch i said that runnin gbacks our usually not the teams leading reciver accept in philadelphia and actually usually runningbacks are not in the top 3 at recieving.. so will cj become our leading weapon in the passing game??? highy unlikely but with the recieving core we have you never know...

 

Sorry, just really sounds like you are saying there aren't any runningbacks that can catch the ball, too.

 

Well, the 6/10 were screen passes I guess. He's good at those.

 

Did you read ubig's post before mine? He had said that scaife wasn't a franchise te so it was a need. So I just asked if he thought he was a franchise te.

 

I don't think he said 60% of his passes over 15 yards or anything. He simply stated that 60% of balls that left his hands were catchable.

 

That is funny beyond words, Gunny. So true....so true...

Someone please make a sig with that. Because Jeff Fisher WILL...choke a b****. Please believe. j/k


WHEN MIKE REINFELDT FIRST ARRIVED IN NASHVILLE


JEFF: Hold up, Mike. Lemme pull over to my A-T-M.


To some of the thoughts expressed in posts to this point.

On the real, I don't discredit the "we were in total agreement" line at all. I'm sure there were disagreements at points, but I also think it was easy enough to come to a consensus well enough before time elapsed. In short, I don't think there was any factioning of the war room as we sensed in the last Reese years. I don't think a pick was made with scouts and coaches having hard feelings lingering. I feel in round one, the Titans got the exact playmaker they wanted, by name. I felt they would go DE and DT early, by round three. Unlike some (and not saying it was a bad thing), I stopped subscribing to the "must have a WR by two, ideally in one" notion and started buying stock in the "we may draft a change of pace back at some point, maybe quite early" notion. Since we didn't go DE in one (apparently neither Merling or Groves rated higher than Johnson to the Titans), I felt Groves had to be the target in two. When the Jags jumped us and took him, as some of us suspected they might try, but in one, I thought, well, they're bound to go D-Line here if they don't take Sweed, which I believe they would have. I posted in the chat I thought the pick once Sweed was gone would be Chris Ellis or Jason Jones. So Jason Jones wasn't the first target in the 2nd round, but it was easy enough to agree on his value, I believe.

Round three was the big wrinkle. I'd hoped we'd take DT there, but JJ was meant to cover both line needs, if temporarily. Who among us thought we'd take the best blocking TE in the draft. It is very not sexy in this age to have blocking TEs, but figure this into your mix: Hartsock come on nicely last year and did a lot of good blocking. We improved by two games, year over year. Apparently having some continuity there was important to the staff, and Heimi. Also, the guy ran a 4.58 at the Combine and was the 2nd fastest TE there. So, best blocking TE and 2nd fastest. Now if he can catch....and his hands haven't been in question. Cal didn't feature the position much. Anyone who thinks that Stevens would have been available any round later only needs to read the article in the Tennessean. Baltimore had already called him and was on the phone informing him they would draft him with the 86th pick. He had to click over. We were taking him at 85.

I think round 4 was all about getting the best players remaining. Thinking Jones would slide inside later probably gave the Titans some cushion regarding the development of William Hayes, in the event he's not lights out from the absolute get-go. Also, for those who make fun of this guy, his story has all the makings of being "developed" into a movie one day. (Not sure if it's TV or film yet.) Don't make fun of Willy Hayes, or you'll be paying $20 a ticket to take your kid to see the movie! Drafting Lavelle Hawkins was a happy accident in all likelihood, but it seems like a good pick. Heck, even feels like a good pick, you know? To make some feel better, his best official time was 4.47, not 4.52 (combine), and he appears to play fast. Chris Davis is what's known as a "camp body" at this point. Say your goodbyes now. Up next: Brandon Jones. Finally, Stanford Keglar was a late-rising linebacker. Going up boards unlike most who were going down. Early consensus was "bad draft" for linebackers, yet we knew we needed depth. So we waited it out.

The seventh round is what it was - taking a chance where you're less invested in the outcome. Yes, I know, all picks are risks, but I think for the most part, this staff is very invested in the player's success, especially the first 5 picks.

I know some teams make it look easy, but it's not as though teams can move up and down at will. Also, we admittedly need holes filled. Speed swiss army knife on offense: check. Depth, youth and versatility on d-line: check. A three-position wideout to push the pile of uncertainty along: check. And apparently, one blocking TE with speed to split the seam: check.

It's natural to want your team to draft players whose names and performances you know, but since the realistic chances of getting who you want, just like for the teams, are slim, over the years, a better (less disappointing) approach for me is to try to know the team well enough to not just know the needs, but guess at the team's order of importance for those needs. That way, when you don't get the player you screamed at the TV for because you've thought "how perfect would that be" for months now, you can instead go, "that's interesting plus whatever emotion you insert here" and proceed to learn about this new person you have no control over playing for your team. You will evolve into this less painful way of approaching the draft...or you will die.

Seriously, though. From that standpoint, I thought the draft went well. We learned we have all the depth we need on the d-line. Also, the Titans think the depth in the secondary is adequate, that the key to the defense is to keep the line's production up, that the TE position is not balanced in terms of blockers v. catchers, and that a couple of WRs who were on the team last year are probably going to move on. Oh yes, and that speed was a very very important trait. Titans got: the Fastest player in the Draft, period; a 275 lb DE/T who has good speed for his size, and if he plays DT immediately, would be the fastest DT in the draft (fastest, 4.88, Dre Moore); 2nd fastest TE in the draft; the 2nd (barely) or tied-for fastest pure 4-3 end in the draft after or along with Vernon Gholston (pure - not counting QGroves, labelled "hybrid"), one inch shorter and 6 pounds heavier; a 4.47 WR with excellent hands and shiftiness; a 6'2" 245 lb LBer who ran 4.52-4.58 and had "the most bench-press repetitions (29), top broad jump (10 feet, 6 inches), top 3-cone drill (6.70), top 20 and 60 yard shuttles (3.98, 11.43) and the fourth-best 40-yard dash time (4.58)" at the Combine. Finally, in the seventh, we took a 6'1 CB with 4.43 speed who generated buzz at the Kansas pro-day in front of 27 scouts. Cary Williams was "only one of two NCAA Division II player to be ranked in the top 10 in the nation in interceptions and kickoff-return average in 2007." Considered one of the best gunners in the draft.

Look at the draft that way, and it's pretty good on the surface, even if it doesn't meet the expectations of many.