Why private visits are important for the Tennessee Titans draft
By Will Lomas
Under General Manager Jon Robinson and Head Coach Mike Vrabel, the Tennessee Titans have always been very hands-on with their NFL Draft prospects.
Whether that means going to dozens of Pro Days, running bag drills with the linemen, or whatever they need to do to get every bit of information they can, the GM and HC have gone to every length to make informed decisions.
Since every NFL team only gets 30 private visits with prospects, every time you see a player connected with a specific team your ears should perk up. As far as I know, every first-round pick that the Tennessee Titans have made with Jon Robinson at the helm, has involved a player who was brought in for a private visit.
With that in mind, even players like Jermaine Johnson who seem like outliers right now, are worth considering even if they feel like longshots.
Still, there is a little bit of a misconception about why teams might draft some players that they don’t bring in for visits while they ignore prospects that they actually had on site.
It isn’t because they like them any less, it just means that they felt comfortable with the information they had and they thought that their limited private visits would be used better on another player.
Why the Tennessee Titans would bring a player in for a visit.
Albert Breer had a good tweet about this exact thing earlier in the week:
On draft prospects making "30" visits, usually they mean one of 4 things ...
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) April 6, 2022
1) Team has genuine interest.
2) Team wants other teams to think there's interest.
3) There's an off-field issue to address with the player.
4) There's a loose end injury-wise for the team to tie up.
The first two things are the most important, specifically for the Tennessee Titans and any quarterback.
With the Titans visiting with Malik Willis, it only adds fuel to the speculation that the Titans will draft a quarterback in the first round. However, the reality of the situation is that this could be (and probably is) a smokescreen where the Titans are able to use this visit to gather information on which teams may be interested in him and the other quarterbacks in this class.
For example, if the Detroit Lions are thinking about trading up to make sure they get their quarterback (maybe Desmond Ridder), the Titans can use that information as leverage to get a deal done with another team that wants to jump in front of the Lions.
So, while visits are important they aren’t clear indicators of who a team like the Tennessee Titans will draft. If it is a position of need and if he fits what the Titans like in a player (like Treylon Burks) then keep it in mind, but if it doesn’t make sense then keep that in mind as well.