NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Titans have eight guys of note heading toward free agency, which opens March 14.

They are in a good spot as even if they lost this entire group they wouldn’t be too badly dented.

Here they are in what I see as their order of importance to the 2018 team.

SuccopOAK

1) Ryan Succop. The kicker was great in 2017, hitting 35 of 42 regular-season field-goal attempts and three of three in the playoffs. The Titans had good specialists and would be wise to keep Succop to maintain it.

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pickers vodka 847x63NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Welcome to the PK.com mailbag. Thanks for sending questions.

Here's Friday's big Periscope:

Now onto what's on your mind.

SupernawWalkerKCPK: Well the Titans can have multiple weak spots, and they do. Tight end seems to me to be lazy slotting by mock drafters. Often mid-20s is where a top tight end would be a real value and they are probably looking at Delanie Walker getting older. But the Titans just drafted Jonnu Smith and also have Luke Stocker and Phillip Supernaw in an offense that isn’t going to use two- and three-tight end sets nearly as much as Mike Mularkey’s team did.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Less than an hour into Super Bowl LII, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio tweeted out a bombshell.

Less than an hour after that, CBS’ Jason La Canfora responded with this:

I Was Wrong Stock PhotoLess than two days later, McDaniels did back out on the Colts. It was a giant story that reverberated throughout the NFL. Florio had good information, and while he hardly handled the scoop gracefully – “Attention everyone who assumed I was making it all up: SUCK IT,” he tweeted – he handled success better than La Canfora handled failure.

La Canfora simply never acknowledged he was wrong, a habit I think is too frequent in our ranks.

His next tweet concerning McDaniels came two days later, 22 minutes after ESPN’s Adam Schefter broke the story that McDaniels would stay on as New England’s offensive coordinator.

La Canfora didn’t offer any mea culpa for his original report, he didn’t offer any context as to why two days earlier he maintained McDaniels would go to Indy.

He simply jumped to the next thing.

In a profession where we all hold the people we cover accountable, NFL reporters are incredibly hypocritical. Few hold themselves to account in the same way.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Pittsburgh Steelers had embarrassed the Tennessee Oilers just 55 days earlier.

Thigpen2The home team had won at the Liberty Bowl, 16-6 to go 8-8. But fans in black and gold filled the place.

Attendance was 50-677 that on Dec. 21, 1997 – nearly 20,000 more than the second-biggest crowd the team had drawn in a misguided commuter year.

It was the game that prompted Bud Adams to admit a second season as a Memphis tenant was untenable.

As the franchise looked forward, on the second day of free agency it made a big move at its weakest spot, signing receiver Yancey Thigpen away from the Steelers.

Twenty years ago today they gave Thigpen a five-year, $21.5 million deal with a $5.5 million signing bonus.

Steve McNair turned 25 that day.

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NewUniformsComingNASHVILLE, Tenn. – You are obsessed with uniforms.

Particularly with the Titans' new uniforms, to be revealed in April, probably right before the draft.

My gauge of you tells me that this is a bigger reveal than any free agent or draft pick will be.

The web is already rampant with rumor and speculation.

Cronos, aka Titan Man, has the Titans' T and three stars on his back, but not in the flames that surround the regular logo but in a circle of a pattern that you might see on an ancient Greek vase.

So some have concluded that is a preview of what’s to come.

Others see the somewhat-altered flametack logo on the floor of the weight room, heavier on light blue, that was redone last year and see hints in it. (Pictured below.)

One guy claims to have a connection at Nike and spilled details from that.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The play-action the Titans want to use will be built off schemes we’ve seen in recent years from the Texans, the Falcons, Washington and the Rams.

And that will include a heavy dose of zone-blocking by the offensive line.

“I don’t want to fit us into a shoebox, but I would say we will definitely run zone,” said new offensive line coach Keith Carter, pictured below. “We’ll be multiple though, we’ll run zone, we’ll run gap scheme and all of that stuff.”Henry2KC

“From an outside zone standpoint, it’s a big transition, you do a lot more running and a lot more second level running, first level hitting wider landmarks. At the end of the day it’s still just football, knowing what you are doing and doing it a certain way.

The overall change may not be as dramatic as we tend to envision when we hear the term.

Hall of Fame finalist Kevin Mawae, as good a pulling center as the league has seen, said the Titans can “easily” transition into a heavier zone blocking team.

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pickers vodka 847x63NASHVILLE, Tenn. --Welcome to a big, post-Super Bowl Titans mailbag, brought to you by Pickers Vodka.

Before we dive into questions, here's Friday's Periscope session.

At the bottom is this week's edition of the podcast.

Now onto a good batch of quality questions. Thanks for writing. You can tweet questions to me any time -- @PaulKuharskyNFL, please use "#PKMail."

PK: April 2 is the start of the team’s offseason program. Teams with new head coaches get a bit of a head start. This is from the collective bargaining agreement between the players and the NFL:MariotaLewan

“If a Club hires a new head coach after the end of the prior regular season, that Club may schedule or conduct an offseason workout program for no more than nine total weeks, with eight of the weeks required to be consecutive and subject to Article 22, Section 3, to be completed over a twelve-week period. All other Clubs may schedule or conduct offseason workout programs for no more than nine consecutive total weeks, to be completed over a ten-week period.

“Each year offseason workout programs cannot begin prior to the first

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Episode 4 of our podcast-only podcast is ready for you.

Part 1, like podcast versions of my public Periscope and Facebook Lives, is available through iTunes, here, or directly through the Vokal website, here.BlevinsPodcast

If you're a member of the site, Part 1 and Part 2 are together, and all you have to do is head below the line.

Wih the help of Madison Blevins, I cover early impressions of the Titans’ coaching staff; expectations for Marcus Mariota with Matt Lafleur; Mike Vrabel splitting up the linebacker coaching; lessons the Titans can learn from the Super Bowl; final thoughts on what unfolded in the Hall of Fame selection committee room; and Nashville SC's coming debut.

As always, we welcome your feedback.

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