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Tennessee Titans ideal trade target from the Denver Broncos

By Will Lomas

DENVER, CO - SEPTEMBER 9: Tight end Jake Butt #80 of the Denver Broncos celebrates after a first down catch against the Seattle Seahawks at Broncos Stadium at Mile High on September 9, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)
DENVER, CO - SEPTEMBER 9: Tight end Jake Butt #80 of the Denver Broncos celebrates after a first down catch against the Seattle Seahawks at Broncos Stadium at Mile High on September 9, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images) /
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What do the Denver Broncos have to offer the Tennessee Titans in a trade.

The Denver Broncos seem like a team pulled in two different directions, so it is hard to know exactly which players the Tennessee Titans would be able to get them to discuss in a trade.

On one hand, you have Joe Flacco, Chris Harris (who will leave soon), Emmanuel Sanders, Von Miller, Derek Wolfe, and Kareem Jackson who are all clearly players that want/need to win now.

On the other hand, the Broncos just drafted Drew Lock to be the quarterback of the future, and they showed no urgency in wanting to make a push to win now in the draft after trading back and trying to trade out of the first round completely.

So what are the expectations for the Broncos in one of the toughest division in the NFL? Honestly, I think they may just be trying to stay competitive as they try to groom Drew Lock into a starting QB in the NFL.

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If that is the case, then really any player should be available right?

Don’t worry, I am not going to talk about Von Miller or anything like that but my point is that they aren’t really “building” towards something at the moment. They are in a holding pattern until they know whether Lock is the guy or not.

Tennessee Titans GM Jon Robinson is actively scouring the NFL landscape for trade targets. I know this because he has traded for a player around this point in the offseason since he became the top man in 2016.

The best way to figure out which players he might target is to try to check off as many of these boxes as you can.

1. Most of his trades are for a players still on their rookie contracts.

2. He likes to minimize his long term exposure by trading for players nearing free agency in the next year or two.

3. Usually he targets positions where depth is needed long term.

4. If it is a big name, he is buying low and hoping for a big rebound with Tennessee or a potential compensatory pick down the line.

To me, the player on this list that fits this model is Jake Butt.

Butt is two years into his rookie contract and has two years left before he fits free agency meaning that he checks off boxes 1 and 2. Tight end is also a position where having a clear third guy who make the future a whole lot easier to plan for, meaning that box 3 is filled too.

The only thing that prevented Butt from easily being a top-100 pick in the 2017 NFL Draft was his ACL injury that he suffered in the bowl game before the draft.

Unfortunately he also tore his ACL last year meaning that he is missing a chunk of the offseason this year as well.

This might be a situation where the Tennessee Titans trade a player they were going to cut anyway to the Denver Broncos in exchange for Jake Butt, knowing that they are going to put him on PUP or I.R. and stash him for at least a few months.

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In Tennessee Butt would have a perfect landing spot. His new OC would be Arthur Smith who has been around more than a handful of good tight ends and he should be given a lot of credit for taking Delanie Walker and figuring out that he was a star way back in 2013.

It is easy to forget that before Walker worked with Smith, his career high in yards was 344 and he actually only averaged 210 yards per season.

He would also get to work with Todd Downing who in one year led Kyle Rudolph to his highest yards per target for a season since he came into the league in 2011.

If that wasn’t enough, he would also rejoin forces with Taylor Lewan who was his college teammate for two years at Michigan.

The Broncos get to move on from a player that they already spent a first round pick trying to replace in the 2019 NFL Draft and the Tennessee Titans get a cheap, high upside tight end that Dane Bruglar called, “Mr. Reliable as a blocker and receiver” in his draft guide.

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