We recently broke down the Tennessee Titans’ picks in a seven-round ESPN mock draft, and now we’re turning our attention to a three-round mock from our friends over at Draft Wire.
Draft Wire’s Curt Popejoy’s latest projections come after the first wave of free agency and he rightly has the Titans going all offense with their first three picks.
Of course, Tennessee has several needs left to address on the offensive side of the ball, and namely along the offensive line, and at wide receiver and tight end.
While Popejoy’s mock is solid, it gets ruined by the fact that the Titans don’t address arguably their biggest position of need ahead of the draft. First, we’ll go over the picks, and then at the end we’ll provide some analysis.
Round 1, Pick 11: OT Peter Skoronski, Northwestern
Round 2, Pick 41: TE Michael Mayer, Notre Dame
Round 3, Pick 72: OG Steve Avila, TCU
Analysis and grade
While I personally love the three prospects Popejoy mocks to the Titans here, I don’t love the fact that he didn’t add a wide receiver.
Granted, Mayer is going to be a very good pass-catcher at the next level and a great player to pair with Chig Okonkwo, and Skoronski and Avila are very good pieces to rebuild an offensive line with, with the former able to slot in at guard in his first season if Andre Dillard starts at left tackle.
However, Tennessee desperately needs to add an impact playmaker at wide receiver, and I don’t see them getting one of those in the fifth round or later (Tennessee doesn’t have a fourth-round pick).
If I was going to replace one pick in this draft with a wideout, it would be the Avila selection. A group of Skoronski, Mayer and a third-round wide receiver would be a great boost for Tennessee’s offense.
I like this mock draft as much as one can without a wide receiver in it, but it gets a middle-of-the-road grade as a result of that omission.
Grade: C