John Glennon

jglennon@tennessean.com

In his previous two jobs, Jon Robinson helped the New England Patriots build a Super Bowl champion and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers make significant improvement.

In his new job as Titans general manager, Robinson will serve as the primary decision-maker on all player-personnel moves for a team that’s coming off a three-win season and trying to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2008.

Robinson recently shared his views on rebuilding the Titans, on free agency and on the draft with The Tennessean.

I know each team is different, but in general, is there a philosophy you like to build teams with?

Yeah, I think both lines, the O-line and the D-line, have to be solid. To me, that’s the foundation. Those guys have to be strong up the middle. Obviously the quarterback is in place, and you’ve got to have that guy. You have to have playmakers offensively, but more specifically, you have to be able to run the football. I think in this league, you’ve got to be committed to the run. You’ve got to have somebody that can run it and guys to block for him so that he can run it.

Defensively, it’s all about getting off the field on third down, which is really coverage players and pressuring the passer. That’s how you get off the field. Those are areas we have to be good at — getting off the field on third down defensively, running the ball offensively, and we’ve got to be able to sustain drives offensively and make third downs.

So it sounds as if offensive line will be a big priority this offseason?

Yeah, I think we have to take stock of the guys we have here O-line wise and try to add pieces up there to protect Marcus (Mariota). That’s one thing we did in Tampa last year when I was there. When we took Jameis (Winston), we spent our next two picks on offensive linemen — both those guys made one of those all-rookie teams. The two rookie O-linemen were really good for us over the 16-game season in Tampa.

That’s kind of the approach we took. We thought we were going to make an investment in Jameis, so we needed to protect him. With Marcus being a key piece here, we definitely need to make a committed investment to protecting him and keeping him upright. It’s hard for him to throw the ball when he’s lying on his back.

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You’ve got one of the league’s highest amounts of money under the cap in the league. Is there a general philosophy you will take to free agency?

We’re in a pretty good situation cap-wise. We have some money we could spend on players. I think in the end, the most important thing is trying to make sure the evaluation of the player is correct. If we think Player A is going to be an impact pass rusher or impact blocker for the offensive line, and we’re going to commit 'X’ number of dollars to him — if it’s of any significance — we need to make sure the evaluation is right on the player. So I think it’s really about determining the value of the player and what is it going to cost for us to add that player to the team.

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When it comes to evaluating draft prospects, your method is a bit different from some other teams. Can you talk about that?

We don’t really talk in terms of rounds. For a scout to go to any school in the country, and their report be, 'I would take this guy in the third round,’ well, that doesn’t tell me anything. Tell me what he does well. Tell me what he needs to improve upon. Compare him to someone we have on our team. Compare him to someone that was in a previous draft that you may have scouted. Kind of paint a picture of the player.

It’s kind of like you’re going to buy a car, and somebody tells you it’s got four wheels and a motor. That really doesn’t tell you a lot. But if they tell you it’s red, and it’s got a leather interior and 20-inch wheels, then you can kind of visualize the car.

So it’s really the same thing from a scouting standpoint. Be descriptive of the player and don’t refer to him in rounds because really that doesn’t tell me anything. At some point, the numeric value and the role for the player equates to a round, but that’s not the most important thing with the evaluation.

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You were part of several drafts in New England. Is there a selection you were particularly pleased with?

It was probably (tight end) Rob Gronkowski. He didn’t play his junior year, so we relied heavily on sophomore year film. He had a really good game as a sophomore against (safety) Patrick Chung, who we drafted in New England. It wasn’t like he was a secret — he won the Mackey Award — but it was really a question of whether he was going to fit what we were doing in New England.

After the interview and combine, we had some concerns about that. Was he going to be a mature enough guy? Was he going to fit that program? I kept putting tapes together and we’d watch them with coach (Bill) Belichick and Nick Caserio, the player personnel director there.

I could tell coach Belichick’s interest had been piqued at that point. We felt like he could really be a pivotal piece of that offense. Fortunately for us, we were able to position ourselves in the draft. We were able to trade up a couple of picks and get him, and he’s been really good.

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When it comes to adding players via the draft or free agency, how much stock do you put in analytics?

We’ll do some of that. We’ll do some statistical comparisons and stack guys up against each other, try to create some predictors of where they might be strong or deficient in their skill sets. Again, you can’t wholeheartedly look at numbers. We’re not going to be a scout-by-numbers team.

You’ve got to watch the film, you’ve got to go out to the schools and watch them practice and go to games and watch them play in games live. But I think (analytics) is a complementary piece to the entire process that can either really crystallize your decision or make you go back and re-watch the player. And in the end, it’s about getting it right. It’s kind of going to be a slogan we use here in scouting: Get it right.

In a couple of years, what do you want the Titans to look like?

Tough, physical. We want a team full of guys that are committed to the team concept. I want guys to have individual success and I don’t mean to minimize that, but the most important thing is that we win football games. If that takes every defensive lineman on our roster averaging four sacks per game to get that done or if it takes one player to get 16 sacks, I don’t care. I just want to win football games.

Reach John Glennon at 615-259-8262 and on Twitter @glennonsports.