2017 NFL Draft: Looking At Possible Tennessee Titans First-Round Picks
The Tennessee Titans own a pair of first-round picks in the 2017 NFL Draft, but who could they possibly select at both spots?
With just one month to go before the 2017 NFL Draft, the mock drafts are freely flowing. That means everyone is freely speculating who will the Tennessee Titans will take with their two first-round selections.
It seems everyone has a mock. You've seen them, I've seen them, and they all seemingly are only slightly different. But here's a secret. I've done mock drafts every year for the past 25 years and the best I've ever done is getting 18 picks to the proper team. And that's considered an outstanding year. But we all love to compose our own and look at others because, well, just because.
The Titans have the fifth and 18th picks in the first round, giving them two quality picks in what is considered a strong draft. The fifth pick is, of course, much easier to figure out than the 18th. So what could Tennessee possibly do at each spot? Let's look at possible options.
More from NFL Spin Zone
With the Fifth Pick…
In my latest mock, I've got Myles Garrett, Solomon Thomas, Jamal Adams and Leonard Fournette going in the four picks ahead of Tennessee's first selection.
That leaves the Titans with their choice of the draft's top corner, Ohio State's Marshon Lattimore, Alabama tight end O.J. Howard, safety Malik Hooker of Ohio State, defensive end Derek Barnett of Tennessee or defensive lineman Jonathan Allen of Alabama.
The pick here is Lattimore, a big, speedy cover corner who has the talent to be a shutdown player on the outside. Defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau hates to start rookies, but as we saw last year, he'll do so if forced. And Lattimore should easily force his way onto the field. He'll pair with Logan Ryan to give LeBeau two of the big, rangy cornerbacks that he likes to line up with on defense.
With the 18th Pick…
The 18th pick is a little more tricky. We won't bore you with a rundown of picks 6-17. Instead, we'll let you know that in this mock, the Titans have their pick of Washington's speedy wide receiver John Ross and Clemson's physical Mike Williams. With both available, Ross is the pick.
The Titans had plenty of success several years ago with Chris Johnson, whose NFL Scouting Combine 40-yard dash record Ross broke. While Williams also can get deep because of his size and physicality, Ross has special speed that must be accounted for.
Ross will provide the deep speed to keep opposing safeties from creeping into the box to shut down one of the top rushing attacks in the league. That would be a solid haul on Day 1 of the draft for the Titans.