Trey Wingo perfectly explains why Tennessee Titans should not trade up

One of the most popular rumors going right now is the rumor that the Tennessee Titans might trade up to the third overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.

You can see why this rumor would take off because there are a lot of dots that you can connect here.

First, while Ryan Tannehill is one of the most successful quarterbacks in franchise history, he is 34 years old. The odds of him taking snaps by the time the Tennessee Titans are ready to compete for a ring are very low.

Secondly, this is a class where there are three quarterbacks that have a better-than-average chance of turning into franchise quarterbacks (four quarterbacks if you haven’t watched Will Levis play and you think that he is good).

Finally (and most importantly for this discussion), new Tennessee Titans GM Ran Carthon just went through this situation with the San Francisco 49ers when they traded up from 12 to 3 to get Trey Lance to replace a good but not great quarterback in Jimmy Garoppolo.

One question that no one seems to be asking is…how is that trade working out for the San Francisco 49ers? As you might expect from the title of this article, Trey Wingo explained the results of that trade perfectly and they are a cautionary tale for Tennessee Titans fans.

Why the Tennessee Titans shouldn’t trade up in the 2023 NFL Draft for a project

In a recent podcast with Pro Football Network, Trey Wingo broke down the San Francisco 49ers situation and how the franchise basically considers Trey Lance to be their third quarterback and that they are looking to move on from him:

The idea that Ran Carthon could have front-row seats to one of the worst trades in recent memory, and that he would want to recreate that in Tennessee is aggravating. Think about it like this, right now would you rather have Trey Lance or Micah Parsons, Cole Strange, Channing Tindall, and a 1st round pick this year?

Even if you don’t know who Channing Tindall is, the second group is running laps around Trey Lance.

While Anthony Richardson and Trey Lance aren’t the same players, they are both flawed prospects whose best selling point is their upside based on more time and experience at the quarterback position. That is a very dangerous line of thinking, especially when the Tennessee Titans coaching staff hasn’t shown that they can develop a single player without Arthur Smith holding their hand.

Now let me clarify something here. If C.J. Stroud or Bryce Young falls to third overall, this entire narrative changes. Those two quarterbacks are multi-year starters with elite traits and a large body of work to examine against some of the best teams in the country.

Those are the guys worth swinging for, but if you are going to trade up and give up a king’s ransom for a guy that you have to sit for a year and build an offense around, more often than not it is going to end up exactly how Trey Wingo just described the 49ers’ situation with Trey Lance.