Five Titans Combine Questions: Robert Saleh and Mike Borgonzi’s preferences, first round pick intel, the truth about second round options

Look alive, it’s NFL Combine week folks! Here are the biggest questions we’re trying to answer about the Titans’ draft plans.

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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Welcome to NFL Scouting Combine Week!

The entire league is descending on Indianapolis for the next seven days for what is appropriately referred to as the NFL’s Spring Break. It’s a mix of executives, coaches, scouts, prospects, and media that you don’t get anywhere else. It’s a melting pot of information that always leads to a variety of interesting storylines and revelations. It starts with getting to know these players both on and off the field, but goes much further than that. This week is all about learning new things about the league’s preferences and individual team plans.

I’ll be on the ground all week doing a ton of work both on camera and on this website, so check back in each day here and on YouTube for the latest! As a primer, here are the five biggest topics I’m heading to the Combine to dig up answers on:

1. First Round EDGE preferences

We’ve already talked so much about Ohio State’s Arvell Reese, Miami’s Rueben Bain, and Texas Tech’s David Bailey. And we will continue to talk about them as the lead topic for this team up until they’re on the clock in late April. The convergence of roster need, positional value, and draft history lines up very well for the Titans to take an EDGE with the fourth overall pick.

But how do you order these guys? Who is most likely to still be on the board by pick 4? And most importantly, which archetype of rusher are the Titans most interested in? These are the questions I’ll be working to answer. We speak with head coach Robert Saleh and GM Mike Borgonzi on Tuesday and Wednesday at noon CT, and you can bet we’ll be looking for clues on this front. For more on what makes these three top rushers so different, read here.

2. Carnell Tate’s top-5 hype

It’s still too early to responsibly whittle down a short-list of options to just four players, but it’s what my gut is telling me: I think the Titans will walk away from the first round with one of Reese, Bain, Bailey, or Ohio State WR Carnell Tate. If they don’t go EDGE, I just don’t see another option that passes the Mike Borgonzi sniff test in this class at this high a pick.

I do not think they will have an opportunity to trade, as nice as that could be. This isn’t a class with blue chip talent at premium positions in the top 10 that lends to franchises mortgaging capital to chase. And I do not see a world where the Titans take RB Jeremiyah Love, S Caleb Downs, or LB Sonny Styles at pick 4 either. These are all blue chip prospects in my opinion, but what I know about Mike Borgonzi makes it very hard for me to see him taking a non-premium player here.

If I come back from Indianapolis having changed my tune on that, just know that it will be because I heard something compelling about how this team may be thinking.

So why does Tate get included? Because I think there is a world where the Titans only have one of these EDGE prospects available at pick 4, and for whatever reason they’re a lot cooler on the final option than they were on picks 2 and 3. Tate’s narrative freight train has gained steam in the past month, and when I finally got to sit down and dig into his tape and numbers, I understood why. This guy fits in quite nicely with the rich pantheon of recent OSU receivers!

He seems to be a victim of comparison. OSU’s standard has been set so extremely high by the pedigree of their annual WR contribution to the NFL that it can make a guy like Tate seem less than. Playing with 2027 draft phenom Jerimiah Smith is a big part of this in particular. But ask somebody who isn’t crazy about Tate to name a reason to knock him besides “I don’t like his value as a top-5 pick”, and the answers are sparse (or missing entirely). I’m very curious to dig into the opinions of league professionals this week when it comes to this player in particular.

3. Top realistic Day 2 options

This seems to happen every year: mock drafting at the top of Day 2 is hard, because the options on your simulator of choice seem to be a mix of guys you seriously doubt will actually be available and guys you don’t quite like the idea of drafting that high (bona fide Round 3 types). But that’s the funny thing about the draft—only 32 players can go in the first round! So when you do a mock draft simulator and see a player you’re sure won’t actually fall that far, that means a player who is already off the board would have to become available again to remedy what you see as the simulator’s unrealistic generosity.

Put simply, there are certain guys whose media stock is still shifting significantly that won’t be available at pick 35 when the dust clears. Players like WR Omar Cooper Jr. and even WR Chris Brazzell come to mind on that front. But there are others who we may collectively perceive as “unlikely to fall to 35” who end up falling to 35 because that’s how numbers work.

Somebody has to fall! I want to find out who is actually likely to do so, because the early Day 2 picture is always a bit fuzzy pre-combine.

4. Titans’ top interests beyond CB, WR, and EDGE

Every time I sit down to do a mock draft, I find myself filtering for CB, WR, and EDGE with my early picks. Then I take a step back and think, what are the odds Mike Borgonzi actually lets need dictate his draft this dramatically? My gut says the answer is no.

Of course the Titans will be prioritizing these positions in the draft, because they are both premium positions and massive needs for this roster in particular. And the good news is that the top-100 of this class is richest at these very positions. So there’s a pretty decent chance that at each of Tennessee’s picks, the philosophies of drafting for need and drafting the best player available converge fortuitously.

But I’ll bet today that at least one of their first four picks falls outside of this narrow scope, because that’s just the way that these things tend to work out. So what position is it likely to be, then? Everybody knows this roster needs a lot more help than just a cornerback, receiver and edge rusher. I’m looking forward to gathering clues on what the Titans think they need most. My guess is in the trenches and at tight end, pending free agency of course.

5. Most intriguing Day 3 options

Finally, I can’t wait to hear some of the league’s favorite sleeper options this week. This will be my fourth trip to the Combine, and every time I go, I hear all about a handful of prospects that are getting little buzz who end up being hipster favorites rising up boards by April.

As I scroll the consensus draft board, here are a couple of names I’m suspicious of potentially falling into this category: Iowa C Logan Jones, Arkansas RB Mike Washington Jr, Penn St. RB Nick Singleton, Utah TE Dallen Bentley, Stanford TE Sam Roush, Kentucky WR Kendrick Law, and Texas A&M OT Trey Zuhn. I look forward to modifying this list significantly after the week of chatter.

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