The NFL trade deadline is less than a week away and the Tennessee Titans should view themselves as “buyers” as Tuesday approaches.
Most Titans fans have seen Conor Orr’s article filled with trade proposals for teams looking to get better before the deadline. He is getting roasted for his proposal, but he did get some key things right.
First, he identifies the Titans as buyers saying:
"“The AFC South is an absolute mess right now, and the Titans have uppercutted their way out of a dismal start to the season. They should now allow themselves the luxury of supplementing the offense. Give Derrick Henry a spell with one of the hundred talented running backs theoretically on the market. Give Ryan Tannehill somewhere to throw the ball. Robert Woods can’t do this by himself. “"
Dontrell Hilliard is the Tennessee Titans’ backup/receiving running back and has been very good this year. There is no reason to think that the team isn’t happy with him and it is hard to see why they would make a move at running back that would cost them a pick and cap space.
However, the idea of giving the offense some help is something that Tennessee Titans fans can agree with. Since the Titans are down two of their starting offensive linemen and two of their top three receivers, it makes sense to look there first.
Orr ultimately matches the Titans with Kareem Hunt, but the right name was right under his nose the whole time. He even mentions them in the “sellers” portion of his article.
The right match for the Tennessee Titans
Excluding the names that we have been talking about for a while (Jerry Jeudy, D.J. Moore, Brian Burns), one of the names being thrown around is New York Jets receiver Elijah Moore.
Now, I understand that Moore is close friends with A.J. Brown and that might cause some friction, but let’s live in a world where business is business for a second.
Moore is someone that Tennessee showed a lot of interest in before the draft and nearly everything about his draft profile screamed future Titan. The only reason why he isn’t in Nashville right now is that Caleb Farley was cleared by Tennessee’s medical team and he was universally graded as one of the top corners in a great class.
If they could do it over again, I think the Titans would have drafted Moore 10 times out of 10, and he would perfectly fit into what the offense needs right now.
While he was typecast as a slot receiver coming out of college, he has won inside and outside in the NFL and he has actually played 76% of his snaps on the boundary. He would fit in perfectly with Robert Woods and Treylon Burks as moveable pieces who aren’t limited to one position.
Even if the Titans wanted to start him off as a slot receiver and then slowly add more to his plate, they could do that without stepping on anyone’s toes because Kyle Philips is going to miss the next four games with a hamstring injury that landed him on I.R.
Moore even has experience running the ball which means that Todd Downing could stop calling jet sweeps with tight ends and backup quarterbacks if he was on the roster.
Is it a pipe dream? Maybe, but maybe not.
Think about it like this less than a week ago Moore was asking for a trade because he wasn’t being used. Hours ago we saw the New York Giants move on from Kadarius Toney who was drafted 14 picks before Moore.
That trade cost the Kansas City Chiefs a late 3rd and a 6th-round pick, and that is a price that the Tennessee Titans should be more than willing to pay for a receiver that they liked coming out of college and one that helps them short-term and long-term.