New Titans OL JC Latham explains why he didn't test at the NFL draft combine
The Tennessee Titans selected Alabama offensive tackle JC Latham with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft on Thursday night. Tennessee made the selection despite the fact that Latham didn't test at the NFL scouting combine earlier this offseason. On Friday, during Latham's introductory press conference in Nashville, the former Alabama standout […]
The Tennessee Titans selected Alabama offensive tackle JC Latham with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft on Thursday night.
Tennessee made the selection despite the fact that Latham didn't test at the NFL scouting combine earlier this offseason.
On Friday, during Latham's introductory press conference in Nashville, the former Alabama standout was asked why he didn't test at the combine.
Latham explained that he suffered a high ankle sprain in Alabama's loss to Michigan in the College Football Playoff. He didn't find out that he had a high ankle sprain until a doctor at the combine told him.
"I had a high ankle sprain that I didn't know about," explained Latham. "I thought it was a regular ankle sprain. I'm not one to — I pride myself on being available. And I just remember that last play of the game, one of my friends, he was asking how I didn't tear my ACL on that last play. The quarterback just ran directly into my knee. He was trying to make a play, make something out of nothing, and he — obviously he didn't see it — but you see his knee drives right into the back of my knee. And my knee was perfectly fine, but my ankle kind of got rolled up on."
"I ended up going to Florida to train three days later and I remember it was hurting, but I just thought I'd get to work and let it heal for an extra day," added Latham. "Throughout that whole process, it just never healed. So we just decided to call it off and just focus on positional stuff where there wasn't a lot of cutting within pass sets. We get to the combine, we [see] the doctors and he feels the swelling is still there. And it's a little bit tender and he tells me it's a high ankle sprain and I just didn't know about it."
Here's the play against Michigan where Latham was injured.
It's not a surprise that Latham tried to basically walk off a high ankle sprain. After he was selected by the Titans on Thursday night, he revealed that he's never missed a game at any level.
It sounds like the Titans drafted an offensive lineman that plans on playing all 17 regular season games on an annual basis.
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