Our two division rivals pick up big time WRs

[Hervoyel]

I find myself unconcerned. Not because these guys aren't potentially going to hurt us or because KJ is suddenly going to turn it on and turn into Aso 2.0 or something. I just know we've been in a division with Peyton Manning throwing to Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison with a defense that was for the most part unbelievably worse than what we have now.

How much worse than that can either of these situations be?

Add to that the simple fact that a percentage of WR's never pan out and I'm not more scared of these guys than I would be any other first round WR. One of the two will end up being a nobody in all likelihood. The other one (say Blackmon for instance) might find himself with no one to throw to him. Andre Johnson might have piled up stats but he didn't kill anybody while David Carr was here.

Sure Kareem Jackson needs to worry about these guys just like Blaine Gabbert and Jake Locker need to worry about our new first rounder. Nobody needs to get their panties in a wad over any of them just yet.

[Vinny]

Originally Posted by Hervoyel

I find myself unconcerned. Not because these guys aren't potentially going to hurt us or because KJ is suddenly going to turn it on and turn into Aso 2.0 or something. I just know we've been in a division with Peyton Manning throwing to Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison with a defense that was for the most part unbelievably worse than what we have now.

How much worse than that can either of these situations be?

Add to that the simple fact that a percentage of WR's never pan out and I'm not more scared of these guys than I would be any other first round WR. One of the two will end up being a nobody in all likelihood. The other one (say Blackmon for instance) might find himself with no one to throw to him. Andre Johnson might have piled up stats but he didn't kill anybody while David Carr was here.

Sure Kareem Jackson needs to worry about these guys just like Blaine Gabbert and Jake Locker need to worry about our new first rounder. Nobody needs to get their panties in a wad over any of them just yet.

That and you just have to assume that NFL teams will be chock full of NFL players. Teams shore up their weaknesses, and there is no Rice/Vandy on the schedule.

[Hervoyel]

Originally Posted by Vinny

That and you just have to assume that NFL teams will be chock full of NFL players. Teams shore up their weaknesses, and there is no Rice/Vandy on the schedule.

Exactly. Until we find ourselves facing the 2002 Texans we just need to be ready for real opponents and consider ourselves fortunate when one of our division rivals drafts a guy who busts.

[Premier]

Originally Posted by EllisUnit

You see the contract that J. Allen got from Cincy right ??? If KJ played most of the snaps then why would J. Allen of gotten as good of a deal as he did ?

because mike brown is an idiot...

[Big Lou]

Originally Posted by Brisco_County

It's very possible that Adams took Wright just to piss off Houston. They could have taken a guard to block for Chris Johnson.

Just curious, what's the knock on Wright?

I was kinda thinking that when it happened, but I forgot he's only 5' 10". I would rather go with guys in the 6' 2" 215 lb range.

[TheGoldenGreek]

[The Medic01]

Originally Posted by ObsiWan

I think you're touching on something that worries me about Tenn. Now that they - theoretically - have two legit WR threats (and a fairly decent youngster at TE) our safeties have to pay attention to the WRs and can't "cheat" by keeping tabs on CJ. If Tenn. has the sense to spread the field, CJ's speed in open spaces could now be more of an issue. ...just like Sproles did when we had to keep tabs on all of New Orleans' WRs & TEs.

....could be trouble if they spread us out and we end up having to cover CJ with a LB.

Cush will knock CJ back to the bench.

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by TheGoldenGreek

http://qkme.me/3p0542

[Dutchrudder]

Originally Posted by Ryan

http://qkme.me/3p0542

[sandman]

Originally Posted by Premier

because mike brown is an idiot...

This. If Allen was so much better than KJ to command that level of FA $$$, do you honestly believe that Wade would let him go and keep KJ?

Not to mention, if Allen was that good, why couldn't he keep KJ on the bench and take all the snaps?

Never take the $$$ amount of a FA contract to effectively represent the talent of the player. Teams overpay for their needs all the time.

[Carr Bombed]

I'm not concerned at all... Big 12 offensive weapons (mainly WRs) are HIGHLY OVERRATED. They run freely through the cupcake big 12 defenses that they face. We've been drafting out of the SEC and big 10 for years now, so yeah... color me unconcerned.

Blackmon is a good WR, but I don't think his ceiling is Andre or Calvin Johnson like... he'll be a solid player... Whenever the Jags find another QB that is. He isn't going to be very hard to stop with Elaine throwing him the rock.

Kendall Wright is a overrated WR, who played against weak competition and in a wide open offense. he'll get yards as a number two with Britt drawing coverage away from him, but I don't think he'll ever be a number 1.

Crabtree (another big 12 phenom) was a higher rated prospect than both of these guys coming out and we all saw how he's performed after leaving the spread and big 12 conference.

[thunderkyss]

Originally Posted by Thorn

And they were also in the wild card hunt until the last game. The Titans will not be pushovers. I still say we take the division, but the Titans will come in 2nd and probably be a royal pain in our butts like they usually are.

We might be the better team, but that doesn't mean we'll win the division.

If we split our games with them like we did last year, I think the division will be in play 'til late in the season, where we'll play NE, Indy, Min, Indy & they'll play Indy, NYJ, GB, & Jac

[aussie_texan]

Originally Posted by thunderkyss

We might be the better team, but that doesn't mean we'll win the division.

If we split our games with them like we did last year, I think the division will be in play 'til late in the season, where we'll play NE, Indy, Min, Indy & they'll play Indy, NYJ, GB, & Jac

at minimum we should go 5-1 in the division i would be disappointed if we did anything less.

[DocBar]

THIS might help assuage some of the concern with the tAcks.

It didn’t take long for the biggest loser to emerge from the first round of the 2012 draft.

The Tennessee Titans painted a big, navy blue “L” on their foreheads when they used the No. 19 overall pick to grab Kendall Wright, a Shiny Hood Ornament wide receiver out of Baylor. The great football philosopher Tom Petty once said that even the losers get lucky sometime. Must be the strategy Tennessee management employed when it made the pick: hoping to get lucky just once drafting wide receivers.

The team certainly can't be banking on a rich history of success. In fact, the team's track record when it comes to this team harvesting notable wide receivers is truly one of the great horror stories of recent draft history.

Now, rest assured: Wright was a mighty fine receiver in college. He caught an incredible 108 passes for 1,663 yards and 14 TD last season as the top batterymate of Heisman winner Robert Griffin III. He could prove to be the second coming of Jerry Rice.

But even then, even if he’s a home run, he will do little to improve Tennessee’s fortunes. The sad truth that NFL teams are slow to accept is that even the greatest wide receivers rarely make better quarterbacks in particular or better teams in general. Quite the contrary: great quarterbacks and great teams make receivers better. It’s one of the foundations of the Cold, Hard Football Facts Shiny Hood Ornament Man Law.

The evidence to support the Shiny Hood Ornament Man Law is now so overwhelming that it’s the equivalent of gridiron gravity. You can doubt it all you want. But you’ll become a believer the second you jump out a third-story window and pretend you can fly – or pretend you can build a winner around wide receivers.

No team in recent football history has crashed to the ground in a crumpled heap of broken limbs and bad draft picks more often than the Titans – which makes their Thursday night decision all the more disturbing. The Titans have been burned by Shiny Hood Ornaments more often than any team in football over the past decade. They still have not learned their lesson. It’s embarrassing, actually.

Here are the Cold, Hard Football Facts from our “Stats up the Wazoo” pre-draft look at each NFL team’s 10-year draft history.

The Titans drafted 15 wide receivers over the previous 10 years, more than any team in football. In fact, no team has drafted more players at any position (the Cowboys are tied, drafting 15 CBs over the same period).

The Titans also devoted 56 Value Points to those picks, the most draft resources any team has devoted to any position over the past decade (tied with the Bengals, who devoted 56 Value Points to linebackers).

Wright is now the 16th wide receiver the Titans have drafted since 2002 (among 97 picks). And they have now devoted 63 Value Points to the position – again, more draft resources than any team has devoted to any position since the 2002 draft.

Yet the Titans have got almost NOTHING out of the previous 15 receivers. Here are the total career numbers for each receiver drafted by Tennessee since 2002.


Did the Titans even look at their own history before they wasted a valuable No. 1 pick on Wright? It's truly a forgettable list. You, there, with the wing sauce on your wife beater. Yes, you! You're a hard-core football guy. And even your probably haven't heard of most of these guys.

Five of the 15 previous wide receiver draft picks failed to make even a single catch in the NFL. Britt, a No. 1 pick in 2009, is the only player close to producing a competent NFL career – and even then the team must have expected something better than an average of 34 catches, 588 yards and 5 TDs per season when they devoted a No. 1 pick to him.

The average CAREER numbers for these 15 players are stunning: 34 catches, 457 yards, 2.7 TDs. That’s not even a notable season for a receiver these days. But, remember, those aren’t season numbers. That’s the average career of the players to whom the Titans have devoted nearly 20 percent of their draft-pick assets over the past 11 years.

The lack of impact has been noted on the scoreboard and in the win-loss colum.

Tennessee has enjoyed just two playoff victories over this period and they’ve enjoyed just one season ranked in the top 10 in scoring: 5th in 2003 (27.2 PPG).

Wide receivers in the best of times have a high bust rate. Shiny Hood Ornaments simply cannot be counted on to deliver in the NFL, no matter how brightly they sparkled in college. Titans history itself is proof. Yet team management – over two different regimes now – simply cannot resist the allure of the Shiny Hood Ornament, even if the evidence that these are wasted picks are overwhelming.

But wait!

It gets worse for the Biggest Losers of the 2012 Draft (so far). The Cold, Hard Football Facts tell us it is critical to draft for NEED. You need to utilize the power of the draft to fill the statistical holes that haunted you the previous season. We take a look at this effort each off-season with our "Fillabiltiy Index." It's our look at which teams did the best job addressing their statistical weak links from the year before.

The passing game was not Tennessee’s biggest statistical hole in 2011. In fact, the team was a respectable No. 14 in Real Passing YPA, No. 12 in Real Quarterback Rating and No. 14 in Offensive Passer Rating.

The Titans instead had a critical hole on the other side of the ball: they were No. 30 on our Defensive Hog Index, year after year one of the most important indicators of postseason success. Teams better in the DHI are 40-15 in the playoffs since we introduced the indicator in 2007.

No team in football last year was worse than Tennessee when it came to the all-important skill of pressuring the passer. The Titans forced a Negative Pass Play on just 6.3 percent of opponent dropbacks in 2011, dead last in the NFL. The Super Bowl champ Giants were third best in the NFL last year, forcing a Negative Pass Play on 10.7 percent of opponent drop backs.

The Titans defense, in other words, is a long way from Super Bowl caliber. And last we checked, Shiny Hood Ornaments make really bad pass rushers.

Wasted pick. Wasted day for the Tennessee Losers.

Don't forget that Brandon Harris is waiting in the wings and Jason Allen's departure clears the way for him to start making an impact on the field.

[EllisUnit]

Originally Posted by sandman

This. If Allen was so much better than KJ to command that level of FA $$$, do you honestly believe that Wade would let him go and keep KJ?

Not to mention, if Allen was that good, why couldn't he keep KJ on the bench and take all the snaps? Never take the $$$ amount of a FA contract to effectively represent the talent of the player. Teams overpay for their needs all the time.

the better question would be if we are 100% secure about KJ why couldnt KJ keep a street FA/1st round bust on the bench instead of splitting time with him ?

That is the more accurate question considering we are stuck with KJ next season and not allen !

[thunderkyss]

Originally Posted by EllisUnit

the better question would be if we are 100% secure about KJ why couldnt KJ keep a street FA/1st round bust on the bench instead of splitting time with him ?

That is the more accurate question considering we are stuck with KJ next season and not allen !

Sounds like haterade to me. The comment he replied to was why did Allen get so much money from the Bengals.

[EllisUnit]

Originally Posted by thunderkyss

Sounds like haterade to me. The comment he replied to was why did Allen get so much money from the Bengals.

Ref whole conversation !

[thunderkyss]

Originally Posted by EllisUnit

Ref whole conversation !

Originally Posted by ckhouston

THIS JUST IN! .... Wade knows more than we do about football.

[Kthx]

I don't know how things will play out during the season and I think the Texas had as good of a draft as any in our division for the most part. But at the same time I feel like our division as a whole got much better at skill positions where we drafted mainly depth and raw skill talent. Offensively I would say we have a lot more to worry about while our defense might not get that much better and our offensive line is still a question mark.

[G27RR]

Originally Posted by Kthx

I don't know how things will play out during the season and I think the Texas had as good of a draft as any in our division for the most part. But at the same time I feel like our division as a whole got much better at skill positions where we drafted mainly depth and raw skill talent. Offensively I would say we have a lot more to worry about while our defense might not get that much better and our offensive line is still a question mark.

If our defense doesn't get that much better, does that mean we only move from #2 to #1 in the NFL?




I agree with OL concern, but I have no concerns about our defense.