Titans draft crucial with big contracts looming
The Cleveland Browns took their annual turn Thursday as the most exciting franchise in the NFL. This is when we all talk about them.
What will the Browns do? How will the Browns screw it up? Will the Browns take quarterbacks with the first AND fourth picks this year?
The Tennessee Titans, on the other hand, have been relegated from three years of draft-day excitement to a duller place. There is much less buzz about the Titans this year — the No. 25 pick in the first round is the franchise’s lowest since it had No. 30 in 2009 — and this is exactly where you want to be in the NFL. Winning playoff games and picking low.
That does not make this weekend any less important than the first two drafts for Titans general manager Jon Robinson. Quite the contrary. When you’re trying to complete a roster that is close to that of a contender, and your cap space is about to be squeezed by another problem everyone would love to have — a left tackle and quarterback coming up on big pay days — you need to hit on as many picks as possible. You need to maximize the opportunity to improve depth and locate a couple of difference makers.
How Titans GM Jon Robinson has done in NFL draft
Taylor Lewan represents the last time the Titans didn’t have a top-10 pick, and they took him No. 11 in 2014 under previous GM Ruston Webster. Webster also picked Marcus Mariota No. 2 overall in 2015. Great picks. But Webster lost his job because an excess of misfires in his drafting led to a bad roster and a combined record of 5-27 in the 2014-15 seasons. Included was Chance Warmack at No. 10 overall in 2013.
Robinson parlayed the No. 1 overall pick in 2016 into a trade with a Rams and a haul of choices, then traded back up to get Jack Conklin at No. 8 overall. Conklin was AllPro as a rookie and, though he’s rehabbing from an ACL tear, looks every bit a longterm pillar.
Last year was the best kind of draftday exciting, the No. 5 pick after a 9-7 season, because of that trade with the Rams. Robinson went Corey Davis there and Adoree’ Jackson at No. 18. Jackson showed promise as a rookie; Davis was banged up and will be as important as any player if the Titans and rookie coach Mike Vrabel are going to build on last year’s 10win performance, one at Kansas City in the playoffs.