Titans Select Dorial Green-Beckham

The Tennessee Titans seemed to be confused. They select Oregon Quarterback Marcus Mariota with the second pick in the entire draft and spew accolade after accolade of how good of a person he is as well as a football player. They talked about his “integrity and work ethic” were deciding factors in selecting him. So where do they go in round two?

Dorial Green-Beckham of course. Not sure what happened to the integrity and work ethic mantra the Titan brass hailed from the first to the second round. Green-Beckham has been in trouble….several times. He also has not played a down of football since 2013. If you wanted to take questionable character guys at this point in the draft, Randy Gregory was still there as was LSU Offensive Tackle La’el Collins. Both were first round talents, but have big time off of the field issues. At least they had played in 2014 at their respective Universities.

The Titans traded out of the first pick to move down and pick up 2 more late round picks that probably won’t amount to anything more than special team players. I hope that is not the case, and there are several players that will still be available in the fourth round that may be able to contribute somewhat.

The Giants took the best safety in the draft in Alabama’s Landon Collins with our pick. I think he was a top 10 player and would have been great here in Tennessee. The Titans bypassed several running backs, most notably TJ Yeldon who they will see plenty over the next few years playing for the Jacksonville Jaguars. They also bypassed receivers rated above Green-Beckham in Ohio State’s Devin Smith and Arizona State’s Jaelen Strong.

The list goes on and on of who they passed over. I realize it is not necessary to think through this. The Titans have so many needs that it can not be fixed with six picks. This will take years to turn around. I just think they are making it harder on themselves with these types of picks. For example, another guy that I liked was Cornerback Senquez Golson of Ole Miss who was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the second round. The Titans need a Corner badly. But they need everything badly.

I realize they had to take the best player available with that second round pick. Was Green-Beckham the best player on the board? Was he even the best receiver on the board? Only time will tell.

So moving forward and trying to stay positive lets look at DGB’s good side. He is 6’5″ and 237 pounds. He has drawn comparisons of Detroit’s Calvin Johnson. Those comparison’s end with “he has the body style and potential of a Calvin Johnson”. As much as we want to hope, it is just not smart to draft “potential”. The reason? Well, it has the “potential” to be a bust. See, it goes both ways.

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Green-Beckham was kicked off of his Missouri Tiger team due to two marijuana possession issues and a domestic incident. That was enough for Missouri. He transferred to Oklahoma last season but was never cleared to play. So he sat out.

While at Missouri he was extremely productive. He dominated smaller SEC cornerbacks on both short underneath routes and deep routes. If they moved off of him as a respect of his speed, Missouri would throw the short screen and he had the ability to gain yards after making the catch. If they pressed him, he was physical and fast enough to beat them deep.

Although he was never a 1,000 yard receiver, he did score 12 touchdowns in his 2013 season against SEC talent. That is not chopped liver.

He has the measurables with the exception of hand size and vertical jump as pointed out by ESPN’s Mel Kiper. Kiper said he played much smaller than his 6’5″ frame because he did not go get the ball at it’s highest peak. He ran a 5.49 4o at the combine which is good for a big wideout. He also displays plenty of athleticism. NFL player analyst Greg Cossell said he believed that Green-Beckham would have been a first round lock and at the top of the wide receiver list if the off of the field issues did not exist.

Let’s face it, if we picked Mariota with number one we had to get him some weapons. I still think Justin Hunter will pan out big time. Kendall Wright is an above average slot receiver. Allowing Nate Washington to leave was probably the right thing to do, although I really liked Nate’s ability to make the tough catch. He was simply at his end. The Titans picked up Atlanta Falcon receiver Harry Douglas who will surprise Titan fans this Fall with his talent.

But the Titans had to add a big time receiver in this draft for Mariota. Maybe the GM looked back at a draft years ago where the Titans picked wide receiver Kevin Dyson over a receiver named Randy Moss due to the fact that Moss had some questionable off of the field issues. How did that work out for the Titans? (Moss is another receiver that Green-Beckham as been compared to as has Cincinnati’s AJ Green). Maybe he just didn’t want to take that kind of a chance again.

Look, these guys are professional talent evaluators. They know what they are doing and they know the direction they want to go. Maybe it was a reach at the top of the second round, maybe it is a genius move. Time will tell, and I hope Green-Beckham becomes a star. He has the measurables. He is a big time receiver “potentially”. Does he have the character to realize the opportunity that he has here in Nashville, and get to work on his profession and his off of the field behavior? That will be seen soon as well.