You know the Tennessee Titans want as many SEC players as they can get.
I think it is fair to say that Tennessee Titans fans should question everything at this point as we prepare for the football season.
With the pandemic not going away and states reopening at a steady rate, it is fair to question if the NFL season will start on time. Especially when you consider the money that the league and the players stand to lose if they aren’t able to play a full season with full stadiums.
Even if we assume that the season starts (whenever it starts) and the NFL gets their dream scenario of a full season with full stadiums, that isn’t the only league in question.
The NCAA season is up in the air, and with so many schools spread across the country, it has to be a logistical nightmare to figure out how the teams can have a full season’s worth of games.
And that is the heart of the reason why this article is being written, we simply have no idea what the future holds for college football and the interlaced conferences that make up the majority of the top-25 rankings.
That fog of confusion should be enough to get prospects to consider jumping ship early to the NFL, especially prospects from the Alabama Crimson Tide. What are the rules of eligibility and why is Alabama being singled out? Let me explain.
Rules of the draft
Barry Werner of USA Today broke down who is eligible like this:
"Who would be eligible for this process? To be declared eligible for the supplemental draft, a player must file a petition, which is reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Normally, it relates to people who lose eligibility after the NFL Draft. However, any delay in the college football season due to the pandemic would have an instant impact on players who would have been eligible for the NFL."
So I looked to find precedent for a player petitioning the Supplemental NFL Draft who hadn’t been kicked off of a team or suspended, and I think Sam Beal fits the bill there.
Matt Miller described Beal like this:
"Unlike most supplemental draft prospects of the last decade, Beal doesn’t come with red flags off the field. There are no reported failed drug tests. There are no coaches throwing him under the bus as a bad teammate. Instead, a college kid got behind on some credits and was in danger of losing his eligibility. And now NFL teams are ready to jump on this rare opportunity."
“In danger of losing his eligibility” suggests that a prospect just has to be at risk of being able to improve his draft stock in the upcoming season. Furthermore, when you read that article it is clear that this decision happened because there was a chance that the NCAA’s ruling wouldn’t come until after the NFL preseason had started.
For reference, the NFL’s Hall of Fame game was supposed to start August 6th which is 45 days from the time of writing this. Are we sure that the NCAA will be able to guarantee these prospects an answer before that?
With those assumptions, you can say that any player who is three years removed from high school should be eligible, especially if they can make the case that they came back to school with the intention of improving their draft stock.
Now that we cleared that up, why am I singling out Alabama?
Why Alabama?
This one really isn’t that complicated because there are two reasons why Alabama is the perfect team to look at.
The first thing is that Alabama is routinely one of the top-3 most talented teams in the country and they are a team layered with 5-star talent from top to bottom at nearly every position. If there is a team that talented players are likely to leap from, it is a team like Alabama where you have elite players breathing down your neck and nothing is guaranteed.
Oh and speaking about the stacked talent at Alabama, when the deadline to declare for the 2020 NFL Draft had passed, look at what NFL Spin Zone said about the most surprising returns:
"The talent factory of Alabama lost some big pieces with Tua Tagovailoa, Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs III and Jedrick Wills, among others, choosing to declare for the draft. Even still, the big names coming back to Tuscaloosa are quite notable. Wide receiver DeVonta Smith, offensive tackle Alex Leatherwood linebacker Dylan Moses (missed 2019 with a torn ACL) and running back Najee Harris are four guys who likely all would’ve been top-100 selections in the 2020 NFL Draft but instead elected to return to the Crimson Tide. That’s a big win for Nick Saban but it’s also nonetheless surprising that these talented guys all from the same program elected to return."
Secondly, the Tennessee Titans love SEC talent, especially in recent years. Over the last three draft classes, the Titans have had six picks in the top 2 rounds, and five of them have been SEC players and three straight first-round picks have been from the SEC.
So those four names are on this list (spoiler alert) but there is also another one I think the Titans would consider. Which players are most tempting from five to one?
5. Dylan Moses, LB
Dylan Moses is so interesting as a prospect. Coming into 2019 he was supposed to be the next great linebacker, but an injury before the season caused him to miss his third year in college football.
Despite people saying that he would be a 1st round pick even if he declared for the 2019 NFL Draft, Moses decided to come back to Alabama in 2020 and compete for another ring and finish his career off right.
However, you are now asking a player recovering from an ACL injury to come back and play his final season (assuming he is going to declare after 2020) with limited practice reps and a rehab schedule that has to be spotty considering the circumstances.
That doesn’t make sense to me, so if he declares he should get a lot of attention. The problem is, while I think the Titans don’t mind taking someone with an injury (obviously look at Jeffery Simmons) there isn’t a need big enough at linebacker to encourage the Titans to pay the price that it would take to get him.
The biggest thing that could change that is the salary cap situation in 2021. If Tennessee thinks that they aren’t going to have the money to pay Jayon Brown, then why not spend a pick on Moses and then get a 3rd or 4th round comp pick back for Brown?
But if they can lock down Brown and pair him with Rashaan Evans for years to come, I think that is the goal.
4. Brian Robinson, RB
The Tennessee Titans are so thin at running back right now.
Sure you have Derrick Henry who is an amazing talent (so talented he might have killed a franchise) and who should be considered one of the best pure runners in the NFL, if not the best pure runner. Locking him up for a multiyear deal is the biggest thing on the Titans mind right now other than potentially signing Jadeveon Clowney, so that is not what I am talking about.
What I am talking about is that behind him you have Darrynton Evans who is a rookie from Appalachian State with a lot of promise but no NFL film, and then not much behind that.
For a team that thrives on being a run-first, play-action second team, the Titans have to be able to overcome an injury at the RB position and I just don’t think they can right now.
Robinson is the RB2 at Alabama right now and he is a guy who seems to do his best work when he can make one cut and get upfield. On top of that, he is trusted as a pass-blocking back and he looks pretty comfortable as a receiver.
Basically what I am describing is the idea RB2 in this Titans offense and if you have a three-headed monster of Henry, Evans and Robinson then your offense gets even more juice and you also have long term options if Henry ever does start to look human.
3. Alex Leatherwood, OL
It may surprise you to see an offensive lineman this high on the list, but I can’t stress enough how much I think Nate Davis and Isaiah Wilson need to be pushed at right guard and right tackle.
Nate Davis finished strong and I think he has the ability to be a good guard in the NFL, but he also had some glaring weaknesses as a pass protector and when his assignment wasn’t right in front of him, he wasn’t as consistent in the run game as I would have liked.
I think Wilson is going to have a lot of struggles early in his career because his technique isn’t good and he has some really bad habits that he has to learn how to overcome. That is going to be a tough ask for a guy who isn’t going to get as much hands-on training as he normally would during an offseason.
Leatherwood has made starts at guard and tackle in games for the National Championship, and not many people can say that. With 35 starts under his belt including 28 in the last two years, Leatherwood is someone who you can plug and play on the offensive line and if not then you have one of the best backups in the NFL.
Again, this team is built to run the ball, so OL and RB have to be deep. Speaking of RBs…
2. Najee Harris, RB
For the first two years of his career, I was worried that Najee Harris might be a little bit more smoke than fire. After being hyped as the next great Alabama running back as a recruit, he only averaged 89 carries per year over the first two seasons of his career.
However, CBS probably described it best when they named him one of the NCAA’s a top-5 returning players of 2020:
"After leading the Tide with 1,224 yards rushing and 13 touchdowns, Harris has decided to return for another season as Alabama’s primary option at running back. Harris has been a factor in Alabama’s offense for three years, but his senior season could be when we see the former five-star prospect’s ceiling at the college level."
While he was a factor for the offense in the first three years, the 2019 campaign signaled that he should be viewed as the RB1 in Alabama’s offense.
Harris has phenomenal film, but what makes him even more exciting is that he looks like a real star in the passing game with 7 touchdowns on just 27 receptions in 2019. That is a TD once ever four catches and even when you combine those receptions with his rushes, he has still only had 427 touches in his three-year career.
Derrick Henry had 406 touches in one season at Alabama.
So you are getting a back with very little wear and tear to come in and back up one of the best running backs in the NFL. While he is going to cost a lot more than Brian Robinson, he has true freak potential.
Also, how intimidating would it be to see Najee Harris walk out for the coin toss at 6’2, 230 lb. and then see Derrick Henry walk up beside him at 6’3, 247 lb. They would be bigger than the other team’s LBs.
1. DeVonta Smith, WR
Do you know who led Alabama in receiving yards last season? I’ll give you a hint, it wasn’t either of their first round picks from last year, or Jaylen Waddle who they call the “fastest player” at Alabama.
Yep, it was DeVonta Smith who racked up an incredible 1,256 yards on just 68 receptions. Just to show you that it wasn’t a volume issue, let’s look at his other 2019 stats:
-18.5 YPC (2nd on the team behind Henry Ruggs who had 18.7 on 40 receptions)
-14 receiving TDs (most on the team by 4+ TDs)
-Two 200-yard games (more than the rest of the team combined)
Smith is going to be a high pick whenever he is drafted and the Tennessee Titans are dangerously short on wide receivers. Even for a team that doesn’t pass the ball frequently, the Titans have got to add some talent to this position before the season starts, right?
I mean if either A.J. Brown, Corey Davis, or Adam Humphries go down then who is your WR4? Is Kalif Raymond really going to come in and play 400 snaps in 2020? That can’t be the plan, so if the Titans get a chance at Smith they need to bid and bid high.