What Ran Carthon, Brian Callahan are saying about Tennessee Titans' biggest NFL draft need

This time of year, when the NFL draft is just days away, NFL general managers behave like poker players mid-bluff.

Every word is guarded. Every evaluation is a nuclear secret. Even the smallest hint about a team's draft-night intentions can spiral months and months of preparation into the trash bin.

But amid the swirling league-wide subterfuge and double-talk, Tennessee Titans GM Ran Carthon is at least willing to admit one universal truth.

"This game is about protecting the quarterback," Carthon told media Tuesday. "You want guys who can protect the quarterback."

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The Titans need a tackle. That much is not a nuclear secret. Last year's Titans allowed the worst pressure rate and the second-worst sack rate in the NFL. But short of cutting Andre Dillard and trading a seventh-round pick for Cleveland Browns reserve Leroy Watson, the Titans haven't done anything this offseason to address either tackle spot.

So it shouldn't come as a surprise that a sizable majority of NFL draft analysts predict the Titans to use the No. 7 pick on an offensive lineman when they're on the clock Thursday. Notre Dame's Joe Alt is the consensus match, but prospects like Penn State's Olu Fashanu, Alabama's J.C. Latham and Oregon State's Taliese Fuaga show up in the conversation too.

"There’s some really talented, really fantastic kids in the class," Titans coach Brian Callahan said. "That part when you bring them into the building is where you garner the most information about who they are and what they stand for. We want guys that align with our values as well. I think that all these guys do."

Titans NFL draft needs: Too many tackles available?

There's a problem, though. A good problem. But a problem nonetheless: This NFL draft is loaded with offensive line talent. Callahan says he thinks there are starter-caliber prospects in every round. Carthon says he feels this offensive line class is particularly deep for the Titans when it comes to scheme fits. The critical majority backs up these ideas; the 18 tackles ranked among the consensus top-200 prospects in this class are the most since 2020.

More tackles available means more incentive value to wait to find one later in the draft, and a more difficult path to differentiating top prospects from each other.

"Some of the impressive guys that we’ve had Zoom calls with, you Zoom and you install a particular concept," Callahan said when asked what the Titans are doing to test the important qualities in these tackles. "Then you bring them around on a 30 visit and you see if they could recall anything you talked about. Most of these guys do a pretty good job of being able to recall that information."

Callahan and Carthon are talking like two people who believe the Titans need a tackle. But they're not crossing that time-honored line by talking about actually drafting one. When asked about drafting to fix the Titans' biggest needs, Carthon offered vague explanations about trusting the draft board vertically and horizontally, about knowing when to factor in positional value and when to ignore it for the sake of picking a good scheme fit, about drafting players who help the team win the most now while also keeping an eye out for the future by anticipating needs that may arise for 2025 and beyond.

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Put another way, the Titans are committed to drafting players they think are good.

The draft board is finalized "for all intents and purposes," per Carthon. So is the scouting of which other teams need players at which positions, and which other teams seem likeliest to trade up to get what they need. All that's left to do is wait for Thursday.

By then, four months of bluffs about the first six picks of the night will have built up to the Titans' decision.

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Titans NFL Draft 2024: Coach, GM on offensive linemen talent