Tennessee Titans focusing on offensive line in the 2022 NFL Draft
By Will Lomas
The 2022 NFL Draft is less than 40 days away, and Pro Days are in full swing which means that it is time to start speculating on who the Tennessee Titans might be eyeing.
For months, Titans fans worried about the team’s plan at wide receiver and tight end. In fact, it got so bad that I did a mock draft planning for the event where the Titans didn’t sign anyone at either position.
As soon as that was written and it seemed like it was about to get really dark, Jon Robinson did what he always does and he pulled a rabbit out of a hat. In fact, it was two rabbits, with the team signing two-time Pro Bowl tight end Austin Hooper and then trading for L.A. Rams receiver Robert Woods.
Now that the Tennessee Titans have bolstered the obvious needs on the roster, fans can finally breathe and look at other positions in the draft. A quick scan of Pro Day attendees points to one position in particular: offensive line.
Which offensive linemen might interest the Tennessee Titans?
So far, the Titans have had a strong presence at the Pro Days for Tulsa (Tyler Smith), Texas A&M (Kenyon Green), and Northern Iowa (Trevor Penning).
While Penning is likely to go top-12 and Smith is likely to fall out of the top-50, Green is an interesting prospect because he is one of the offensive linemen in the argument for the best interior prospect.
Green and Zion Johnson should battle it out to be the first guard taken, while Tyler Linderbaum will be the first center taken in the 2022 NFL Draft. Which one of those three goes first depends on the specific team and which player nails the interview process.
As far as the other two go, Jon Robinson has snagged two top-12 prospects who fell down the draft in Jeffery Simmons and Caleb Farley, so it makes sense to do all your due diligence on these players in case a fall happens.
Tyler Smith has the tools but he is going to need a full season of coaching to get to where he needs to be to play in the NFL. Could Keith Carter do it? Maybe, but with no second-round pick can you afford to spend a top-100 pick on a guy like that in a crucial year?
It is going to be fun to see just how many prospects Robinson sees in person and whether this leads to private visits down the road.