It looks like the Tennessee Titans will hold onto the top pick in next month’s NFL Draft unless there is an offer the team cannot turn down.
This is not a scene from The Godfather, but the 2-14 team holds the cards in who becomes the first player taken off the board. If there is a franchise that wants either Laremy Tunsil, the tackle from Ole Miss or defensive end Joey Bosa from Ohio State, they had better speak up.
“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,” Jon Robinson, the Titans general manager said on ESPN.com. “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.”
The top five picks of the first round could be affected by Cleveland’s need to draft a quarterback. California’s Jared Goff and North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz figure to be vying for that spot. If the Browns do not pick a signal caller at No. 2, this draft is altered and all bets are off as to how the first five picks shake down.
GOFF IMPRESSES AT HIS PRO DAY
Speaking of Jared Goff, NFL scouts got a chance to see the Cal quarterback work out at his Pro Day. All anyone could say was it was “impressive” to say the least.
According to a story that appears on NFL.com, Goff threw 69 passes in his throwing session, reportedly completing 61 of them with two drops. NFL Media analyst Bucky Brooks gave Goff a B-plus grade for the workout, while analyst Daniel Jeremiah gave him a B grade.
Even with his performance, this was not a “slam dunk” by any means. Daniel Jeremiah spelled out as to what he saw with the workout.
“This was not a scripted winner. There weren’t just a bunch of lay-ups out there,” Jeremiah said. “… I would probably give him a B overall. On the deep ball, you saw some nice touch on a couple of them. He overthrew two, and one underthrow. So I thought it was a little bit mixed on the deep ball. But I like the fact that they were taking shots in this workout. If you wanted to see a couple pinpoint throws, he gave you that. It just wasn’t a flawless pro day. It was solid.”
LAWSON FLAGGED FOR MEDICAL ISSUE
Clemson’s stud defensive end Shaq Lawson figures to be a first round draft pick in April, but a question about his health may have put up a red flag for some NFL teams.
According to Albert Breer of the NFL Network, Lawson returned to Indianapolis to have his shoulder rechecked.
Lawson was a dominant figure on the Tigers defensive front and could be amongst the first 15 players chosen in the NFL Draft.
A story on bigblueview.com reported Breer’s comments. Lawson’s shoulder “popped out” during a 2013 game against Boston College and was “Popped back in” — per Dabo Sweeny’s post game press conference — by a trainer during the game. If Lawson needs the brace to prevent his shoulder from dislocating, that would likely constitute a “Medical Red Flag”.
Whether this hurts his draft stock or not is unknown. This is a Draft that is deep at defensive end, but not many carry a true first round grade.
