Tennessee Titans GM Mike Borgonzi has stressed the importance of winning in the trenches on both sides of the ball. For the first time in a long time, the Titans' offensive line started doing that to finish the season, and the interior defensive line is one of the best in the NFL.
However, if the Titans are earnest in their commitment to building a team that can dominate both lines of scrimmage, they need to make major upgrades at EDGE for new head coach Robert Saleh.
In most mock drafts, the Titans are spending the fourth overall pick on one of the top three EDGEs in the draft class: Arvell Reese, David Bailey, or Rueben Bain. Even if they do that, they still need to find someone to play on the other side of him because Arden Key and Jihad Ward are both free agents, and there is nothing that suggests that Femi Oladejo is ready to take that jump.
Robert Saleh has ideal offseason trade candidate for Tennessee Titans
There are some interesting candidates the Titans could target in free agency, but there is also a potential name on the trade block that would make sense. Heading into the 2025 NFL trade deadline, it was widely rumored that the New York Jets were deep in talks to trade Jermaine Johnson.
While there are reports of the Jets turning down a second-round pick at the deadline, that probably is an exaggeration, considering how willing they were to trade away Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams.
Considering that Johnson is heading into the final year of his rookie contract and that the Jets remain in the infancy stages of their rebuild, it stands to reason that Johnson's name will still be on the trade block this offseason.
If the Titans decide to go down this road, it will be because he has a connection and a familiarity with Saleh. The Jets drafted Johnson in the first round when Saleh was their coach.
In the two seasons Saleh coached Johnson, the EDGE defender registered 84 tackles, 21 QB hits, 14 TFLs, and 10 sacks. He was hurt the year Saleh was fired by the Jets, but in his one season under a new staff, Johnson only managed 43 tackles, six QB hits, five TFLs, and three sacks.
There is no world where the Titans should give up a second-round pick for Johnson, but if the Jets are willing to accept a Day 3 pick, it would give Saleh another starting-caliber EDGE for a relatively low price. If the Titans like him, they can extend him and make him a long-term solution. If they don't, then they can allow him to walk and reap the reward of a compensatory pick in 2027.