What Tennessee Titans accomplished by picking JC Latham in 1st round of 2024 NFL Draft
JC Latham casually quotes Kobe Bryant and looks up to MMA champion Israel Adesanya. He wants to be the Deion Sanders of offensive linemen. He says he's "willing to die on the field."
What are the Tennessee Titans getting in Latham, the Alabama offensive tackle they used the No. 7 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft to invest in? Evidently a different breed of left tackle. A different breed of left tackle who hasn't played left tackle since high school, but maybe that's part of the appeal.
Latham isn't Peter Skoronski, the offensive lineman the Titans picked in the first round last year. Everything about Skoronski screamed conventional, and that was the point. Latham, or "Trench Killer," as he likes to be called, isn't the lab-built ideal for a plug-and-play franchise left tackle. That prospect was probably Notre Dame's Joe Alt, who came off the board to the Los Angeles Chargers two picks before the Titans picked Latham.
GRADE: Grading the Tennessee Titans pick of JC Latham at No. 7 in 2024 NFL Draft
What Latham is, though, is another step in a new direction. He's a 6-foot-6, 342-pound Goliath who played defensive end up until his junior year of high school and still moves like it. Let's not paint him as an unpolished prospect; he was a first-team All-SEC and second-team All-America honoree last season who allowed only two sacks despite protecting one of college football's most prolific and willing scramblers. But there's some messiness to his game, some obvious room to grow under the tutelage of Titans offensive line guru Bill Callahan.
And that relationship is already blossoming — a good sign for Titans fans.
"I’m really intrigued by him," Latham said about the elder Callahan, father of Titans head coach Brian Callahan. "We had a two-hour discussion. We talked about guys at Alabama where I was saying, ‘Hey, a guy did this move to me one time. If I see it down the line what’s going to happen, how do I do this?’ We were going over stuff like that. We were going over my plays, NFL plays, Browns film, everything. Next thing you know it was two hours that went by like nothing."
Titans GM Ran Carthon calls Latham a fun-loving guy. A joker. A typical 21-year-old, just one with a handshake so firm it classifies as chiropractic treatment. Brian Callahan calls Latham a football-lover, someone who holds himself to a high standard, a giant whose pride matches his stature.
REACTIONS: How social media reacted to Titans taking JC Latham in NFL draft, including Pat McAfee
None of this matters if Latham can't make the transition to left tackle, but the Titans are betting he can. Latham is making that bet, too. He says Bill Callahan told him the sky is his limit when it comes to potential as a left tackle. Coming from an offensive line coach who has mentored guys such as Trent Williams and Tyron Smith, that's high praise.
Williams is probably someone worth talking about here. The three-time All-Pro left tackle and 11-time Pro Bowler played right tackle his first three years of college, too. He moved to left tackle as a senior and was an All-America honoree, then dominated the athletic testing at the NFL combine. Despite this, his draft profile on NFL.com read "will find a better fit as a right tackle at the next level."
More than 11,000 snaps at left tackle later, Williams clearly justified the chance he got as a blindside protector.
No one is or should be comparing Latham to Williams. If he's half the player Williams is, the Titans will have nailed this pick. But the point is the Titans didn't pick Latham because of who he was in college. They picked him based on who they think he can be as a pro.
They picked him because they think he can be a franchise-stabilizing left tackle, and that's what they're going to give him the opportunity to be.
WHAT TO KNOW: Meet JC Latham, the Tennessee Titans’ first-round 2024 NFL Draft pick
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: What Titans achieved by drafting JC Latham in first round of NFL draft
