NASHVILLE – Coming off their first playoff victory in 14 years, the Tennessee Titans have no obvious holes to be filled in the NFL draft, which starts tonight at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
That gives general manager Jon Robinson lots of options on what to do with the 25th pick in the opening round.
He’s working with Mike Vrabel, the first-time head coach who replaced Mike Mularkey in the offseason, to find a way to push the Titans past an ugly rout in the divisional round of the playoffs in January. Tennessee already has all the key pieces in place, though – chiefly quarterback Marcus Mariota – and Robinson used free agency to replace aging veterans such as running back DeMarco Murray, bolster the secondary and add depth on the offensive line.
The Titans’ biggest offseason addition was cornerback Malcolm Butler, who received a five-year deal to strengthen the secondary for a passing defense that ranked 25th in the NFL last season by giving up a per-game average of 224.4 yards through the air. He joins a group of defensive backs that includes former New England Patriots teammate Logan Ryan, signed last offseason; Adoree’ Jackson, the 18th pick overall in 2017; and safety Kevin Byard, an All-Pro.
“What we wanted to try to do was be able to go into the draft with what we thought was a pretty deep roster,” Robinson said. “I think we’ve got good depth on our roster. We’ve got good competition really at all the position groups, and hopefully we can add some guys here over the next three, four days to maybe even make that more competitive.”