Tennessee Titans focus on defense in new mock draft
The Tennessee Titans need to improve the defensive side of the football before they can contend with the NFL’s best, and they could do that in the NFL Draft.
The 2021 NFL Draft and free agency period could be one of the most important periods of time since the Tennessee Titans moved to Tennessee, and if the Titans draft and sign free agents wisely, it could send them to the Super Bowl.
They’re a few pieces away from taking the next step to being competitive with the best that the NFL has to offer. If they can get the right pass rushers, I think the Titans could be a few lucky plays away from getting to the big game.
Titans GM Jon Robinson has done a phenomenal job at building the Titans since he came to Nashville. A big part of his ability to successfully build the Titans comes with his success in the draft over the years.
Many Titans fans will expect a lot from this year’s draft because of Robinson’s success rate at drafting good players, especially in the first few rounds.
Draft Wire’s Luke Easterling’s most recent mock draft has the Titans going defense in the draft. Easterling’s mock draft consists of the first two rounds of the draft, and these picks could cause some controversy based on their college performances.
In the first round with the No. 22 pick, the Titans draft Penn State EDGE Jayson Oweh in this mock draft. Oweh did not have the best season this past fall. He didn’t record a sack in the 2020 season. He did finish with 38 total tackles and 6.5 tackles for a loss.
The Titans need a reliable pass rusher they can lean on, and a rookie that only has seven sacks in his collegiate career with no sacks in his final season in college probably isn’t the best move.
The Titans don’t have a top pick, so getting an elite college pass rusher might not be possible, but there are players with better numbers than Oweh the Titans can look at, including Jaelan Phillips and Patrick Jones II.
Phillips is a projected first-round draft pick but a late first-rounder, so he could slip to the Titans. Jones is a projected early second-round draft pick, but it might be worth taking a chance on him and drafting him late in the first round.
At the No. 53 pick, the Titans are projected to draft Tyson Campbell out of Georgia. The Bulldogs’ secondary is respectable, and we know that Georgia has been near the top of the SEC and the country over the past few years, so any starter could transition well to the NFL.
Campbell had one interception, 2.5 tackles for loss, and five passes defended in the 2020 season. The Titans’ secondary has a lot of questions surrounding it, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Titans take a couple of players for the secondary in the draft.
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It’s hard to predict what any team will do in the NFL Draft because Draft Day is often a crazy day that can be almost entirely unpredictable outside of the first few draft picks. The Titans could luck into an elite player that fell to No. 22 or be left to scrape the barrel of players that they believe are worth being a first-round draft pick.