Titans go thrift shopping for Robert Woods & Austin Hooper

Matt Harmon and Scott Pianowski discuss the Tennessee Titans trading for WR Robert Woods and signing TE Austin Hooper. In an offseason of huge moves, the Titans are finding inexpensive ways to improve their team.

Video Transcript

MATT HARMON: You mentioned the Titans earlier. I like a lot of what the Titans have done this offseason. I love the trade for Robert Woods. They get him for a sixth round pick.

And they sign Austin Hooper. I know Hooper is going to not make a ton of headlines here or whatever. But as flawed of a player as Austin Hooper might be, he certainly wasn't worth the free agent deal that he got from Cleveland.

That's a big step up to go from Anthony Firkser and those goofballs they had last year to Austin Hooper. He's a functional starting tight end. That's exactly what they need. And he could give them what Johnny Smith gave them from a production angle a few years ago, certainly.

And then the Robert Woods trade, it's a salary move only for the Rams. I mean, I know that people in LA love Robert Woods. He's an LA guy. He went to USC. He was such a great signing for them. He did so much for their offense.

But they signed Allen Robinson who, by the way, I mean, shout out to us longtime Allen Robinson fans. We finally get him in a good offensive ecosystem. He's the clear wide receiver two there. Ship it. Love Allen Robinson this year.

It signals a change in the LA Rams. They're going to more of a pass first look. They're not going to do all this motion, run heavy stuff that was part of the Robert Woods identity.

But what a great spot for Robert Woods to land in, a team that still does a lot of that stuff in Tennessee. They want to be a physical team. They want to run the ball. That's great for Robert Woods.

And as long as he's healthy, I think this will be a really easy-- It's not going to be a huge fantasy season from him there. I still think AJ Brown has nuclear potential this year and basically every year until he retires.

He's going to have that explosive season. I'll don't think Robert Woods changes that. But I'll tell you what, Scott, Robert Woods is a bajillion times better fit in Tennessee than Julio Jones was. Because it was pretty clear Mike Vrabel and Julio Jones, that marriage was frosty from basically the beginning.

SCOTT PIANOWKI: Yeah, it was sad to see. It got to the point, we might forget the year that Julio Jones spent in Tennessee if he has any kind of a final act somewhere else. But back to the Titans, though. They do what we want. The NFL has rules. They have a thing called a salary cap. What do the Titans do? Some unbelievable thrift shopping. Right?

Now, Austin Hooper, we know, the moment he went to Cleveland, he was overpaid. They had a very crowded tight end room. They could never really decide how do we really feel about David Njoku? One day it feels like they don't like him. One day it feels like they do. They have third tight ends they get involved.

So Austin Hooper was overpaid. It was never a great fit. Doesn't work out. They scoop him up on the cheap. Great move. The Rams, salary cap hell. They need to shed salary. They have too many receivers. They add Robinson which is great. We'll see what happens with Beckham. Although, he's obviously a free agent.

So Woods is expendable. The Titans come in. Again, we have a number one. We don't need Robert Woods to be Pro Bowl Robert Woods. I know you and I have been Robert Woods guys going back to the Buffalo days, going back to the USC days. But again, they're coming in at the right time. And they just need him to be a support player.

If they can get 906 out of Woods, if they could get 625 and four or five out of Hooper, they'd take that. And this offense already has two alphas. Presumably, Derrick Henry would be healthy next year. I hope he has another couple of years left. And we're all waiting for AJ Brown to go nuclear on the league.

So I think the Titans, did they go out and make the magazine splash moves, or the headline or the website moves? There was no breaking news Yahoo intercede when they signed Robert Woods or when they added Austin Hooper. They're not winning that war. But they're quietly just taking their team--

MATT HARMON: Editors did not hit me up for an instant recap.

SCOTT PIANOWKI: Right. Right. Yeah, your dinner wasn't interrupted. Say, hey, man, we need you a tape a video. We need you to write an article. There's no emergency podcast for Robert Woods or Austin Hooper now, but two really good values.

I mean, sometimes just getting a good value is enough in the NFL. And this is a game about depth and roster and how do players fit in your salary structure. I think they are two excellent moves that are going to get overshadowed.

I mean, this is the reason why they're at the end of this podcast, not at the beginning of this podcast. But it just shows the infrastructure and the intelligence in that Tennessee locker room.