NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Welcome to the mailbag, which signals the arrival of the weekend and gets me fired up.

No big wind up this week, let's dive right into your fine questions.

Bobby Fricks  Do you think the NFL saw Nashville as a Super Bowl host city because of the draft- why or why not?

PK: Outside of New York, which got a Super Bowl post 9/11, where has an exception been made for potentially wintery

LEBANON, Tenn. -- It's been a while since I took a lap, so I ventured to Wilson Central High School to meet up with Jason Damewood to talk some Titans on Thursday. 

We hit on Arthur Smith and the likelihood that the Titans remain a run-first team, expectations for A.J. Brown, how the Titans will spread the ball around in the passing game and how Ryan Tannehill might affect Marcus Mariota.

One post-taping clarification: I say the Titans have screwed up a ton of receivers in the Tennessee era, and that's not exactly right. While they've consistently failed to develop receivers, what they've really been bad at is their judgment in choosing the guys to bring in. I look at a guy like Brown and hope he's the beginning of change for them.

But it's like expecting the Titans to beat the Colts. After such a long stretch of failure, I'll believe an actual positive development when I see one.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A lot of national outlets and writers were way more surprised about the Titans declining the fifth-team option on Jack Conklin than they should have been. Based on the way Jon Robinson spoke about it in March, it was a clear possibility the Titans would pass.

“We’ll be through the draft at that point, know whether we add an offensive lineman in the draft, how that affects the decision,” Robinson said then. “Certainly, we’ll have spent time with him, he’ll have been back for three weeks. You can kind of see where he’s at physically. I mean we’ve seen him in the building, he’s been in getting treatment, and working out and stuff. But we’ll physically see him kind of do some things.

“I think all those factors will kind of play into that decision.”

The team confirmed Tuesday what I first saw in a PFT report, that it won’t pay Conklin a $12.866 million base salary in 2020, which would amount to a $10.249 million raise.

By BLAKE BEDDINGFIELD, special correspondent

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Titans came into the draft looking for interior pass rush, outside pass rush and interior offensive lineman, and an upgrade at wide receiver.

Other positions that needed to be filled were starting nose tackle, future starting tight end, backup Inside linebacker, backup safety and running back.

1^st Round: Pick 19:  DT—Jeffery Simmons 6’4 304----No Timing/injured

(Photo courtesy Mississippi State athletics.)

Good size, frame, length. Off the field issue is a concern. ACL injury is a concern. But talent is real, production as a rusher,

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Hey FIFA, did you see that?

The biggest sporting event in the world is coming to North America in 2026 and the World Cup still needs to narrow its list of venues.

Nashville is one of 17 United States cities that are part of the bid, a list that is expected to be narrowed to 10 sometime in 2020 or 2021.

The NFL Draft in Nashville just drew over 600,000 to an enormous three-day party. I ran into some people from France in the league’s store at Second Avenue and Broadway.

Tonight, over 200,000 @NFL fans partied together in Nashville. ???????? pic.twitter.com/CAM6erlw4u

— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) April 26, 2019

That’s nothing compared to the international crowd World Cup games would bring to Music City.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nashville gave the NFL just what it wanted: A party and a spectacle that was fantastic for an estimated 500,000 fans who poured through Music City for the NFL Draft and played beautifully as a television show.

“Outstanding,” said Titans GM Jon Robinson, who saw it only on TV from the Titans' draft room a few miles away and wore a “RSPCT NSHVL” hat at his press conference after his final pick. “It was unbelievable.

“Every time they scanned Broadway, the fans, the crowd – part of the reason why I’m wearing this hat, because I think there’s a respect factor that comes with this city and this state now, because we lived up to the hype.” [Unlocked]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – If you like a high-energy, fly-to-the-ball defender, the Titans sixth-round inside linebacker David Long, Jr. may be for you.

And that he is 5-foot-11 and 227 pounds is of no real concern to Mike Vrabel, who knows a bit about linebacking.

(Photo courtesy West Virginia athletics.)

“The size of linebackers has really diminished over the past 10 years. Most recently it is what is playing in college football,"

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – In D’Andre Walker, the Titans finally found an addition to their stable of edge rushers, a position in dire need of additional juice.

Conditioning issues and the degree of his football IQ may have been the reasons that Walker, projected by many to be drafted as high as the second round, fell all the way to the fifth where he picked 168th.

(Photo courtesy Georgia athletics.)

I wrote earlier that the Titans had failed in what appears to be a solid draft to find a true difference-maker at edge rusher, and it’s unlikely they have one in Walker as a fifth-round pick, at least right from the start.