The Tennessee Titans have a new sheriff in town, as new GM Mike Borgonzi has the ability to set this franchise up for success in the very weak AFC South if they nail it with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Picking a quarterback will clearly be a topic of debate after Will Levis' regression in 2024.
Tennessee has been linked to the top two players in this class, Colorado's Travis Hunter and Penn State's Abdul Carter, with regularity. If they want to pick a quarterback, the only two passers who look like first-round picks are Miami's Cam Ward and Colorado's Shedeur Sanders.
While Ward is regarded as the superior prospect when compared to Sanders by essentially every NFL Draft analyst, that didn't stop one analyst from going in a direction so against the grain that it would set the NFL world on fire.
In a mock draft from NFL.com's Charles Davis, the Titans are passing on Ward, Carter, and Hunter in order to take Sanders with the top pick. To call Davis' mock draft, which features both Ward and Jaxson Dart being picked immediately after Sanders inside of the top three, an outlier is being very kind.
Titans draft Shedeur Sanders No. 1 overall in NFL.com mock draft
The Titans may end up picking Sanders, but they would be better off trading down and picking him later in the first round. Amid reports from the likes of Dane Brugler of The Athletic that his stock is falling, Sanders' positive traits may not be enough to save him.
There are three acceptable players the Titans can pick at No. 1 overall. If they want to land a franchise quarterback, Ward has emerged as the clear top player at his position in the class. If they want to take the best player available, either Hunter or Carter makes sense there.
Taking Sanders, who is coming into the NFL with questions about his arm strength and ability to avoid sacks, could set this regime up for failure in 2025 and beyond. This roster is not ready to properly support a quarterback like Sanders, which could lead to him failing to properly develop as a rookie.
Getting Sanders after trading down and acquiring multiple Top 100 picks makes sense, but picking him first overall when there may not be another team in the league willing to do the same seems incredibly short-sighted by Borgonzi and the Titans. Hopefully, they don't follow Davis' gameplan.