Tennessee Titans should thank the Chargers for Taywan Taylor
By Will Lomas
Why fan favorite Taywan Taylor may be on the Tennessee Titans roster thanks to a guard from Indiana.
You read that right, it may actually be the Los Angeles Chargers that the Tennessee Titans have to thank for their explosive new slot receiver.
Often times, mid round trades come about through one of two ways.
The first way is that someone moves up to jump ahead of someone they know another team is looking at.
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For example, the theory on why the Tennessee Titans moved down from 200 was because the Washington Redskins jumped up and took Wyoming center Chase Roullier. The Redskins knew he would be gone in a pick so they had to make a move up.
The second way a trade is facilitated can be seen on the other side of this story. At a certain point in the draft players are less in a linear order and more in groups/tiers/bubbles of value.
So for example, if Roullier was the last player in the Tennessee Titans 7th tier of grading, they could move down because they have so many similar grades left. If everything is equal why not move down and grab an extra pick?
The combination of those two happened for the Tennessee Titans with the 72nd overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.
It was Mike Loyko who tipped me off to this thanks to this tweet.
Apparently this is true, the New England Patriots did in fact want Feeney. When he wasn’t there, Jon Robinson called up and made the trade to get one of his guys.
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So here is how it went down:
-The Chargers draft Feeney at 71
-The Patriots see this and because he was the last guy in that tier of grading they decide to trade down.
-The Tennessee Titans who have a relationship with the Patriots and a player they really like on the board, find a deal that everyone likes.
That was the recipe for Taywan Taylor becoming the Tennessee Titans newest slot receiver.
That is fascinating to me, and it is interesting that two teams liking one guard, could end up being what gives the Tennessee Titans a top-10 offense this season. Maybe even better.