Let’s go back to NFL Scouting Combine week in February. I’m old enough to remember when the buzz in Titans world turned away from Ohio State WR Carnell Tate as a legitimate option at fourth overall, despite GM Mike Borgonzi going out of his way to praise Tate in particular. Why did the fanbase turn their back on him? Well, it partly had to do with our infatuation with the EDGE prospects at the top of the draft. It partly had to do with the near-consensus opinion that RB Jeremiyah Love was the better offensive prospect. But it also partly had to do with what the Athletic’s Dane Brugler uttered that week in Indianapolis: half of Brugler’s pro comparison for Carnell Tate was former Titans 5th overall pick Corey Davis.

When that name came up, it felt like we turned our collective listening ears off to ignore the other half of his comp: Bengals WR Tee Higgins. Corey Davis? In the top-5 of the draft again?!

Davis was ultimately middling over the duration of his rookie contract. He managed just shy of 900 yards with 4 touchdowns in year two, and just shy of 100 yards with 5 touchdowns in year 4. He was a useful player, but his lower ceiling and inconsistency led to the Titans letting him walk when he was due for his first veteran pay day. Davis signed a 3-year, $37.5 million contract with the Jets and he never reached the heights he managed in Tennessee again.

Put simply, it’s not surprising if a Corey Davis comp put a sour taste in your mouth for Tate this spring. But if you look around the league at other talented evaluators, there’s a whole world of interesting pro comparisons that can be made for the 6’2″ 192lb Tate that paint him in a different light. Let’s explore:

Comparing Carnell Tate to Tee Higgins

First things first, let’s give Brugler his due: half of the comp was Tee Higgins for him too! The funny part of his two-part comparison for Tate is that it just so happens to be one player Titans fans got burned on, and one player Titans fans have spent many years interested in paying big bucks to in free agency. Brugler wasn’t alone in seeing Higgins in Tate’s game, though.

The Ringer’s Danny Kelly is always one for fun comps during draft season. He wrote is his draft guide that he see shades of a more explosive Tee Higgins… or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. “Wiry, somewhat gangly pass catcher with weirdly incredible body control; goes up high to to snag passes in traffic—then somehow ends up on his feet.” 

Marcus Whitman of the fantastic That Franchise Guy YouTube channel told me Higgins+Tate was one of his easier comps of the cycle. “If you need a bigger bodied receiver that can be a vertical threat and and dominate on the outside and fill that x role and be a badass run blocker by the way like if that’s really what you’re looking for like yeah Carnell Tate very well could be your number one wide receiver.”

Despite having Tate as a controversial WR3 on his rankings, Whitman’s offered some of the highest praise of anybody in this article for one element of Tate’s game: “The ball skills are borderline generational across the board. I don’t go throwing out the word generational, to the point that people were mad at me on twitter when i said that. But I really do believe if you stacked up wide receiver prospects from the last 10 years, Carnell Tate is in the top three or four of the last 10 years in terms of full scale ball skills evaluation. That’s drops, winning contested catches, and catching all together.”

Comparing Carnell Tate to Chris Olave

Another popular comp for Tate was his fellow Ohio State Buckeye, Saints WR1 Chris Olave.

NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein wrote in his evaluation “Tate has good size but would benefit from more play strength. He builds momentum quickly on intermediate and deep routes, utilizing speed and tempo to pressure cornerbacks. He can win over the top on verticals or separate over the first two levels with route savvy and separation burst. Tate tracks throws at top speed and makes his adjustments to run under them. He combines timing, body control and catch radius to dominate air space and consistently lands on the winning side of contested catches.”

His colleague, NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah, agreed on the Chris Olave comparison.

“I’m going to go with Chris Olave as that vertical stretch receiver,” Jeremiah said on an episode of Path To The Draft. Getting down the field, tracking the ball beautifully. Incredible ball skills. The ability to score once you get down inside the redzone. Those are a lot of the same traits that you see with Carnell Tate.”

Olave has eclipsed 1000 yards in his three healthy seasons with New Orleans so far. His career arc (hopefully with much better QB play) would be a welcome addition to this Titans roster.

Davante Adams, Davanta Smith, and Nico Collins

The Ringer’s Todd McShay compared Tate to a potential Hall of Famer. “Tate is a day-one starting perimeter receiver in the NFL,” McShay wrote in his draft guide. “He shares some similarities with Davante Adams in terms of their size, route-running craftiness, smoothness of movement (with solid but not elite speed), and confidence of hands.”

Trevor Sikkema said on the Bleacher Report Draft Board show early this spring that his pro comp for Tate is a former Heisman winner.

“To be WR2 on that team and to still produce the way that he did every time the ball came his way… my goodness,” Sikkema remarked. “He’s got incredibly strong hands, he’s really become quite the nuanced route runner as well. My pro comp for him? Devonta Smith from Alabama and now with the Philadelphia Eagles. Now, Carnell Tate is bigger than Devonta Smith. Carnell Tate’s listed at about 6’3″ 195lbs. And Devonta Smith was right around 6’0″ 170.But he’s like a bigger version of the reliability that you get with Devonta Smith, but naturally having like 20-25 more pounds on you. OK, he doesn’t quite turn on a dime the way that Smith did. But I feel like it’s that same type of player. If Devonta Smith were a little bit taller, a little bit bigger: this is what he would look like. We see what kind of a player Devonta Smith has been in the NFL.”

That’s the smallest Tate comp you’ll find on this list. Now how about the biggest?

James Foster of No Flags Film compared Tate to Texans star Nico Collins in his draft guide. “Long-striding boundary WR who is a crisp route runner for his size,” Foster explained. “Doesn’t have elite speed but creates vertical separation with salesmanship and abrupt tempo changes.” Collins is obviously the caliber of WR1 in this league that Titans fans would be pleased to see Tate become.

Is it a surefire bet that Tate will turn into one of these star receivers instead of suffering the same fate as a player like Davis? Of course not. But the world of possibilities that exist for the kind of NFL force Carnell Tate could be come as a Titan is far more tantalizing than worrying he might be a redo of this franchise’s decision years ago.