Four questions Tennessee Titans need to answer by the end of the draft

Question 3: Which wide receivers are going to compete for the open boundary spot?

Current answer: Taywan Taylor, Tajae Sharpe, Darius Jennings

A common theme in this offseason has been hearing about how the Tennessee Titans need to find another tight end in the 1st round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Schematically though, it doesn’t make as much sense as you would think.

If the Titans go with one running back, that leaves them with four slots open for pass catchers in a formation. Three of these spots are already decided.

One will be Corey Davis who looks like a star receiver when an OC remembers to call plays for him. Another will be Delanie Walker whose last four healthy seasons have resulted in at least 800 yards and he has averaged 5 TDs during that stretch. The final locked in spot will be Adam Humphries who was signed to a solid contract this year to dominate as the slot receiver.

So when you draw that up, the one spot open is a boundary receiver opposite Corey Davis. The classic “Z” receiver (or what I call WR2) is historically someone who you want to move around the formation, but honestly if you can just find a player at this position who wins in one-on-one situations it really doesn’t matter how they do it.

In an ideal world, Taywan Taylor would have won this job last year after a strong preseason and would have eliminated this need. Unfortunately, there are just going to be question marks on him until we can figure out what exactly he can be consistently.

Tajae Sharpe has been solid, but he just doesn’t offer a ton of “pop” after the catch. I would almost rather spend this entire year teaching him how to win in the slot because I think that fits his skill set much better than playing on the boundary.

Darius Jennings has the athleticism, but drops and special teams duties will probably limit the looks he gets here.

When you put it all on paper, it looks like it is Taywan Taylor’s job to lose. I wasn’t high on Taylor in the draft (I had a late 3rd on him despite the consensus that he should have gone in the 2nd) but after watching him the past few years I understand why people really liked him.

Taylor has nice deep speed and when he gets the space he can be a dynamic threat. If he can stay healthy and really master the playbook, then I think he actually could play this position. However, we know that Jon Robinson and Mike Vrabel preach competition and I would guess that this is a sneaky-high need on the Titans draft board.