Should Tennessee Titans take a defensive lineman high in 2020 NFL Draft

There are some exceptions

The Titans have their starters locked in, and I would much rather spend a pick on cornerback where Tennessee needs at least two more bodies (including a starter in the slot) or take a wide receiver in this elite class.

Having said all that, there are some specific exceptions to this rule because they aren’t just A or B-gap players. What I mean is that based on their college film and/or their athletic testing, the Titans could use these guys as EDGE on early downs and let them play DT in sub-packages. Sort of like what they plan on doing with Jadeveon Clowney if they land him.

The players in the top-100 that could fall into this category are:

-Marlon Davidson, Auburn

-A.J. Epenesa, Iowa (if you think he should play DT based off of his testing)

-Justin Madubuike, Texas A&M

-James Lynch, Baylor

-Jordan Elliott, Missouri

Davidson and Epenesa should both be drafted in the top-40 and both are players who played EDGE at the collegiate level and dominated. Given their physical measurements, they will probably end up being kicked inside at the next level, but there is nothing wrong with using them to manhandle offensive tackles on running downs before finessing guards on passing downs.

Lynch is also a sneaky player to watch on Day 2 for the Tennessee Titans who have visited with him. The Baylor product showed up in big games and 10 of his sacks came against Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech, and Kansas State.

I’m not saying he played against a murderers row of offensive linemen, but he wasn’t one of these prospects who had 50% of his sacks come from trumped-up community colleges either.

So, those are the exceptions to this draft rule that I could see earning starter-level snaps even if they didn’t technically “start”.