First-time general manager Jon Robinson said it would take a “king’s ransom” for the Tennessee Titans to trade the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.
The closer the draft gets, the more serious the offers will be for Robinson and his staff to contemplate.
“There is a group of players that are at the top of the draft, that, you don’t want to move back too far cause you can miss out on one of those guys, and if you do move back that far you want to make sure that you have a king’s ransom, for lack of a better term, to move that far,” Robinson said last month. “I would say that for us to move out of that pick, it’s going to take a substantial amount of picks to do that.”
According to reports, the San Francisco 49ers were one of the first teams to approach the Titans for that top pick. Reading tea leaves during NFL rumor season can be challenging but Chip Kelly, in his first season with the 49ers, was bold last April while part of the Philadelphia Eagles’ brass in attempting to move up in the 2015 draft to secure quarterback Marcus Mariota, who went No. 2 to the Titans.
Kelly and the 49ers pick seventh overall but have a dozen picks even before any potential deal involving Colin Kaepernick – whose $11.9 million salary was too great a hurdle for the Denver Broncos – a fact the former Eagles coach has repeated this spring.
The Titans are not in the quarterback market and it was inevitable that teams without a franchise quarterback – the 49ers, Browns, Broncos are on that list – are in the market. The Browns pick second overall, where they are in position to draft either North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz or Jared Goff of Cal. Tennessee was in that spot last April, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected Jameis Winston.
Teams that want their pick of passers will need to jump ahead of the Browns. That’s the leverage the Titans need to turn the No. 1 pick into a package of players or picks, including a future No. 1 selection.
Two of NFLDraftScout.com’s top offensive tackles, Ole Miss left tackle Laremy Tunsil and Notre Dame’s Ronnie Stanley, are likely to be gone in the top six or seven picks. That position is a pressing need for the Titans.
The other player most link to the Titans is Florida State defensive back Jalen Ramsey, who is arguably the best defensive player in the draft. Myles Jack of UCLA, a linebacker coming off of injury, is also in the conversation along with Ohio State defensive end Joey Bosa.