Did the Titans make the right call?
The Tennessee Titans had to make some tough decisions in free agency this offseason, and they got mixed results.
By far the two most important free agents were Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry, who both ended up back with the Titans on multi-year deals. However, there were several free agents beyond those two players.
Cap casualties like Ryan Succop, Cameron Wake, and Delanie Walker, along with Jurrell Casey who was traded for cap space, all left holes in their absence.
Logan Ryan was asking for $10 million per season despite having a really hard time dealing with speed all season, so the Titans had to let him walk.
Wesley Woodyard was a long-time locker room leader who also provided key depth behind starting linebacker Rashaan Evans and Jayon Brown, but with the emergence of David Long (and his speed) in the playoffs, the Titans decided to let him walk as well.
I’m not even going to talk about Marcus Mariota.
But by far the biggest free agent outside of Tannehill and Henry was former first round draft pick and starting right tackle Jack Conklin.
Tennessee GM Jon Robinson sat down and weighed his options and decided that he was basically in a position to pick one of these two options:
Option A: Jack Conklin on a 3-year, $42 million deal ($14 million AAV)
Option B: Dennis Kelly on a 3-year, $17.25 million deal ($5.75 million AAV) and a 3rd round compensatory pick
Robinson choose Option B, and it was a gamble. It was all going to hinge on one player: Dennis Kelly.
The Undertaker
When this happened I was fully on the “This is a bad decision” side of the argument because we have seen offensive lines in the past that just take one missing piece to crumble. You also have to remember the context of how Conklin left.
The Titans were coming off of a playoff run where they dominated by running the ball and it finally looked like rookie right guard Nate Davis was getting his feet underneath him. Keith Carter had proven to be ineffective (at best) and was the only offensive line coach that I have ever seen that allowed 20 sacks combined in two games within a season of each other, without getting fired.
I have always liked Dennis Kelly, but in my mind, this was a move that hurt the right tackle spot and the right guard spot. At the time, my opinion was Conklin was worth the money given his age and talent, but all we could do is wait and see how it played out.
Turns out, Dennis Kelly has been rock solid at the right tackle position and has looked every bit as effective as Jack Conklin has this season. They are different, with Kelly’s length and quickness giving him a different play style than Conklin’s technique and power, but the results have been great.
The chemistry question I brought up turned out to be worrying over nothing. Dennis Kelly has been great next to Nate Davis and the chemistry between Ben Jones, Davis and Kelly has been evident as you see them work in tandem to attack defenses and pave a way for the NFL’s leading rusher Derrick Henry.
So, the deal is a no-brainer victory for Jon Robinson right? Well…let’s talk about the elephant in the room.
The elephant in the room
Looking back, we know now that the Titans had already locked up their top-4 offensive tackles before the draft even took place. Taylor Lewan and Dennis Kelly were the starters, Ty Sambrailo was a veteran with experience on both sides and then one of Mike Vrabel’s favorite people in David Quessenberry.
However, the Titans’ whole offense is based on being able to force a defense to commit extra resources to stopping the run. It is basically: run it until they stop you, run play action to take advantage of the players that are out of position because they are trying to stop the run, and then take deep shots when you want to reopen running lanes.
With that in mind, Jon Robinson thought that he would go with a player to help replace Jack Conklin in the first round even if the initial plan wasn’t for them to start. And now we have arrived at the panda elephant in the room: Isaiah Wilson.
This isn’t going to be an article slamming Wilson, but he is a key part of the Jack Conklin storyline. I don’t know what player they should have focused on because looking back, because based on their draft choices later, they were either looking for an elite player that fell (there wasn’t one) or: OT, CB, RB, or DL.
If we assume that they knew there would be a CB in the second round, then you are talking about taking either Isaiah Wilson, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, or Ross Blacklock.
They weren’t taking a running back in the first round, and even though we are pretty sure Isaiah Wilson is bad, we know that Blacklock is bad. So really there wasn’t a “correct” option.
Still, spending a 1st round pick on Wilson wasn’t part of the deal that anyone knew going into the draft, and despite all of the good things that came out of Jack Conklin going to the Browns, this pick is a stain on that decision.
Now the Titans can close the book on Jack Conklin and prove they were right.
How the Titans can “win” this decision
Regardless of what happened this offseason, the Titans found their starter at right tackle and they added $10 million per season in cap space and a 3rd round compensatory pick in the 2021 NFL Draft in the process.
If the Titans really want to drive home the fact that they made the right decision, then they need to show exactly why they thought they could survive without Jack Conklin.
Clearly somewhere in that decision-making process, they decided that there were clear flaws in Conklin as a player that made him replaceable. I think the biggest culprit is that he can be stiff in his lower body and lose to speed rushers on passing downs.
I think a steady dose of Harold Landry would be a big problem for Conklin this week.
The Titans don’t play Landry against right tackles often, but it isn’t unheard of either. So far this season Landry has moved around a lot, but of his 650+ snaps that he has played at EDGE, he has played 20% of his snaps against right tackles.
Derick Roberson is also a prime candidate to show off his speed vs Jack Conklin, but I would caution fans who think that he is going to do too much. Despite his good work in relief of Jadeveon Clowney vs the Chicago Bears, Roberson played just 11 snaps once Clowney returned.
Clowney went on I.R. and the Titans needed more speed to stop the Ravens offense, so Roberson’s numbers bumped up to 52 snaps in Week 11, only to drop to 28 snaps last week.
Against a run-heavy team like the Cleveland Browns, I expect Jack Crawford to get more snaps and for Roberson to get fewer, meaning that the only true speed the Titans will have on the field is Harold Landry.
A few good QB hurries and maybe a sack allowed by Conklin would make fans feel much more comfortable with the idea of not paying him nearly three times as much as Dennis Kelly is making and it would be another win in an offseason of underrated moves by Jon Robinson being overshadowed by two players with big names and very little effort.