The 2021 NFL Draft has finally arrived for Tennessee Titans fans.
It is draft day and the Tennessee Titans are just hours away from being on the clock with the 22nd pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Well, that is assuming that they don’t trade up or down in the first round. Educated guesses say that the Tennessee Titans are more likely to move up than down in the NFL Draft this year, but right now all they are is just educated guesses.
Staying on that topic, this is the time of year (the 48 hours before the NFL Draft starts) where mock drafts fall into one of two categories.
The first category is analysts just doing their best to project players to teams based on their rankings and what they assume the team needs are around the NFL.
However, the other category is the select few mock drafts that have sources inside the NFL and have had success in the past linking teams to players.
Here’s an attempt to speculate and create a realistic theory after dropping what feels like a realistic 7-round mock draft earlier this week.
To balance things out, several mocks have been selected from a few voices that seem to have a better hit rate than some of the other pundits around the NFL. This is who they have the Tennessee Titans taking with their final guesses before tonight’s action.
Charles Davis believes the Tennessee Titans will select…
The pick: Elijah Moore WR, Ole Miss
Say what you want about the rest of his picks, but Charles Davis has been laser-focused on the Tennessee Titans. When you think about it, it makes sense why the Titans would be a team that he has the inside scoop on.
Davis played at the University of Tennessee in his college days and he more than likely has a direct line to the VOTT Mike Keith who also went to UT and was a broadcaster there before coming to the NFL.
That connection goes back decades, and it probably explains how Charles Davis got involved in calling the Tennessee Titans preseason games over the last few seasons.
All of this insight led to some successful mock drafts for Davis. In 2018 he had the Tennessee Titans drafting Harold Landry in the first round (they clearly liked him because they traded up to draft him in the top of the second round).
In 2019, he hit a bullseye with Jeffery Simmons, and last year he had the Titans taking an offensive tackle even though it wasn’t the right one.
History suggests that this means the Tennessee Titans like Elijah Moore and that they are drafting a wide receiver in the first round unless they think they have a great value fall into their lap.
Benjamin Allbright believes the Tennessee Titans will select…
The pick: Jaelan Phillips EDGE, Miami
Charles Davis might be the king of picking for the Tennessee Titans, but Allbright holds the title of king of the mock draft.
Most accurate mock drafts the last 2 years per @mockdraftdb pic.twitter.com/gdExx47KA1
— Benjamin Allbright (@AllbrightNFL) April 23, 2021
This year he is going against the grain and selecting an edge rusher for the Tennessee Titans. While most people seem to agree that wide receiver or cornerback will be the pick this year, Allbright bucks the trend and suggests that Jon Robinson isn’t done building a defense that can get after the quarterback.
People say that the Titans have holes on the roster, but the argument can be made that the Titans can draft almost any position aa there aren’t many where they don’t have major holes.
Wide receiver is an obvious need, but they brought in Josh Reynolds and before 2020 Corey Davis wasn’t an undisputed star. It is easy to imagine Reynolds putting up similar numbers if he gets the same opportunity. Sure, depth is an issue and you would like to see more high-end options, but for a run-heavy team, you don’t need four talented wide receivers.
That flexibility makes this pick reasonable because he truly might be the best player available but no one is ready to pull the trigger with his medical concerns.
Daniel Jeremiah believes the Tennessee Titans will select…
The pick: Elijah Moore WR, Ole Miss
Daniel Jeremiah hasn’t been quite as consistent as Charles Davis, but it has been close. While Davis always feels like he has a great read on which players the Titans are looking at, Jeremiah seems to either know the pick or be out of the loop.
He mocked Solomon Thomas to the Titans, but then later in that first round, he mocked Corey Davis to Tennessee. He whiffed on Jeffery Simmons as an option for the Titans, but then he nailed Isaiah Wilson to the Titans the next year.
With all the smoke around Elijah Moore to the Tennessee Titans, this feels like a pick that he (and others) have heard from someone. The two guys with a history of great mock drafts have both shifted their picks the day before the draft to plug Moore into the 22nd selection for the Titans, that doesn’t seem like a coincidence.
His analysis reads:
"This could be a spot for a cornerback, but after losing Corey Davis and Jonnu Smith this offseason, the Titans need another weapon. Former Ole Miss stars Moore and A.J. Brown reunite in Tennessee."
The last sentence there is huge. After whiffing on Isaiah Wilson in a year where you had to take leaps of faith on a player’s character, spending a first-round pick on someone that your young Pro Bowl receiver played with and vouches for, is about as safe as you are going to get.