The 1st overall pick in the NFL Draft hasn’t been traded away prior to making the selection in 15 years, when the Atlanta Falcons last did it to land Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Vick. That excludes 2004, when the San Diego Chargers drafted Eli Manning first overall before trading him to the New York Giants. Trading the first overall pick is a rare occurrence because it almost always requires a bad team willing to part with the opportunity to select the best player in the draft combined with a willing participant giving up a king’s ransom. The two together are a tall order. Of course, if there’s a team out there willing to give up a significant amount to land the 1st overall pick, the Titans would be stupid not to listen. Typically a team looking to move up to 1st overall does so for a quarterback. That was the case with the Giants in 2004 (Manning), Falcons in 2001 (Vick), and Colts in 1990 (Jeff George). In this draft it seems unlikely, though not impossible, a team would give up a blockbuster return to land Carson Wentz or Jared Goff; they are widely considered the best quarterback prospects in this year’s draft. Non quarterbacks selected 1st overall after a trade are tackle Orlando Pace by the Rams in 1997 and running back Ki-Jana Carter in 1995 by the Bengals. So will the Titans move out of this slot?
If you take a peak at most mock drafts out there, Ole Miss offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil appears to be the consensus most likely pick to go first overall to the Titans. A number of mocks have the Titans taking Florida State cornerback Jalen Ramsey too, though the trendy Joey Bosa selection back in the early part of the offseason has really cooled off. Tunsil makes a lot of sense for the Titans because they gave up 54 sacks last season which was most in the NFL. And when you draft Marcus Mariota 2nd overall in 2015 as your franchise quarterback and he misses 4 games in his rookie season due to injury from all those sacks, you have to protect your investment. Getting offensive line help is clearly a priority for the Titans this season. The Titans did re-sign tackle Byron Bell and nabbed center Ben Jones from the Houston Texans, but otherwise they are in major need of some upgrades along their offensive front. Rumors are picking up steam that the Titans view Ramsey as the best player in the draft, though, and their secondary is also a major area of need. It could also be theorized they would be just as happy with highly graded Notre Dame tackle Ronnie Stanley if they were to move down. Still, most view Tunsil as the most likely pick at 1 if the Titans stay and it seems irresponsible of the Titans to pass on him when he plays a position that such a need.
Many of these same mocks have Wentz or Goff going second overall to the Cleveland Browns. Now that they’ve parted ways with troubled quarterback Johnny Manziel, this makes a lot of sense. So the likelihood of a team wanting to trade up to 1st overall is heightened when they know the Browns are taking a passer at 2. They’ll want to move ahead of them to acquire the quarterback of their choice if they believe that player is a surefire star. This is all contingent on the Titans willingness to trade out, though, which remains to be seen. But how far down would they be willing to go? The Browns won’t trade up from 2 because they don’t view the Titans as a threat to take a quarterback. The next most likely team to need/draft a quarterback early would be the 49ers at 7. Are the Titans willing to drop that far and are the 49ers willing to give up enough to move up 6 spots? It seems unlikely. The 49ers’ general manager Trent Baalke has a history or accruing picks and trading down, not the other way around.
So while you can’t rule out a trade if the right offer comes along, we’ll view the Titans moving out of their slot as unlikely. Expect them to stay put and take Tunsil or Ramsey unless something crazy happens like we haven’t seen in 15 years.
