Why This Draft Must Set The Tone For Titans Future

Everything great had to start at some point, and though the Tennessee Titans have been a solid football team of late, greatness has eluded them.

Andrew Nelles / Tennessean.com / USA TODAY NETWORK

NASHVILLE - There's no debating that the Tennessee Titans have been a solid football team the last five seasons, including earning the No.1 overall seed in the AFC Playoffs just two seasons ago. 

Despite that achievement, their 2022 season was a turning point that, say, the team slid into the league's bottom half. That slide came in part because of poor decisions about contracts and roster building, and of course, perhaps even more impactful were the team's extraordinary injuries.    

Earlier on Tuesday, while crafting another article, I found some numbers on the Titans. While I had seen them previously, for some reason, they jumped off the page as things that new general manager Ran Carthon must begin to fix immediately if this team is to return to the upper half of their conference and the league as a whole. 

What were those numbers that jumped out at me?

First, five undrafted rookie free agents finished the '22 season on the Titan 53-man roster. I have nothing against undrafted players, but to have five on that roster at the end of the season says that the injury issue was devastating and two that the depth behind the starters was lacking. 

Granted, there's not much any head coach or general manager can do with as many injuries as this team has had over the last two seasons other than work to improve the team's depth.  

Still, having that many undrafted players on the practice squad speaks to that lack of depth. Even that unit must have drafted talents instead of as many undrafted ones. 

Second, the Titans must do a better job of finding and keeping talent. Of last season's 53-man roster, only 25 were drafted by the Titans. That number is slightly below the league average.  

When you look closer at those two numbers, there is a connection between them.

The lack of homegrown players and the depth issues align. Again, injuries played a part, but the Titans have spent far too much time on the street the last two seasons. Drafting, developing, and keeping players must improve. 

When players grow and develop, the team really can't afford to keep them all, but it then falls back to having the ability to find replacements in the draft each year.  

Developing the ability to do this will allow general manager Ran Carthon to fill more significant needs in free agency if he does not have to replace as many parts of the puzzle each season.  

Fixing this begins Thursday night, and even with him having only six selections, Carthon and the Titans need to maximize those and any others they may obtain by finding guys who will come in and produce at an above-average rate for their roster spot, as opposed to just hanging out on the roster.  

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