M M. What's up everybody. This is the Titans Fan Battle Podcast,
Rock You by the Fan Battlesports Network. I'm your host, Maximus Titan Fan
and my co host today as always it's your boy Flame and mister flame Wild,
number one Titan fan in the world, and we had literally so much
fun on the last show that we had with this guy, we had to
invite him back, especially for the Hopkins welcoming party. Mister Cortland Griffin,
go ahead and introduce yourself. Man, oh man, I'm glad to be
back on the show. Guys. Um, you know, we got a
lie to talk about, and we've been a place to talk about Titans news
and the Tights Fan of a podcast. Hey, thanks for being here,
man. We appreciate it all right, So of course everybody wants to talk
about it. Everybody wants to know all the details. Like literally, I've
been my I don't know about you. My social media has been nuts lately.
I literally haven't been able to hardly keep up with it, um,
but we signed him. The news was announced I think Sunday writing about one
thirty. I think they were literally waiting on people to get out of church,
which is hilarious. But I literally think that's why they dropped it at
one thirty because they were like a church. Yeah that's good. Um,
of course that's our that's our that's our thing, not Central Time. So
I guess that blows my theory out of the water. But anyway, Um,
he signed a two year deal twenty six million, thirty two I think
guarantees um, and then he has three million in incentitives different incentives. M
I think the breakdown is right here, done by Ian rappaportum catches, you
know, done by reception yards and touchdowns. You know, basically it's it's
pretty easy, you know. If he gets like I think it's ten fifty
eighty receptions or yeah, eighty receptions, ten fifty yards and uh ten touchdowns,
he meets all three and gets three million extra. So but hey,
you know, on the last time we were talking about this Courtland, I
don't know if you remember or not, but my boy flame here literally said
fifteen million a year and we were, well, we were talking about a
second contract, but he said fifteen million a year and men and you were
like, nah, twenty twenty five, you know, like twenty and twenty
two. You know, we don't care, you know, So to me
it feels like we're kind of getting him for a discount. Oh yeah,
I was gonna say, how do you feel about that? But and this
is this is Ran Carthon. This is Ryan Carthon and his wheelhouse at work,
right, this is where he is perfect. He's not John Robinson.
If this is John Robinson, it would have been seven million, probably seven
point five millions somewhere in there. A year, one year deal. Let's
figure it out, and you know, throw some the centers in there,
and you would have got maybe up to that base base pay of like twelve
million, where his base page twelve being on this contract and he can get
up to fifteen. This is Ryan Carthon at his at his finals, right.
And then here's the thing about it that people are on this. You
see two years if you're like, okay, twenty twenty, twenty four,
twenty twenty four, twenty five, and then he goes on and rides off
into the sunset, maybe with another team, right. Wrong, You get
one year. Hey, you go out there, even if we're seven and
ten team, you go out there and show us that you're DeAndre Hopkins of
twenty twenty right where he had fourteen hundred and six touch downs and I believe
like one hundred and fifteen receptions. Right, you show us that guy or
even just a glimpse of that guy. You're on a one year deal this
year now, and we have one hundred and twenty five million dollars to play
with it. You don't think they're gonna go resign that guy to another two
maybe three year deal. Yes, a third draw here a thirty four to
thirty five year old receiver, sounds like a lot to pay him, right,
But when it's a guy that shows you that, hey, I was
suspected one year, I was injured the next year, but I'm still a
perennial, all pro perennial, you know, pro Bowl receiver. Why not
paying well, even even if you look at last season stats. You know,
I hear a lot of people say that, especially a lot of people
in the AFC South. But I hear a lot of people say that,
oh, he's washed up, He's going to the Titans to end his career
like all the others receivers d you know, But I feel like, you
know, we talked about this last time. If he was to come here,
I feel like he would break that trend because he's he's still producing at
a high rate. If you look last year, even with the suspended games.
Okay, don't don't pay attention to those numbers. Pay attention to eighty
yard per game average, right, eighty yards a game. That's what he
was producing back in Houston. He was finally getting into some kind of rhythm
with Kyler Murray or you know whoever he was playing quarterback with, because I
think Kyler was hurt part of last year. But the max I'll do you
want better? I do you want better? Can I interest you in sixty
six percent on his of his catches right of his targets with catches? Can
I interest you? And eleven point two yards per route? Can I interest
you in three touchdowns? I mean, you know, can I interest you
in thirty five first downs? And he played one that's game in the previous
year where he was suspended, he had thirty what was it, Oh yeah,
he had thirty two first downs. So in one more game, right,
he gave you three first downs. This is a guy who can now
only move the change, but he can get you into the end, Zoe.
He can score. He's gonna draw double teams. He's like he said,
whatever team signs me, I'm gonna make your job a lot easy.
And see that's presence. That's what kind of excites me about getting DeAndre Hopkins
because it was his game is not based on speed, is not based on
you know, him just going out there, you know, burning receivers like
dude is basically a receiver the hass hands like he's gonna catch whatever is thrown
to him. So, I mean, I've never seen him. I can't
say never, but it's not a lot of times what DeAndre Hopkins catches the
ball and gets a lot of rack like how A. J. Brown used
to do, but it can't. But I've never like, I never,
I never liked his rack because a lot of times it seem like he catch
the ball and he'd give himself up. But that's cool, stay healthy,
that's what we need. But I always like his hands, like he's gonna
be there when we need the first Damn. He's gonna catch the passes that
a lot of receivers don't catch. He's gonna transform our offense and he's gonna
be reliable. That's what we need. Like it's too many times the ball
is thrown to our receivers and we damn their praying that they catch it.
We did, and they're praying that they can, that they can get a
little separation. So he's gonna give us that for sure, the ability to
be able to throw about his way and we can almost guarantee he's gonna catch
the ball. So that's what excites me the most, like and give us
assistency. Finally, at the wide receiving and analytics played a lot a big
part in this UM. Shout out to brob Brinker, our assistant. Like
Ryan carth thinks a lot of love, but Bob Brinker, who can coming
over from Green Baye who's the assistant GM, deserves a lot of critic He's
an analytics guy. There's a reason why Green Babe when got the guys that
they will go getting it seemed like this hodge podge of athletes and route runners
and position players and possession catchers and it was like, Okay, why did
you want mer say these Lewis he's supported right, Well, it's because he's
a he's a He's a five point five yard per target, right like average
at forty years old. He had sure hands that Yeah, that cuts.
That cuts a drive where I run the ball, I make it three yards
in the cloud of us. Instead of going second to seven, I got
second and five instead of third and second to four. Now I got first
down and I can keep drives going where DeAndre Hopkins now brings that because he's
like I said, sixty six point seven catch percentage of his targets, So
sixty systems. So that's all. That's six out of every ten passage thrown
this way, he's catching them. But on top of that seven point five
yards per target that's on first and tend you go from first and ten Derrick
Henry run of maybe five or six yards, right, But now teams have
to think about now got Yonder Hoppins on one side, who he can go
in first or ten terms in the second and three instead of now second and
nine, six or second and eight. We stay ahead of the change with
the Titans had a lot of trouble doing that ship. We couldn't depend on
we have to depend on big players. But now you can chunk you.
I can chunk you down to yard down the field with a fifteen yard runs
from Derrick Kennedy with a seven to eight ten, you know ten twenty twenty
five thirty yard passed to Johns Hopkins. And then on top of that,
I got a guy in Trailing Births that can work underneath. And I got
Josh Wiley who's a red zone target. And I got a guy who I
like to call the Laney Dave and Chiggle Conko who can run those those you
know, those Delaney Walker type of post corner outs, those out routes and
turn them into big plays. So you're you're now getting a lot of guys
that can create after the catch, but also turn what used to be three
and outs into sustained drives, which helps your defense as well. Yeah,
and that's and people forget about that those drives do help our defense, help
our defense get a breather. You know, those three and outs used to
kill us. A lot of people don't don't think about how bad three and
outs kill your defense. It's like, man, they just got off the
field, whether they whether they gave up a field goal or touchdown or make
the other team. You don't turnover on downs, man, bro that those
three and outs our offense. They not only killed the momentum, they killed
our mentality. They killed them around when your defense looking up like, huh,
we gotta go back out there and make another stop these wires. He
was already killing us. Man, I'm telling it. That's that's what that's
what. That's what I mean when I say that Hopkins don't provide that consistency
to our offense. Man, Like you just said, it's gonna be a
first down here, He's gonna open it up to where Derek Henry can run.
It's just he make the whole offense better. And I can't wait to
see highest making supposing offenses off the field, which is they can't get a
rithm right. And so that I think that's and that's where a lot of
the holes that people have about the Titans, right, A lot of the
negative dark mark or black marks you have on this team and this roster now
get remedied with just one guy. Like people always look at the offensive side
and that all guys offensive impact is he's a force multiplier, Like there's a
there's only like four or five guys in the league that are forced multipliers at
the wide receiver position. Justin Jefferson is one, right, Javante Adams is
another, DeAndre Hopkins is another, right, and then you can throw some
other names in their devo, the devo Samuels, of course A J.
Brown in Philly. There's some other guys, right, but DeAndre Hopkins is
a forced multiplier. In other words, you put this down on your team.
He affects more than just your passing game, right. He affects your
defense. He affects your team, your locker room morale, He affects the
affected because of the quarterback to run the game, the defense, he does
all of these things, and just with his presence being there, and also
the professionalism that he brings because he's he's not going there. I think year
ten, so this is this is this is where you see players start to
kind of go into that mentor role. And we'll talk about better though.
Well I'll say this, man. You know, people talk about how can
one guy change your team? You know that much? Or whatever? You
know, and I always try to think back or take people back, not
the same way, but production wise, I think this team will probably outdo
the A. J. Brown Corey Davis days, because that's what I'm looking
at right now. I'm looking at Treylon Burke's is as good or better than
Corey Davis and or I will think you. I think he will be,
especially this season. And DeAndre Hopkins is as good or better than a J.
Brown. So you put those two together, and hey, hey,
there's no argument that Chicka Conquo is better than John U. Smith. So
yeah, yea yea already out produced him in his first rookie season. And
here's the thing, right, if you look at ceilings, people said,
well, John Swift is Delaney Walker right in a bigger body. Okay,
that's great, And and and for his time when he was healthy, I'd
give him that. He was a guy you can line up in. I
mean they line him in. They line him in up at half back.
You don't see that with tight ends off the right. We're not asking Chick
that Chig is more of the lad to Laney Walker clone right, six foot
one, six foot two two forty two forty five four four four four four
five four five guys. And and here's the quazy thing. As a rookie,
he was ranking the top ten for tight ends and yards per target catch
rating, like all of these things that you look at. He was if
he hadn't played, if he had played the entire season as the starter,
we're looking at that guy who was a top ten, arguably top you know,
top five tight end in the league. And that's that's putting him in
the air of guys like Rob ron Kowski who was playing Travis Kelsey, who
was playing George Kittle. That's putting him in that air Mark Andrews and those
guys. So when you start to look at that, you say, Okay,
we got a potential top five tightening. We have a legitimate number one,
top ten receiver, and we have a young number two who can develop
into a number one with the best running back in the NFL and a Google
threat running back behind them, you know who potential wise can bring another element
to this team. And a wide receiving number two who you have to respect.
I mean, I'm sorry, a tight end number two that you have
to respect. And Josh Wiley is this is because a simple factor of his
height and athleticism. This turns this look all to the difference. Well,
yeah, and another aspect I want to talk about is, uh, you
know we were talking about on the last show of the difference between the two
gms, you know, and how you know, as a fan, as
an old fan, we were just excited to have something besides the crazy,
crappy old Floyd Reese. You know, we were just excited to have something
different. And he was making moves. I mean, he did the David
Stewart move, got Riddor Old Green Beckham, which was an amaz or Dennis
Kelly. I'm sorry, but that was an amazing trade he did get David
Stewart. He also, I mean, he made a lot of move He
made a lot of bad moves, made a lot of bad pet draft picks.
He made some decent draft picks. But the point is the difference between
so like when you know, this whole John Robinson thing went on and they
fired him, and then so when we were looking for a new one,
I was just all skeptical and didn't and then they hired Rayin Carthon. I
don't really know that much about him, if I'm being honest, you know,
I'm not that deep of a football guy into all the gams and stuff
like that. But I was impressed with his demeanor and the way he handled
himself, you know, and I was like, all right, well let's
see what the guy's got in the draft, you know. And then I
wasn't impressed at first, but then I kind of like started digging into it
more like as if I was a football coach, you know, and looking
at are these R A S scores and all these different things, and I
was like, wow, you know, okay, maybe maybe I'm I'm kind
of starting to see the guy's vision, you know. And then you know,
you also look at the offseason acquisitions that he got, and I mean,
like right now, literally when he signed DeAndre Hopkins for me, in
my mind, I literally saw Ran Carthon like walking away in slow motion,
you know, like when a building explodes and you hear that really awesome music
and he's just like strutting, dude, like yup as this offseason y'all,
And I mean, he happens. How can you do that with his little
money that we had, his little wiggle room that we had, and he
has produced us a contending team he came in And that's the big thing with
the GM, you don't and I think and that's the reason why he got
the job was because one of the things that he said in his interview process
was I don't feel like the Titans have to completely restart to rebuild. I
don't think you guys have to rebuild this team just needs to have some infusion
of talent. We need to kind of get it rid of some of the
old you know, the old dead skin, dead weight, right, trim
some of the facts and give this team back and get you to the twenty
first century. What did he do? Hey, little one, Hey,
we love you, I love Before the Boys podcast, you know, Busting
with the Boys. A Titans legend is number seventy seven. I wouldn't be
surprised if it's hanging up in the rapper something. But you gotta go three
years, two out of three years a CEO injury. Hey, your time
is done. As you can see, no other teams pay too much money.
Sorry, and and so you know. And then he looked at the
other cuts, right, but a budget free, right, guy, David
Long, see you later. Right, you look at the what he did.
He trimmled the fat, He allowed um, he allowed Mike Rabel to
shout out and that's my guy, Mike Patton shout out to him. Uh
uh so he allowed Mike Rabel to put his fingerprints on his team. But
he also put his fingerprints on his team. And if you look at how
they've they've configured it now it's it's very much. So let's build through the
draft and then get the bigger pieces on the back end. Right, it's
not always about the big names. You see teams. We've seen teams in
the past. The Cleveland Browns are prime exemp. Right, big names will
spend one hundred fifty million dollars and throw bags of guys, right, and
it's no vision, there's no it's a team. It's a Madden roster.
Right. You put a bunch of ninety nine overall, ninety overalls, eighty
nine overalls, speed guys in the field. You say, let's go to
the football games. It doesn't work like that. You have to have a
vision. And so with Ran Carthon is doing now you see, he saw
the vision. And a lot of people felt like all Tennessee failed in the
draft because there were wide receivers there in the third round they could have taken,
but they took the tight end. There were there were wide receivers there
in the fifth round they could have and they take the offensive line where they
think right will he said it, him and Mike rab both said that,
hey, we have a plan. We're going to see what the free agent
market looks like where there's no were the free agent guys. I felt I
felt like awesome Ford going to the Cardinals gave us the upper hand. I
felt like, I feel like they knew. Yeah, Yander Hopins just want
to be at in Arizona and so, Yeah, and he's gonna ball out.
I agree. I agree with your Patton. Hes gonna ball out this
year. He gonna be all on the ball. People don't understand that he's
gonna be a fan favorite. Some I'm telling me the fans donna attractive,
don't flock to him. Oh, he's the tightens guy. Like last show,
Aziz looks like a guy who sho who's been here with the Titans his
entire career. He just yeah, he just fits in. So it's when
he when you seen number two in the field, you're it's gonna be like
and where did this guy come from? Right, He's just gonna fit in.
He's a tight right, He's not. He's at a forty nine in
turn Titan. He's had a former, looks like a tight and talks like
a Titan. He loves this place. So, and that's what Mike Rabel's
big thing is. Mantress been definitely at training camp Manatory meeting camps. His
thing was, we want guys that want to be here. Well it looks
like de Andrew Hopkins wanted to be here. So so I think that says
a lot. Yeah, Yeah, you know that's been that's been very plemont
right there too. Yeah, And a lot of people like to uh,
A lot of people have been comparing the latest wide receiver we you know,
picked up on free agency, and I'll actually like to use this comparison.
I actually love it when they bring this up because Julio Jones signing, if
you look at it, just again goes to show you the difference in between
our gms now and then. But if the Julio Jones signing crippled us,
and it was a real high risk deal, I mean it was a high
reward but also very high risk. I mean we gave up draft picks four
void years in this contract. I mean it was insane, all right.
And now this time we're not only are we saying, all right, here's
a base salary and here's an incentive of deal, which you know, I
think concentative driven contracts are the best kind, especially when you're talking about a
veteran um. And then not only that, the money. I mean,
we don't really know the specifics yet, but the money that we're getting him
for, and there's no draft capital. So when you look at the comparison
of the two, it's with DeAndre Hopkins, even though he's a much better
player in my eyes where he's at right now in his career compared to the
Julio Jones when we got him. But if you look at the two deals
alone, we're getting Hopkins for a much low risk, cheaper contract. It's
better structured, no draft capital, so it is way different than when we
got Julio Jones. Automatic. Yeah, and I think I think it's exactly
what you're saying is what got John Robinson fired because a lot of times the
moves he made, he didn't look he didn't he didn't he didn't think about
the future enough. Like when he made that Julio' deal, it was kind
of like all or nothing, Like we went we gave all for that one
season. We you know, we gave a lot of for that one season,
and we knew the next couple of seasons was gonna be rough. He
knew that we was gonna have hell with that salary, with that uh,
with the salary captain next two seasons. So it was I felt like John
Robson was just like, fucking, let's get him, Let's give him the
draft pick. We're gonna go all in. This is gonna be our super
Bowl year. And that's why his ass was crying when we lost that Bengals
game at that at that and that all season on that video. That's why
he was crying because he knew, you know, if he didn't capitalize with
that Julie O trade, we was gonna be in trouble. And you know,
that's why he had to, uh, you know, end up shipping
a j off. And I mean we he really got us, and he
really dug us a whole, and I'm liking how rand is trying to build
get us up out that whole. So far. I'm liking everything ran undone
man, as far as the free agency signed, the way he's fixing the
offensive line, you know, keeping Tannehill not listening to all these folks and
they say, hey, what we're gonna do at the quarterback. We're gonna
trade them. Like I'm liking, you know, everything he does. He's
gonna keep tanning. We're gonna rock out. We're gonna We're gonna fix our
offensive line. He brought these key pieces in on defense, Art and key
as Zill Shyer. Um uh, everybody he didn't brought on defense I had.
Uh Yeah, It's like so I'm liking the Huli I mean, not
Hulio, the Hopkins hop getting Hopkins and you know, like I said,
even in the draft, he didn't panic. He didn't spend our first round,
our second round on the wide receive them because everybody know that's what we
needed. So I'm loving everything he did. Man shout out to Rain.
I ain't been this excited about a season probably since the year week, since
the year we got Julio. But now it just feels like it makes most
sense this year. Can I'm ringa other side to the I get to the
Julio deal too. The Julio deal was done out of, like you said,
panic, because you would you paid who you end up painting Hull your
jones. You could have kept Corey Davis, like people feel to realize how
productive Corey Davis was and the Texans uniform not almost. I think he had
almost a thousand yards that year. He missed the game. I think it
was his healthy seasons of his career. I think he had missed like one
or two games that kept him from being a thousand yard receiver. Yeah,
he's like nine six years Yeah, yeah, Yo. A J. Brown
was was of course a thousand yard receiver, multiple touchdowns. Right. Only
thing you needed was a tight end, which was the one of the holes
we had, and a slot receiver that could get open and kind of get
some book. Right. It seemed like he really got go ahead ahead.
I'm saying. We were talking about Corey Davis. I'm gonna tell you one
other thing, Miss Corey Davidson, and he dropped the ball on run blocking.
It was a lot of times Derek Kenry used to break them long runs
and Corey Davis to be the lead, the lead blocker out there. I
was like, yeah, and Julio was not going to adopt that, So
that was kind of a downfall we took to but go ahead. But yeah,
I was just gonna say so when you look at that, coupled with
the fact that you got rid of our top two receivers and back the back
of years, yep, and and then you drafted those guys and then the
guy that you traded a second one I think a second and like a third
the next year or fourth the next year, for it is no longer on
the roster after a season. Yeah, like, yeah, you're gonna lose
your job. You're gonna lose your job. You John Robinson for lack of
best, for lack of both turns. Yeah, Carthon turned it around.
But like like like Mike said, making magic happen little the low cap space.
You know, only what four or five picks in the draft this year,
and the picks though they look like, oh man, he didn't get
any glue chip guys. You know, depending on what you look like,
what you how you look at or how you grade at will let this right.
I had people Scarronski as one of my top chapples, so he is
a blue chip guy. But they're moving in the guard. It depends on
how you look at these guys. But it's like, oh, it's it's
one of those drafts where we're gonna look back on this on NFL networking,
like on NFL films one days and they're gonna list these guys and say this
is a great draft for twenty twenty three. Twenty four draft was a great
draft of Titans because you got Taje Spirits, who's a starter. You got
Scarnsky, who's an all Pro guard. You got this guy who's a you
know, you got Josh Wider, who's all pro or a tight end or
a pro bo tight end, and one of the best tight end two is
in the league. Like, you're gonna have this contingency, whether this draft
yields starters or guilds death guys. You build foundations and you win super Bowls
with those kinds of movies. You don't have the draft. You don't have
to draft a five star prospect every time you build the guy. You build
through the draft, and you build these depth, those depth look at the
equals, look at the chiefs, right, death guys that become starters,
guys who are fifth round draft picks and now playing meaningful minutes and meaningful downs.
Uh, you know in championship games and the winning super Bowl. That's
how you those super Bowls. And I kind of feel like at the end
of John Robinson's tenure, it kind of a part of me seems like him
and Brayble was kind of bumping heads. And that's why I kind of think
that when Red Carthon got high he you know, he really expressed he know
he's gonna help. He's gonna team up with John Robinson. It's gonna be
a you know, a collaboration. And I feelt like with this draft,
these are also Rabels guys too. These are guys that these two put their
heads together, drafted these guys, and I think that they love and what
they've got. I feel like before it was too much John Robinson and you
know, I guess Rabel just going along with it because I mean, all
of them made since ahead of time. You know, nobody knew Caleb Farley
was gonna be a complete bus. Nobody knew that Isaiah Wilson was gonna be
up complete bus. Like I mean, so it looked good man, so
it left the worst man. So it looked good to Jay rob and Rabel
then. But now I feel like they really got it together. I feel
like they really got together and was like Rabel telling Ran this is what I
need to be successful. I need somebody who's gonna protect my quarterback. Draft
them first round. I don't care where you're getting from. I need somebody
to protect Sotana Hill won't be on his ass every play. I need I
need a running back who's gonna catch the ball, can catch the ball out
of the backfield. Give Derek Henry a break, not fumble the ball.
I need, I mean, I just I mean I need a tight end
and I do need to wind out. I don't care where you get the
man. Let's just you know, look at analytics. He's big on analytics.
Let's look at see who caught the most first down passes, who were
in the Bess routes. And I felt like they got together and they had
a hell of a draft together, and I'm ready to see, like,
how, like you just said on down the line, how these guys gonna
play out. You know, it's John Robinson so bad. It's like for
for for Kayla Farley to not be playing, it's like killing us because that's
the first down draft pick, brons any other thing on any go ahead.
No, I was just gonna say like this probably, but uh, the
tight I'm gonna draft by And I love doing the d draft analytics and draft
coverage where the Titans went back to look at these East West. Start paying
attention to the Senior Bowl in the East West Shrine game. Start paying attention
to that Ran Carthon spent a lot of time to the Senior Bowl, which
is where he found our guy, right, Tyja Spears. So you're going
to see a lot more these guys coming from that Senior Bowl, which is
where the Titans found a lot of impact players in the past. We found
a lot of impact players at at the East West Game. We found a
lot of right, we found a lot of impact players at the Senior Bowl.
So, and it's a chance for these smaller school guys to get some
exposure against the Ohio state competition, against the Alabama competition, against the Power
five competition. And Tyche Spears was working in slot at slot receiver a lot
doing that that time. You those practices, if you go back and look
at that tape on YouTube type of in Tache Spears sing your Bowl practice,
he was cooking any and everything out there. I'm talking about some guys that
with second round, third round picks that are going to be playing meaningful downs
at cornerback, and he was cooking them as a running back. So this
is this is where rand Carthon and Bob Brinker are are now going to It's
the analytical side of the draft. It's the it's it's the NBA. When
you see teams in the NBA, and I this is not NBA podcast,
but it kind of correlates. You see teams in the NBA. You see
a guy from like a small shooter, right, Florida, Florida Atlantic Coast
University, right, and you're like, who is this guy? You look
at the analytics, You look at the analytics, and it's like, he's
an eighty six percent shooter on catching shoot opportunities, he's a plus rebounder,
he's all these things. He's a he's a you know, when he's defending
U, he's a three. But when he's defending the four, he's one
of the best, you know, rated the fingers in the game. That's
how the NFL is now looking at guys at running back. This is how
they're looking at receivers, this is how they're looking at tight ends. And
so with that analytical side of it, the Titans can start to mold a
more athletic team, which Rabel said at the end of the year. I
want to get fast. I want to feel one of the fastest teams in
the NFL, and they're taking steps to do that. He wants to be
physical where they got fat they got physical because these outshore year is one of
the most physical receiver of lone packers in the game. If you look at
this run grades, if you look at this pass coverage grades, he gets
a lot of deflections and a lot of those inflictions are just him separating the
man from the ball. So when you look at that, this is the
type of Sean Murphy. Bunty's one of the best press man corners in the
league last year if you look at the analytics. So when you look at
that, just the vision that you're starting to see with rabel And and Carthon
and Brinker, because I want us to start really start to give our assistance
gims and praise because Bob Brinker is a hell of a football blinding himself.
It's not just raining in that front office. It's not just much right when
I love those guys, but I love the fact that they added Bob Brinker
and also the fact that they're bringing in the analytics departments. Something that the
Titans I can't remember her name, but all of it. The assistant um
Analytics to be our head of our analytics department from the LA Rams. So
she's a I mean, she's a survived. When it comes to this,
it's nothing but going reviews and what she did in LA. So the fact
that, like I said, they're putting so much into that analytic side of
it, you're gonna see some guys that you're gonna be like, why did
you drag him in the second round or why did he get him? And
see why when he gets into the system, you you definitely definitely owned some
court and like that could be big bro, Like I never really thought about
you know, I've been hearing the analytics thing and that's having But now that
you broke it down, you know, let us know, you know,
they it's a team now and like they're really gonna be looking into that stuff.
Now that's big bro. And that could be man Carthon's job. And
and if you go look at this track, people didn't know that in LA
and the forty nine ers. He's the reason why they drafted Cooper Cup.
He's the reason why they drafted Aaron Donald. Those guys that were playing in
like these schools that you never really let You're like, what, where's Minnesota
whatever? Where it's you know, pick what that got from the ACC.
They're not known for defensive Lineman Donald, you know so, and then you
get Aaron Donald was probably one of the greatest we've seen. So the thing
that John Robinson was doing was basing it off them. The look old old
school. It was old school scout Bill Belichick style. Hey, um,
you know four to four and he was a four to four. We put
him here right. If you look at it, you look at the difference.
When I started doing draft coverage, I did the same thing, right,
old school. Get a white board, put some names up there,
right, forty times down right, then fress times down. You have a
you have a you have an equation that you use for each position right with
with tackles, you want long arms. You want their ten yards split to
be you know sub sub two right, sub three? Uh, you want
them to run well in and the shuttle quick feed right. Linebackers want to
be in the sifty traffic? Uh what how did they test? How?
How? How? How loses? Hips? Cornerbacks? You want long,
you know, lanky, strong? How good is the hips can be?
Flipping coverage? All these things right, And that's fine. It's the original
why the combine is still around. But there's also a reason why you have
Amazon attaching sensors to players. There's a reason why under armors attaching the sense
or there's the sensors that are built into what is his heart rate, how
much forces he generating off of his first step, how much sporces he generated
when he's punching in the bag. Right, there's a reason why those analytics
departments are now be and those that equipment. When you see these guys who
are distracked up with all kinds of gadgets and gizmos, it's a reason why
pro football focus is such a big thing now. That's a reason why RAS
scores, like like Max is talking about, it's a reason why RAS scores
are such a big thing right now. Because when you look at a receiver,
you say, okay, let's say let's take, for example, two
guys, right, i'mna take two teammates they're coming into this next year's draft.
Margaret Harrison junior Andy Buka from Ohio State, hypothetically speaking right old school
draft says, take Margaret Harrison, junie old school. That's simple, six
foot three, two hundred and ten pounds, runs for three jumps, forty
broad jumps, explosive athlete, right old school, say take him, But
if he boogle goes out there and I think six foot six foot one and
I think one hundred and nine hundred and ninety five pounds to give the take,
right, he WUS four three and his ten yards split is a sub
one right, and off his first step he's generating I don't know, let's
just give him some random number, twelve hundred pounds and furst office first step.
This now looks into Okay, now, this guy's gonna beat this guy
deep. Even though Marvin Harrison Junior is the rare athlete, he's the more
explosive athlete. Right. This guy's first step is quick, his reaction time
is quick. He explodes in and out right. That analytic side now says,
this guy goes from being a third round receiver to a late first round
receiver. And so now when you see like a guy who's maybe a reach
and he comes into the league, and I can say this, the letters
played a part in Odell Betham being drafted so high because if you look at
what he did, he was a return guy at LSU. He had one
great season at LU and he ended up being the first round receiver. And
you saw a play out on the field because he was so quick. He
was so fast you could take a ten yard slant route seventy yards to the
house and it made for a wide receiver one and one of the more explosive
receivers we've seen. So, like I said, we can talk analytics all
day long. It's a long, very interesting Yes, it's a very interesting
topic. But Max was talking about it, and I love that Max mentions
it already. Scores are once. You played a huge part in what the
Titans do from now until Rancarthin calls a quiz. YEA, all right,
man, I'm cool. So I was gonna do it at the beginning of
the show, but I'm sorry, no, you're good. Wiser had just
told men that I should wait until later in this show, but I have
to do it. I apologize to everybody who has to sit through this,
but I was right, so are you. Max. We called this ever
since the day that they released the news that we were still in contact with
him at Knew York heard New England. I started tweeting immediately and well on
every social media Facebook, TikTok, everything. I was like, put it
on your calendars. I guarantee all my Titans guys that follow me. They
are tired of hearing it how many times I've said it, because they'll bring
up DeAndre and I'm like, you already know what. I think he's gonna
sign. It's just you know, we're waiting, and it's funny as it
is. This Monday, I said, I think he's gonna sign this week,
and I was getting really depressed because I thought sure he was gonna sign
Friday, or say Saturday, and Sunday. The news broke and I was
right, sorry, patting myself. I want to go. I want to.
I want to. That's my boy, Max. I gotta give him
his flowers. I next somebody, somebody to pack themselves on back toward.
Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna do it. I no, I told Max
no. Being humble. Bro, you called this ship. You've been calling
it from day one. You did that. Carling, you also been called
you called it. And I want to give a shout out while we're on
live. Shout out to Bam because Bam met him when he was down here.
He talked to him, talked to him. He said he had a
good feeling too, So shout out to be wise. He called it shut
out, accord to insiders, man. So this is crazy, right,
and it's crazy the people that should be you know, being amber. Yeah.
When he left the the guy who I talked to for instid of Knowledge,
he was like, the feeling around the facility from Tim Kelly to Mike
Rabel to the training staff was he's gonna sign. That's just a matter of
time. He's gonna sign. And he said he likened it to win Jadavin
Clowney right when he said, Bruce Bowen and those guys were like, yeah,
Jadavien is gonna sign, Like we're not worried about them. We're not
worried about anybody else. He's gonna sign. When you have that kind of
feeling as an organization, if you noticed, the Titans didn't flinch, but
the tight Ins didn't. Like we didn't you weren't here in the Tennessee,
like well, we're gonna bring in Jarvis Landry and we're gonna bring in all
these other guys and we're gonna look elsewhere. No, they if you notice,
they were dead sick. DeAndre is the guy and we're just waiting on
Beyandre. Hey go. It's almost like Nick Saban in a top five recruit,
right, Hey go, visit Oregon, Lsu, Hey, hey,
go go visit. I don't care, go visit you know whoever else you
want to write, Florida, whoever else. We know he signed right like
you just you knew it. So that's and that's why I felt like,
that's why I said, I want I just want to give a shout out
to rand because I feel like Jay rob after he didn't sign that first time
he visited, Jay Robert went out there and signed Jarvis Landry overpaid him and
we would act like, you know howcas never, you know how never came.
But go ahead. But I'll say this too, ran Car and I'm
gonna keep giving Ran Cardon as must praises he as he deserves, since he
does deserve it. For forty nine ers fans. Forty nine ers fans should
thank him for Deebo Samuel Beings of forty nine because he's the guy that flew
down to Miami and had a conversation when that guy was asking to be tru
He did and was out the door. He was essentially all but gone.
In San Francisco, Ryan said, no, I want to go talk to
him, and this is a confirmed story. He said, I want to
go talk to that guy. He went to talk to Deebo and they got
a deal done. This is the kind of guy that you have now leading
your franchise. Hey, I was a player. I've been in analytics,
I've been in draft, I've been an NFL person. Now I know these
guys. I've been in their shoes. Let me talk to them because if
I can, I can get them. Nine times out of ten, I
looked like him. I've been where he was. I know what it's like
in the NFL locker room, and I also know the corporate side of it.
You know, I'm just so it's it's one of those things like if
I was a receiver and there's a guy like ryand Carthon sitting across from me.
He talks to my language. He you know, he can tell me.
He can he's a good sale. But it's also from a genuine place
right when you see him. He's a genuine guy. It's not pomp and
circumstance. It's not this. You know, he's not gonna throw all the
lights and blaming the big words that he's not John Robinson. John Robinson never
played it down. John Robinson barely played in college, right he's not a
he's not a nerd posing as a you know, as an NFL guy.
And it's not to down any of the guys that never played in the NFL.
But it's different when you talk athlete who's now in the front office.
Man, It's different when you talk to a coach who played and won Super
Bowls. It's different when you have guys who have been on winning franchises,
right Uh, Sean Murphy Bunting and and and Alex's aush year both been on
winning franchises and now coming and bringing that. It takes a mixture. It's
more than just the big names and the All pros and the superstars that make
a super Bowl team. It's those little nuances that you gotta kind of fit
together in a quick way, all right, man, uh real quick?
I do. I do kind of have to or I don't have to,
but I try to keep with the show under an hour now as the word
past um. So I'm sorry, guys, no, no, no,
no, I love it, man, I honestly I love you. I
hope we can get a segment set up or something like that because I love
having you around. To be honest with you, You're my favorite, so
I didn't say that. Um. Anyway, the big question everybody has or
everybody keeps popping at me, is Kenny still do it? You know?
Is Hopkins? You know wash that, which I have a tweet from Hopkins,
um, which I'm sure if you're a Titans fan you've already seen,
but you know, I'm gonna put it up anyway, and uh, you
know, yeah, I love it. I absolutely love it because that to
me, I don't know if you guys, I mean yeah, I'm sure
you guys remember, especially you Cortland, because you're on Twitter. But A
J. Brown could not help himself for some reason. Like he was on
Twitter all the time. Man, he was tweeting out stuff all the time,
to his haters, to his letters. I mean, he was just
a cool dude on Twitter. I still follow him. But anyway, DeAndre,
I mean immediately was tweeting an Instagram and about it. I mean immediately,
you know what I mean. Immediately, you know, was calling people
out. You know that we're saying that he was washed up, and he's
like, oh, y'all were just asking for me, you know, and
then had to delete some stuff. So I love it. I love it.
That's absolutely the kind of guy I want here, Absolutely the kind of
guy one here. It just brought back all kinds of good memories for me.
Tom Brady was a was a big time like he did it in a
different way, right, he did it. He did it against the media,
right as a media moment. You knew, like, if your team's
playing that guy, don't don't piss on Tom Ray right, like, but
don't kiss him off. And there's guys like that in the NFL. And
I think that's the one thing that the Titans have miss is having that dog.
Now we do have someone to roster that, like Jeffrey Simmons is that
dog, right, uh? And but I haven't seen many people down that
guy. I haven't seen people say he sucks, he's not a good player,
right, and you can't and without Sammy crazy yeah, But with DeAndre
Hopkins, I think like, like, and we've saw we've all seen it
in the Titans. Fans of watching this, right, we've all seen it.
All. The Titans are the white receiver graveyard. You guys got Andrew
Johnson, you brought in Randy Moss and Julio And here's the thing. Yeah,
not to say that DeAndre not down here. But but Andre Johnson's how
the first round, first bout of Hall of Fame because he is not to
say that Randy Moss, because he is. He does have a goal Jackie
right, Julio Jones, when he calls it quits, it's going to have
a goal checking. But you put this guy DeAndre Hodgins and that kind of
at this juncture in his career, right, and he just now turned thirty
one. I'm third and I go out. I could go out in the
ripple the field today if I needed to, and I ain't even shape.
Yeah, this dude does nothing, but this professionals his job, right,
DeAndre Hobs his six foot one, two hundred and twelve pounds. I want
to see everybody who said that he's washed. You go ask the tight and
see you have a walk on tryout and you point out beyond number ten he
said, I want to cover him, and see don't you get covered and
see how wash that man is. Like he's just want to go out there,
iron sharping's iron. He's hearing everything. He's not Kevin Durant as far
as like thin skin, but he's gonna remember every hater. He's gonna remember
every fan base. He's gonna remember every every every you know pundit and and
they say he's gonna winber each one of them. And every week from week
one or two, week eighteen, he's gonna say I told you, So
what was that you were saying? Yeah, who's washed? That's every week.
And he's not gonna say it verbally, He's gonna say it with his
play ye on the field. Yeah. So this is like you said,
I love having this guy from the roster outside of just the fact that it's
Deandrew Hopkins. I love having the guy to receive a position who's like who's
in the words oftorial Ownens. I love being sub met. And I hope
you brought your popum right. Top ten receiver. Man, I got the
h I got the Madden, I got, I got the man, uh
the wide respect. So I got to pull it up. Man. They
still believe, so Maddens still believed that, uh, DeAndre Hopkins is top
ten. I don't believe in the top ten. They got him right now
as the number seven receiver out of in the league. So and that's over
A J. Brown. So we got an upgrade. And I think I
think, I think pro football focus has DeAndre rinkin like number six in the
league, number five and number six in the league. So again, he's
a crazy thing. I know, we talked about it earlier. You got
a top ten receiver for wide receiver twenty three money, Like he's like the
twenty third highest paid receiver twenty third where he's a top five US win.
We won. That's it. That's it, man, you lost, Like,
yeah, this is the new Tennessee Like, and I've been trying to
tell people this is the new Little Tennessee Titans. Like, I know that
gets said a lot with teams that make front office changes, but this is
where the Titans are now in that we have a GM that can now compete
with other gms. It's not just about what you do on the field.
It's about what you do in those front office talks. It's about what you
do at those league meetings. It's about how you come across at the combine.
For a lot of people that don't know Julio Jones trade was talked about
and shaken one at the combine. Rand is now going to be that guy
who's representing two tone Blue at the combines, at these league meetings, at
these drafts. He's gonna be that guy. You're going to see a lot
of players that are going to start saying, I want to go to Nashville.
DeAndre Hobbins chose Nashville over Kansas City, New England, Buffalo. He
chose us over those places, and that new stadium on the way too years.
In two years, you have a new stadium and DeAndre Hopps could possibly
be playing one of his maybe second to third, like his third to his
last season in the new in the new stadium, saying that I was just
gonna say that, That's exactly what I was trying to say earlier about why
I was excited about this, you know, this new GM higher. I
was scared at first because I didn't really know that much about Ran if I'm
being honest. But the more I got to know, the more I liked.
Every time I found something else out and I was just like yeah,
all right, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, keep coming, yeah
yeah yeah yeah. And then once I started seeing his plan come together,
I was like, oh, okay, all right, yeah, I can
roll this. I can do this. And then now that we've got DeAndre
for what we got him for, I mean, he's like like I said,
dude, walk away from an explosion. You You've done it A plus
offseason could not be happier with our GM right now. I'm really excited to
see what happens next year when he can really throw some bags around, you
know. And I don't know, I'm just money more problems and that is
say that is a football thing because when you got that kind of money,
it's easy to go out and be like new shiny toys. Right. So
I hope that I do. I them never probably say this on every show.
Man. I just hope the injury bug is gone. Man, Like
we've dealt with this thing for two three years. But Man, because it's
gone, I can say that it's gone. Um, I would say this.
I don't know if you guys saw it. Max, you probably saw
it. I think he posted it actually, Um, Christian Fulton, I
mean looks totally different. And I'll say this as an athlete. When I
was in college, when I was in high school, I ate like crap,
right, I was in the Otio secret diet burger king right offee some
of the change. Yeah, you know, wasn't eating the best, right.
Um. I had a lot of streams. I had a lot of
no tears, no ligament tears or you know, rigid injuries like bone breaks
or anything like that. But a lot of strains, a lot of fullard
hands, a lot of pool quads, a lot of backs, you know,
backspatters. These is that nature when you get your When I got to
college, it was different. You know. They put they pumped you full
of water, they pumped you for electrolytes, they change your diet. I
put them on. I went from one sixty two. I went from one
sixty two to two oh five. And I helped you two oh five,
ye back five right at five eleven. I was a trim two h five
or five. But asked me how I ever had another tear, another strain
anything? Never Christian. Right now, I say, you probably feel amazing.
Oh as far as explodes you with, I got faster, I got
stronger. Right. That's why you see these guys when they get to the
NFL, they're like, oh, he ran the four two. That's why
they gets so excited because now that four two guys can turn to a fourty
one for a flat guy right like, because he's he's getting professional nutrition.
Now. Now some of these guys, I mean still heat like crap right
eat. Some of them are just guys given ethics. But the fact that
Christians Fulton realized that I need to go and get on the program. I
need to gonna get hydrated and the proper nutrition. What what the what?
What fuel? Do you don't put regular gas in the corvid? Oh?
Yeah, you know what I'm saying, don't you know? You don't play
right. You don't put a bumper stick girl on a on a on a
hurricane, right like this is that's that's what this is. That's what's going
on. And I just wanted to bring that up, like when you brought
up the injury bug, it is about guys and frever we mentioned that these
guys to take this serious in the offseason. He did it. Yep.
And I'm you know, shout out to Kyle Phillips, say he the main
one I'm waiting to see bounce back. But he's a lot bigger too,
He's a lot bigger. Now Now you're great, You're great. I love
it. I wish we can sit here and talk all night. But so
um, go ahead and let everybody know where they can find you out Third
Cortland, Oh no, for um, So yes, Thursday nights. Every
night, every Thursday night, seven pm, eight pm Eastern. You can
find me on my show, The Halftime Show. I'm definitely gonna have these
two fellows on. We're gonna talk some Titans before the season of Drown the
season. Definitely gotta have y'all on um. Also, I am bringing up
for all my draft heads and college football guys. Um, I am coming.
I'm working on right now my top fifty big board on the three punt
conversion. So be on the lookout that before Week one of college football and
week went to the NFL. If you're looking for guys that your team could
draft, if you're looking for those R. A. Scoors and those guys
look out for check out that article, all right, So definitely have checked
that out. Tell them here to find you. Flame. I'm Flame Douglas
on Facebook, and hey y'all, please help me get my Twitter follows up.
I'm on Twitter now, you boy on Twitter? Flame Underscore six one
five. Hey you follow me. I won't lead you wrong. I'm gonna
be posting a lot of ton of type stuff there. Me and my boy
Max Man, we're gonna be locking in. So Flame Underscore six one five
on Twitter. Get there please and as always, you know you can find
me Maximus Underscore Tighten Underscore fan pretty much everywhere Facebook, Twitter, TikTok,
Instagram, or you can look for the Titans Fan Battle podcasts, which is
on YouTube and Twitter and Instagram as well. Um, it's been a great
show, guys. I can't wait to have you on again, Cortland.
Um, but this can't absolutely not, absolutely not all right, Well,
I love yes, yes, to be honest, I love having you on.
Man, your energy great and uh yeah, y'all enjoy yourselves. Good night,