Titans NFL Draft Order Watch: The highest, lowest, and most likely slot for the Titans to pick in the 2026 NFL Draft after Week 18
One more week until the Titans’ draft fate is sealed!
The Tennessee Titans are in Jacksonville in Week 18 to wrap up the year against the division-rival Jaguars. At 3-13, Cam Ward and company will do everything in their power to pull a frustrating upset to keep the Jags from claiming the AFC South crown. As nearly two touchdown underdogs, though, that would be quite the impressive feat.
As it stands, Tennessee sits in the fourth slot in the projected draft order. Here’s how high they could climb, how far they could fall, and what you need to root for in the final week of the year.
Titans Week 18 Rooting Guide
Tennessee’s ceiling at this point is the second overall pick. Even if the Las Vegas Raiders pull a 9.5 point upset over the Kansas City Chiefs, their strength of schedule would keep them ahead of fellow three-win team Tennessee. To claim the second pick, the Titans will need the New York Giants and New York Jets to beat the Dallas Cowboys (-3.5) and the Buffalo Bills (-7.5) respectively. Based on the opponents, quarterbacks, and recent level of play, only one of those outcomes seems plausible to me.
To get to that second pick, the Titans would also have to lose to the Jaguars of course. If they win, they could fall no further than the 7th overall pick. This would require a Washington Commanders loss to the Philadelphia Eagles (-4.5), a Cleveland Browns loss to the Cincinnati Bengals (-7.5), and an Arizona Cardinals loss to the Los Angeles Rams (-9.5). In the case of a Titans win, each one of those losses means one more step down from fourth towards seventh.
The most likely outcome here is that the Titans lose and remain at fourth in the draft order, though there is a plausible path for them to lose but drop to fifth anyways. The primary tiebreaker in draft order for teams with the same record is Strength Of Schedule (SOS), and Tennessee and Arizona are neck-and-neck here at the end. With only three one thousandths of a win percentage decimal holding the Titans’ edge over the Cardinals, the outcome for each team’s past opponents in Week 18 matters a lot.
Tankathon.com has a rooting guide for the Titans to maintain their edge here. The most important game towards this is the Bengals winning over the Browns. You also need to root for the Falcons to beat the Saints, the Cowboys to beat the Giants, the Packers to beat the Vikings, and the Dolphins to beat the Patriots. As long as the majority of these games aren’t wacky Week 18 upsets, the Titans should stay in the lead.
Oh! One more thing to root for: the Titans need the Ravens to win their regular season finale against the Steelers for their conditional 5th round pick to turn into a 4th. In the last win-and-in game of the year, Titans fans need to be pulling for another vintage King Henry performance.
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