The day we’ve been waiting on for several months is now here and the Titans are scheduled to select two players just hours from now.
This is an open thread for Titans fans to express their final pre-draft thoughts and opinions today. Later we’ll have new articles here on Total Titans, shortly after each of the Titans’ draft selections is made.
Tonight we’ll find out if Mike Reinfeldt and company will draft the best player available or select a player to fill a need in the first two rounds.
We’ll also find out, both today and tomorrow, if the Titans will use some of their ten picks to trade up to select targeted players, as Tom advocated yesterday. I’m all for that too. The Titans are now in a position where quality is more important than quantity, as opposed to the years when they faced salary cap constraints.
There are several draft experts whose opinions I value more than others, including Mike Mayock and Rick “Goose” Gosselin, and I always like to check them out again on Draft Day for their latest material.
Gosselin, of the Dallas Morning News, has an outstanding record for his accuracy in predicting Round One. He was the only one in 2006, to my knowledge, whose mock draft predicted Donte Whitner would go to the Bills at #8. Everyone else projected Whitner to be a middle to late first round pick. In his final 2009 mock draft, Gosselin has the Titans selecting Alphonso Smith.
Gosselin is more of a compiler of information than an analyst. He has a lot of contacts and trusted sources, from which he readily gleans information to assist him in making his predictions. Here is his ranking of the top 100 players in the draft, in which he ranks Alphonso Smith at #34.
Mayock, a former NFL player, is strictly a talent evaluator, and he too has an excellent track record. Several weeks ago, I was listening to NFL.com analyst Walter Davis on the radio, who said that his colleague Mayock believed several interesting things.
One was that three years from now Robert Ayers would be regarded as the best defensive player to come out of this draft. Davis himself predicted the Titans would draft Ayers in the first round.
The other interesting item was more related to the Titans. Mayock believed, according to Davis, that this year’s class of cornerbacks was not a good one. He said, and I paraphrase, that the top corners in the draft were above average at best. Mayock said virtually the same thing to Sports Illustrated‘s Peter King in this article.
Hmmm. That doesn’t bode well for any team that has a corner as a top need.
Mayock also said, again according to Davis, that D.J. Moore was short and slow, which is no good for a cornerback. Mayock did like Alphonso Smith, however.
Here are Mayock’s latest rankings of the top players at each position.
Drafting at #30 in the first round, I’d guess the Titans should be on the clock somewhere around 7:00 this evening, assuming they don’t trade up. I’ll be following the action, though, just in case that does happen and also to keep track of who’s still on the board.
I’d be happy with Butler or Smith at corner in the first round; I haven’t been as high on Moore since his unsatisfactory Pro Day. He would be a consideration with some value at #62.
If the Titans go WR in round one, I like Robiskie, Britt or Nicks.
I like most of the top linebackers. Everybody seems to think the Texans will take either Matthews or Cushing at #15.
Who do you hope will still be available at #30 tonight? Assuming, of course, the Titans aren’t able to trade up to get someone they really like. If they are able to trade up, who would you like to see them get?
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