Are Tennessee Titans overthinking this 2024 NFL Draft pick? Think of Will Levis instead | Estes
Great offensive tackles aren’t a joy to watch play. If anything, you barely notice them. They don’t do exciting things or change games. They keep others on defense from doing that.
When someone in sports media gets fired up about offensive line highlights, he’s usually a former lineman. Someone who knows what he’s seeing and how to translate for the rest of us busy following the football. If everyone is having to pay attention to the offensive tackle, that’s bad.
And lately, we’ve been paying way too much attention to the Tennessee Titans’ left tackles.
Since Taylor Lewan’s career was halted in Buffalo in 2022 by another knee injury, the Titans have stunk at left tackle. They’ve shuffled through Dennis Daley and Andre Dillard and others, hoping for passable production at one of the sport’s most important positions. Hasn’t happened. Obviously.
That’s why if you’ve perused a 2024 mock draft (and how have you not by now?), it probably had the Titans taking a left tackle with the No. 7 overall pick. Either Joe Alt of Notre Dame, as rock-solid a tackle as that chiseled name suggests, or Penn State’s Olu Fashanu and his exorbitant upside.
Surely, the Titans would go for one of those two tackles. It has been almost a given.
Until general manager Ran Carthon and coach Brian Callahan spoke to the media at the NFL Scouting Combine on Tuesday morning, and we started reading into some of what they said.
Like Carthon when he said: “If you're sitting there and there's a receiver there, knowing that there's a deep O-line class, it's like, ‘Where can we supplement this position later?’” Or this careful bit from Callahan: "I’ll always lean, when all things are equal, guys who can score touchdowns tend to make more of an impact."
"We've got a young, offensive-minded coach who's going to need weapons to bring his offense to life," Carthon added at one point. "So we have a responsibility in finding that.”
What everyone hears: The Titans AREN’T taking a tackle in the first round! It'll be a wide receiver!!
What I’m thinking: Don’t do it, Titans.
Don’t overthink this.
Don’t trade the pick. Don’t wait. Go draft your franchise left tackle when he’s there. Let new O-Line coach/guru Bill Callahan develop him. Then bask in the luxury of being able to ignore this annoyingly essential position for the next decade.
It’s simple. It’ll just seem complicated.
Estes: Ran Carthon is telling you the Tennessee Titans aren't a quick fix, and he's right
Which would Will Levis want?
Locally, we’re about to get bombarded with two months of speculation about the Titans and receiver prospects (count Georgia tight end Brock Bowers in that group), because that's what fans – and some media – are going to want to be true. Can’t blame them. It's more interesting.
Who wouldn’t rather have a game-changing superstar wide receiver at No. 7 than some boring ol’ tackle?
I’ll tell you who: Titans quarterback Will Levis.
I don’t know that, because Levis is too smart to take a side publicly. But I'd bet that if the Titans asked him to make this pick, he’d take a tackle. Why? The star receiver makes Levis look good, but the tackle keeps him out of the hospital.
To those who'd stand on the table for drafting the best available player no matter the circumstances, Iet's see if it'd change your mind to stand in the pocket and experience what Levis and Ryan Tannehill did the past two seasons. I'd imagine you’d want a left tackle, too.
When an NFL team needs a left tackle, that's different from a need at any other position. Especially if that team has a promising young quarterback. Fixing the Titans' shoddy pass protection is not some distant goal. It’s an immediate priority for Levis’ development. A quarterback's potential and talent won't matter if you can’t keep him healthy.
The case for drafting a tackle
There’s one way I could be swayed into not taking a left tackle at No. 7, and his name is Peter Skoronski. The theory of using the Titans’ first-round left guard at left tackle – where he played and thrived in college in the Big Ten – hasn’t been tested enough to be debunked in the NFL.
But on Tuesday, we finally discovered a similarity between Callahan and Mike Vrabel. They both think Skoronski is a guard. Callahan said so at the Combine.
OK.
That means the Titans need a left tackle, and there’s only one place to find a great one.
Entering this past season, Pro Football Focus ranked the NFL's best offensive tackles. Among the top dozen names, all but one was a first-round pick. Of those 11 first-rounders, eight were selected before pick No. 14. Five went no later than No. 7, where the Titans are this year.
Elite tackles are rare. Teams don’t let them go. They don’t usually make it to free agency. If they do, there’s a reason, and you’re going to have to overpay to find out what that reason might be.
If you want one of the league’s best tackles in his prime, you’re drafting and developing.
It’s like a pit stop in an auto race. No team wants to have to slow down and let premium skill talent pass them by to draft a tackle. But every so often, it’s got to be done.
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Are Tennessee Titans overthinking 2024 NFL Draft? Think of Will Levis.
