T’Vondre Sweat trade breadcrumbs are piling up both nationally and locally as Titans approach NFL Trade Deadline

I do not think the Tennessee Titans will trade DT T’Vondre Sweat this year. But I’m here to tell you it’s a much more real possibility than you probably think. I won’t be surprised if it happens, and you shouldn’t either.

The NFL Nov. 4 trade deadline is fast approaching, and breadcrumbs are beginning to accumulate on the 38th-overall selection in the 2024 NFL Draft, getting moved 21 games into his career. It’s been whispered about locally for a couple of weeks, and now it’s gaining some national attention as well.

T’Vondre Sweat is the Titans trade candidate nobody expects

On Oct. 18, I detailed the Titans’ trade deadline stance and ranked the top trade candidates by their likelihood of being moved. At number nine, I had Sweat, and here was a portion of my explanation for why:

“But he does deserve to be on this list because the reality is that his firm standing with this team that he finished his rookie season with has eroded significantly since then. All the uncertainty that surrounded him in the pre-draft process has come back to mind for me lately, based on what I’ve seen and heard, and the team is hoping to see him get back in the mix quickly to take some steps forward.

“His rookie season was a strong start and enough to make him valuable in theory for a team looking to bolster its interior. I’d lump him into a similar bucket as Jarvis Brownlee right now, with a key difference being the level of talent. And in the NFL, talent trumps everything.”

Ultimately, I still believe that it’s a high bar to clear to find a team willing to pay a fair price. This team used a top-40 pick on him 18 months ago. Who is offering anything close to that right now?

But therein lies the rub: Titans GM Mike Borgonzi has already demonstrated a willingness to move on from picks by previous GMs for a questionable price. He’s already traded fellow 2024 draft pick and starter Jarvis Brownlee Jr. this year for a sixth and seventh-round pick swap. He was a fifth-round pick of Ran Carthon’s just 18 months ago, and again, he’s proven to be a good pick. He’s starting in the NFL!

Borgonzi clearly didn’t care. He traded Brownlee away at an objective value loss because he didn’t fit in on the team he’s trying to build. I’ve gotten a lot of those same signals about Sweat this year.

Now, with the trade deadline less than a week away, at least one national reporter is hearing similar things as well. This is from SI’s senior NFL reporter Albert Breer in a Friday notebook:

“One interesting name could be uber-talented-but-underachieving DT T’Vondre Sweat, whom teams have sniffed around on a bit (Tennessee would like to see if a new staff can reach him).”

Even Michael Ginnitti, the man behind the contract database spotrac.com, is posting on social media about Sweat being a Titans trade candidate.

The signs are accumulating. Again, I don’t think an offer is highly likely to materialize before the deadline because of the value loss the Titans would almost certainly have to absorb, but if Borgonzi truly doesn’t care, watch out. If you think Sweat is perfectly safe on this roster, you aren’t paying attention.