The Tennessee Titans don’t sound like they’re set on drafting a “generational talent” with April’s No. 1 total decide.
They sound like they’d desire to commerce out.
Titans president of soccer operations Chad Brinker is getting plenty of consideration for saying on Wednesday that “if there’s a generational talent” obtainable on the No. 1 decide, “you don’t pass that up,” as he first mentioned on 104-5 The Zone’s Ramon, Kayla & Will present.
However the focus must be on what Brinker known as his ideally suited roster-building situation: to amass extra picks.
“Ideally if we could map it out perfectly, you’d really want about 30 picks over the next three years. And 12 of those need to come in the top 100,” Brinker mentioned.
Because of this the Titans are open for enterprise. And meaning the Giants could also be just one Joe Schoen cellphone name away from buying and selling as much as No. 1 total to pick New York’s selection of Miami quarterback Cam Ward or Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders.
Would that be sensible?
The Titans desperately want a quarterback themselves. So if Brinker and new GM Mike Borgonzi would reasonably commerce again than take Ward or Sanders, that speaks volumes about their analysis of the passer that the Giants could be charging as much as take.
It solely takes one group to have conviction on a participant to draft him, although. The Giants don’t have a single quarterback beneath contract getting into the offseason, and a giant swing on a QB is value it in a contemporary NFL that’s divided by the haves and have-nots at that actual place.
To be clear, the Titans despatched robust indicators they don’t intend to take a quarterback at No. 1.
Brinker mentioned of incumbent Will Levis: “He’s gonna get an opportunity to compete for a starting job next year.”
That’s not occurring with a No. 1 total decide within the constructing.
No evaluator of this NFL Draft considers Ward or Sanders a generational expertise, both. In order that description of the participant the Titans would keep and take doesn’t embrace them.
It would apply of their minds to Colorado nook/receiver Travis Hunter or Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter. However that’s a stretch, too.
So Wednesday’s Titans media tour principally served as an invite from Nashville to the remainder of the NFL to name Borgonzi’s cellphone concerning the No. 1 total decide.
The brand new GM even joked that he’d already obtained some tender overtures.
“I think I got some feelers,” he mentioned with amusing at his introductory press convention. “Yeah. Some congratulatory [texts] but ‘Yeah, keep in touch.’”
Nonetheless, Schoen may not need to make the commerce as much as No. 1 total for the quarterback he needs, based mostly on the restricted competitors on the prime of this draft.
The Cleveland Browns at No. 2, the Las Vegas Raiders at No. 6 and the New Orleans Saints at No. 9 stand out as the one apparent threats. The Seattle Seahawks appear to be they’re too far again at No. 18.
The Browns and Giants additionally know that the Titans don’t seem like selecting a quarterback. So the one concern is dropping the chance to take their most popular QB to a different extra aggressive group.
That may very well be sufficient to drum up a marketplace for Tennessee, even with them signaling that the highest QBs will nonetheless be on the board at decide No. 2 if the Titans keep put.
The No. 1 total decide isn’t traded typically.
The Carolina Panthers traded up with the Bears in 2023 from decide No. 9 to No. 1 to take Bryce Younger. They gave Chicago a haul: two first-round picks (2023, 2024), two second-round picks (2023, 2025) and huge receiver D.J. Moore.
The Rams bought the farm to the Titans in 2016 to maneuver from No. 15 to No. 1 to take Jared Goff: two first-round picks (2016, 2017), two second-round picks (each 2016) and two third-round picks (2016, 2017).
Earlier than that, a commerce to No. 1 total hadn’t occurred since 2001.
That yr, the Falcons moved up from No. 5 to No. 1 to select Michael Vick. Atlanta gave the San Diego Chargers their first-round decide, a 2002 second-rounder and a 2001 third-rounder.
If the Giants had been to maneuver up from No. 3 to No. 1, then, the fee clearly wouldn’t be what the Panthers gave Chicago to maneuver up eight spots in 2023.
However it additionally wouldn’t be as low cost because the Falcons’ commerce up for Vick.
There is a chance price related to a group giving up the No. 1 total decide in an NFL Draft. And if the Giants had been bidding towards one other group just like the Browns, Raiders or Saints, there could be a price to win that competitors and provides Brinker, Borgonzi and the Titans one thing enough.
Schoen additionally would have the benefit, although, of letting Tennessee slide down solely two slots to No. 3 reasonably than plummeting down the draft board. In order that may very well be a bonus for the Giants in sealing a deal.
Working with the Titans looks as if it will be just a little bit unorthodox based mostly on Wednesday’s unusual press convention, the place Brinker wouldn’t even let new Borgonzi sit on the dais by himself.
Brinker wouldn’t even give a straight reply when requested twice if he had the facility to overrule Borgonzi on the group’s No. 1 total decide. So Tennessee, it appears, has its personal issues.
Nonetheless, that’s not the Giants’ downside. Their downside is at quarterback. And their job is two-fold:
First, they need to determine if any of those quarterbacks is worthy of the No. 3 decide — not to mention the No. 1 decide — particularly when a QB-needy group like Tennessee appears so intent on passing on these gamers this early within the scouting course of.
The Giants have the identical downside as Tennessee: they don’t simply want a quarterback. They want a ton of expertise upgrades all through the remainder of their roster, too. Possibly signing a veteran quarterback, utilizing a mid-round decide on a rookie QB and strengthening the roster round their quarterbacks within the first spherical is a greater wager of their eyes.
Second, the Giants’ job is to hearken to what Brinker needed to say on Wednesday about eager to accrue extra draft picks — an concept he doubled down throughout a sit-down with reporters.
“As far as that No. 1 pick, you can’t pass up on a generational talent. We won’t do that,” Brinker mentioned, per The Tennessean. “But we also have to look at all the options available to us there as well, because we want to build this team for the long term. I mentioned this before, if I can map this out perfectly, I’d love to have 30 picks over the next three years, and 12 of those picks come from the top 100. That would be ideal. That’s how you flip your roster, that’s how you get youth on your roster.”
The Titans’ soccer czar added that it will be good to search out Jayden Daniels, as Washington did. It simply doesn’t occur typically.
“You don’t always get the generational talent at quarterback right off the bat, like how it seems like Washington,” Brinker mentioned. “They’ve been able to flip their team pretty quickly. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to try. We’re going to do everything we can. We’re going to look at every avenue.”
The Giants are on that avenue. Now it’s time to see if Schoen acts.
