The OTP: Scouting the DL Class of 2020

the interwebs. But yes, RHTT, as you said, we are talking defensive linemen, and I think that this is going to be a really fun topic to come and talk about because well, defensive line is kind of important. And Mac, I want to start with you because you and I were having some conversations before we did this podcast, trying to, you know, get an understanding of what we're all thinking about putting our notes together, and you had mentioned something

that really stuck with me. You mentioned that a lot of these guys in this defensive line group could grade a little differently, like four different teams teams. Teams could grade them a little bit differently based on the flavor that a team likes or needs explain that to me. What does a team's flavor mean? Well, And first of all, it depends on how you're going to deploy your front, your front, you know, and your back you have to be able to join together. But also your front can

be different. Are you gonna are you going to deploy a three man front and play two gap people or are you going to play a four man front or a four man front that has shifted to a three man front with movement? You know, what are you going to do? What type of defense are you going to play? From front to back? And that's what's important, because some guys as defensive front people, some guys are better suited

to being two gap players. And what I mean by two gap players is is they're able to fire off into offensive linemen, hold the line of scrimmage and just hold that gap and then let the linebackers or whoever the drop down safeties are free flow to the gaps.

Some people like to use their defensive front as the people to run those gaps and then let the linebackers do what we call overlap, let them run out and let him run from inside out to overlap once all the gaps have been canceled and players have different abilities to do this. And so depending on what your philosophy is, and what's your defensive scheme philosophy is, there are different types or flavors, as I said, of defensive linemen that

fit into your scheme. Now, Red, I want to start with you and ask this question because we know there are a lot of different positions within a defensive line. A lot of different guys make up the initial line. Our team's grading different positions differently and placing different values on the different positions within that one line. I would think so, And that's just kind of figgybacking off what

coach Mac just said there. And depending on what you're set up is whether you're a three four defense and you know you have basically a couple of d tackles on either side the nose tackle in the middle, or

whether you're a four three defense. But yeah, absolutely, I would think that anybody that can play in the nose or a different shade technique and also be an edge player up front, like a Jurrell Casey was certainly would have a different kind of grade on them, not just the athletic and the measurables part of it, but the skill set in you know, as a whole. All right, now, Mac, there seems to be a consensus that Auburn's Derek Brown and South Carolina's Javon Kinlaw are the two top defensive

tackles in this group. What is it about these two guys that sets them apart from everyone else in that group? You know, both of these guys, amy are able to play the run and the past, you know, pretty pretty much equally. Well, they're both They're both big physical guys. They've got really good extension. In other words, they can

make they can move the line of scrimmage. Now, what you're always talking about with the line of scrimmage offensively or defensively is that if you're being successful, you want to play on the other person's side of the line of scrimmage. Both of these guys have a lot of knock back to him. Brown is a little bit different in the fact that he is really really stout, you know, against the run, and he's a really good horizontal player once he gets through the line of scrimmage. His chaseability

at his size is really good. Ken Law is longer than Brown is. He's longer's got more extension to him, but still he is a disruptor. And both of these guys can be centerpieces for defensive fronts, you know, for your for your team, and that's why I think both of them. And plus they've both produced boost at a

high level at a premier NCAA level. They're both Southeastern Conference players that week after week after week are playing against more of the same type of people they would be competing against in the National Football League, and so you've got a pretty good idea of what they can do on a consistent basis with their size, their knocked back,

their length, and their athletic ability. Right, are there other defensive linemen that may not be of that elite status but still be of the caliber to be going in the first round? Absolutely there are, And after Javon ken Law and Derek Brown, there's a group of really good guys in there that would be in the middle to bottom of the first round, probably in another tier down. But you're talking about a guy like a Ross Blacklock from TCU or At Gallimore from Canada who played at

Oklahoma who's still kind of learning the position. And there's some other guys also, a Marlon Davidson of Auburn who played with Derek Brown his teammate there. And then there's guys on down the line McTelvin, a gene from Arkansas. And then we get into the lay rounds with you know, guys like the twins from Nebraska, Carlos and Khalil Davis.

There's some guys throughout this thing, but the first two that we mentioned are the top of the tier, and then there's some really good ones right after that in the middle of the bottom of the first round. Mac, what about you, Are there any guys that you think are of first round caliber? You know what, I think He's He's covered most of those. My next guy after

Brown and Kenlaw would be Blacklock. And Blacklock. You know, you hear sometimes Amy and for our listeners on the OTP, you hear about guys that are making moves, you know, before the draft, are coming up before the draft. Blacklock is one of those guys. And the more you watch Blacklock, I mean when you watch him in Gary Patterson's defense, he played out of a four point stance, which means in that defense he had you talked about different flays. He had both hands on the ground and he was

charged sometimes with two gapping things. But you can just envision his ability and his athletic ability if you get him into a three point stands, whether it's a right hand or a left handed three point stands, that this guy could play in either an even or an odd front. And so his stock has been rising throughout this draft. But I think Red has hit has hit most of those guys, and to me, any of the other names

would be after first round picks, but Blacklock. Blacklock may not go in the first round, but to me as a riser, we still got some time before the draft shows up. And again Amy depending on what people do between now and the draft with their depth and defensive fronts, that helps guys rising the draft also. But Blacklock is my main guy that I think belongs really close to

those other two we just mentioned. Now, Mac, I want to ask you something before we continue on, because you would mentioned hand placement, two hands on the ground, We talk about one hand on the ground, right hand, left hand, all of these different things. Explain for our listeners what that means and how that can impact the way that you evaluate a player. Well, I mean, first of all, you know when you're watching a player, and a lot of these guys I mean, they have to do what

their college system, you know, charges them to do. You know, you see very, very seldom well you see a defensive lineman in the National Football League play out of a four point stance with both hands on the ground. The only time you really see that is in short yardage or goal line situations where they're trying to anchor down to get all four points on the ground and be able to just play knocked back. They're not really trying

to do anything other than get knocked back. But to be to be able to be a multiple defensive lineman in the National Football League gaming, you've got to be able to rush the passer. And you to rush the passer,

you do it one or two ways. You do it in a right handed stance or a left handed stance, and that depends on which hand is up and which foot is by all right, and a lot of that depends on what side of the line of scrimmage you play on, and sometimes it depends on some of us are left handed, some of us are right hand dominant.

A lot of that depends on that. But to me, when you're watching somebody play, you don't ever, you don't ever grate anybody down from the way they play in college, because you don't know for sure, and you might know, but they have to do what their defense requires them

to do. At that point. What you're trying to do is look at traits that you know you can get a hold of and can help them and mow them doing not only what you want to do, but maybe can accentuate their ability in some areas a little better. All right, Ratt, Let's talk about some of these Day two picks. I would assume that there are a lot of guys that teams could get in that day two.

I think when you start talking about day two in the rounds two going into three, the leader in the clubhouse, if let's just say that all the guys we mentioned, the Ross, Ross, Blacklocks, Nevil Gallimore, and top guys are already taken at that point. Justin Mattabouquet from Texas A and M I think, is one of the top guys on the next day when you're going forward. He's a guy six two sixty three and change three hundred and some odd pounds, showed really good first explosive step and

his measurables at the combine. Had a nice year in A and m's defense. And he is a guy that I think is on a lot of folks radar. If this is a position not only of need, but for depth there, it has a chance to contribute pretty early on. And I mentioned Marlon Davidson who was Derek Brown's team late at Auburn. He would be somebody right there in

that second to third round that would be hanging around. Now, Mac, what about players that maybe on the bubble and that could end up being really good value players for any NFL team? Yeah, you know, Rex mentioned those guys that look and now again we're back into flavor. I mean, what do you what do you really want? I mean, there's a guy. There's a guy named Laurell Murchison that's at North air Line of State six two, two hundred and ninety four pounds. He's a red shirt senior. He

needs upper body's strength. He plays a little bit upright, but he's got some contact balance and you know he's under sized. He lacks a strong anchor. But if you if you're gonna move your defensive front, this is a guy you might want. The guy on the other end of that spectrum, Amy, let's talk about a guy named leaky Foetu from from Utah. Now, this is a six five, three hundred and thirty seven pound guy. He's number ninety nine there. He's got size, he's got tremendous upper body's strength.

He's got a good motor. He's got explosion. I'm reading off my report explosion for player his size. He plays a little upright, which a lot of big guys do because they think they can just stand up kind of like a bear just mall people. You know, he needs to keep his pads down, but he's got he's got some hit and need ben He's got a high cut frame, but he's got long arms, strong hands. He's a strong

run defender. So if you're looking for a guy that you want to be able to set the anchor, you know in a two down system, you're not going to get a whole lot of pass rush out of him, you know, in a sub package. But then again, flavor, depending on what you want. Those are kind of two guys you know that I would say in the third one that I might go in there. This is for you, Amy Jordan Elliott, Adam Missouri. There you go. He's a red shirt. He's a red shirt junior and he's got

some quickness. Okay, now there's a lot to his game that he's got to refine, but he's another guy that you might want to look at. And the last guy for me is Jason Strowbridge from North Carolina. Jason Strowbridge is six four, two hundred and sixty seven pounds. He's a red shirt senior. He's long, he's large, He's an interior player. He'd be a five technique, which is which is playing on the outside shoulder of a tackle in a three four front. To me, that's what he would be,

and he just needs more lower bodied master anchor. But he's got some quickness and some traits to develop. And so any of these guys we're talking about down through the belly of the draft, you're gonna have to develop some of these They're not ready made guys. None of these guys are ready He may, but you're gonna have to develop a few more of these traits. RTT, do

you have any value players. Another one that I didn't mention that is raised ranking wise pretty high, but I think isn't as fluid an athlete, but as one of the biggest guys at this position is Riguan Davis from Alabama six seven, three hundred and twelve pounds, so he can eat up space. He's just not as fluid in the hips an explosion that you'd like to see, But I think there's some developmental things there that you can

do to help him in his particular role. He would be a guy that I would think would be a developmental spot right there that you could bring somebody along who played in a big college program system and be a value there. And later on in the draft I

mentioned McTelvin, a gene from Arkansas. He's a developmental D lineman had a lot of groom to grow for him in this position because he played outside in twenty eighteen, moved to inside on that D line last year in Arkansas's defense, so he's still got some upside and learning there. And then the data's twins from Nebraska, Khalil and Carlos both ran two of the three fastest times for D lineman at this year's combines, so there's some explosion and

speed there. Justin Mattabuque would be the guy who ran the fastest from A and M, but they're both blue collar guys from a big time program in Nebraska. And both are developmental but might have some upside to them because they have some explosion and power. Now, Coach Mac, give me a player two that may have really caught your eye, someone that maybe Titans fans should make sure that they're aware of and keep their eyes on. Well I mean, if you want to talk about later on.

And again, as I said, we've we've gone pretty deep into these defensive tackles. Amy, You've made us dig pretty deep, which is good. You're doing your job. No, that's a good thing. I mean, this is like we are having our own personal draft meetings right now. That's what we're doing. Amy Wells is John Robinson and she is quizzing her road scouts Coach Mack and Rhet Bryan. So she's doing a great job of this. How about Rochard Lawrence at LSU six two and a half, three hundred and eleven pounds,

he's down the line. He's a down the line guy. We've already mentioned Chauncey Rivers from Mississippi State. There's a guy at Old miss named Josiah Cotney that's sixty three, three hundred and eleven pounds. None of these guys are ready made players, but they are guys that have played at you at big universities, and they've played at a

fairly high level. And so again, look when people start being drafted, and we've all experienced the draft, and so have our OTP listeners, those names start coming off the board really really quick. So that's why. And again, as I said, Amy Wells, you're doing a good job as John Robinson taking us deep into the people we've looked at to try to get at least names out there if it comes up that you need a defensive linement on the third day. I've always considered myself the general

manager of this podcast just overall. So and so this is perfect where les quite well rhet what about you. Do you have any guys that people should be watching? You know, there is a couple of names, uh, and he hits some that I was thinking about. But James Lynch from Baylor is a guy in this who's six four, two eighty five and a smart football IQ guy doesn't have all of the athletic measurables that you'd like, but I think he has the experience and he's played in

some different spots. He'd be somebody I would have paid attention to. H and I'll tell you one that is a developmental guy that is getting some folks attention is Bravy on Roy from Baylor. He's not prototypical size for a nose tackle, he's six one three twenty, but he has a really good first step and he's very athletic.

I think he's a guy that if somebody was looking at a late Day three pick might take a flyer on somebody like that to develop, maybe on their taxi squad or even you know, trying to put into busting the roster if he does well. Now let's bring this into context a little bit. Let's talk about the Tennessee Titans. How has free agency and some of the moves have reportedly been made. How is that going to impact the way that the Tennessee Titans approach this specific position in

the upcoming draft. Mac, I'll start with you, okay, I mean it's going to because you've seen already. I mean, and as you said, reportedly, that's what we have to say right now. You know, reportedly, you know they're they're getting depth players right now on the on the interior. That's what they're that's what they're going with. Of course, clearly with Jarell Casey no longer being in there. With Jeffrey Simmons moving up into into a lead role, de

Kwon Jones is still there. You know now they're now they're adding depth players. But here's here's what you do. Just like Jeffrey Simmons was drafted when Jarell Casey was still here, you still have to be able to fortify your defensive from with players that you're looking at long term issues on, you're looking at long term processes with, and so it will impact it some, but I still believe that they will go after one or two interior

defensive lineman. You know in this in this not only this draft, but when I talk about draft, I'm talking about the entire draft process, because you know, we're there's a big list of these guys that were at the combine that I sat and watched a lot of names we haven't even mentioned right now that that will be free agents that you will be able to go and get. You know, the Titans are sitting there right now with

three seventh round picks. When you've got three seventh round picks, once you start looking at your board horizontally and deciding that if this group is deeper than the rest of them. Towards the end of the draft, we might load up with a couple of them. And so, look, you can never have too many big men. You really cannot, because you need you need big men not only in training camp,

but during the course of the season. We've all experienced and have seen because of the constant physical banging that these guys do, I mean they can are consistently. Your rate of a chance for injury, either short term or longer term is pretty high because that's that's a physical contact position, both on the offensive and the defensive side of the ball continuously, and so you've got to have bodies.

And it's not just Jurrell Casey in this too, because it's also been reported that Austin Johnson, the former second round pick in twenty sixteen, is now a New York Giant. Of course, he's a New Jersey native, and it's reported that he is gone and is now playing in the NFC. So if you've got a couple of bodies gone in this whole equation, then it does create a hole in a need in things. And I'm looking through the list of free agent interior defensive lineman. They're still left and

nothing jumps off the page. But you know, John Robinson always keeps notebooks like coach Mack does in terms of looking at guys that he's previously vetted in previous drafts and what kind of works best for what they're doing. And Mike Gravel's defense in this whole thing, I certainly think that it'll be a focus in this draft because you're going to need to replace some things, and your coach Max said the best you've got to have big men up front. You have to. Now I want to

hear from both of you on this. In your opinion, is defensive line one of the most important positions for the Tennessee Titans to address in the twenty twenty offseason. Go Mac all right, I'll go to me. No, And look, it's it's a it's a it's a pertinent question. But to me, when you start talking about most important, let's talk about the game of football just for a minute,

real quick. The game of football is probably one of the most unique sports that's played because you've got all different body types playing all different types of positions and they all have to interconnect with one another. So really, to say one is more important than the other. You can't say that what you hand say is at the particular time with your particular team. Are your needs a little bit greater at one position than they are at the other? I will I will answer this question this way.

When I was making picks, I always wanted to be sure that I had big men on both sides of the line of scrimmage that could that could do some things. If you want to talk about most important position, the most important position on any National Football League team is the quarterback because without that, regardless of these other people, are these other positions that we talk about. You know what I'm getting ready to say, Amy, and you do too, Rett.

All you've got is a highly paid rugby team. But after you have your quarterback in position, then you start to layer your team with what you have on hand and what you think you can get. Look, defensive line to me is just as important as offensive lineman. It's just as important as cornerbacks right now, It's just as important, as as as getting as getting backup. Running backs is just as important because of sub packages of being able to supplement your receiver position. That's the way I'm going

to answer that. Well, Max, that might have been the coachiest coaches answer I've ever heard in my whole life. Well, I must coach speak talk to bottom. I like it, and that's only a Rhett. What are your thoughts? Well, I'm not a coach, never have been, don't play one on the radio. And I'll say this currently as we're sitting here with this OTP, with the things that have been reported that they've lost or gained in terms of the Titans organization, certainly d line is a concern and

a level of importance. Don't know that it is the most important, but it's up there, and he, you know, coach Matt glossed over a couple of the others. I've contend that hornerback is just as important, and right tackle for depth and future strength is important to go along with interior defensive line. And whether you have drafted a backup running back or you find a veteran or whatever. Those are some things and three or four things that I think are important to the Titans as we sit

here the low three weeks away from the draft. All right, well, guys, it is always so good to talk to you. There's always lots to discuss, and we will continue with these because there are more positions to talk about and Rett. As you mentioned, the draft is roughly three weeks away, so coach Mac, Dave McGinnis, Rett Brian, thank you so much for being here. Well appreciate it as always. Yeah, thanks Amy, Thanks Ritt all right for coach Mac and Rett Brian. I'm Emmy Wells and this has been BOTP