Are Titans getting ready to trade Tajae Sharpe after promotion of 6th WR?

Could the Tennessee Titans be getting ready to trade Tajae Sharpe after promoting a sixth receiver to the 53-man roster?

An interesting thing happened on Saturday: the Tennessee Titans promoted wide receiver Kalif Raymond to the 53-man roster, bringing their total of receivers up to six.

Along with the move to promote Raymond, the Titans also added defensive back Kareem Orr and waived both defensive lineman Matt Dickerson and running back Dalyn Dawkins.

We can account for the move to drop Dickerson (Jeffery Simmons’ return) and Dawkins (Rod Smith is also on the roster), and the one to promote Orr (Adoree’ Jackson is out), but not the one for Raymond. After all, the Titans have carried five wide receivers all season and barely use all of them. It is possible Raymond is being promoted to be the backup punt returner, so there’s that.

The move to promote Raymond could be a sign that a trade is coming because Tennessee simply doesn’t need six receivers on the 53-man roster and there are no injuries to speak of to the receiving corps. at the moment.

Corey Davis was dealing with an illness early in the week, but he logged a full practice on Thursday and Friday and looks good to go.

Could this mean a trade is coming that might involve one of the team’s receivers? If the Titans were to make such a move, dealing wide receiver Tajae Sharpe would make the most sense.

Sharpe is stuck behind Davis, A.J. Brown and Adam Humphries in the team’s pecking order and has seen just 13 targets on the season. The former fifth-round pick did contribute a touchdown in the Week 7 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers, though.

However, Sharpe is in the last year of his rookie deal and there probably isn’t much of a future for him in Tennessee beyond 2019. Instead of letting him walk for nothing, the Titans might be able to trade him to a wide receiver-needy team.

Dealing from a position of strength, Tennessee could get a late-round pick for Sharpe to add to their stable of picks, or perhaps the Titans could turn around and use that pick to make a deal to improve elsewhere.

The former is more likely, as the only rumors we’ve heard about players Tennessee might be interested in have involved Miami Dolphins running back, Kenyan Drake.

It was reported on Friday that the Dolphins are looking for at least a fourth-round pick in return for the back. That same report also stated that the Dolphins have not received anything close to their asking price for Drake.

We do know that Tennessee has called Miami about him, though, and as our own Will Lomas wrote, it’s likely the Titans would be willing to give up no better than a sixth-round pick, which is close to the value that Sharpe would garner.

Now, that’s not to say a potential trade of Sharpe has anything to do with acquiring Drake, I’m just simply connecting the dots for the Titans’ reasoning of carrying a sixth receiver. Trading Sharpe in and of itself just makes sense when the Titans can’t really use him that much anyway.

We’ll know more in the coming days, as the NFL trade deadline hits on October 29th at 3 p.m. CDT, but a surefire way to know Sharpe is getting traded will be if he’s a healthy scratch on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.