What Titans accomplished in 2024 NFL Draft: It's about quality, not quantity, to compete now

Nothing — absolutely nothing — about this Tennessee Titans offseason gives any indication that this team plans to tear down, pack things up and go through one of those dreaded rebuilding processes. This weekend's NFL draft provided yet more evidence.

The Titans stuck to the script with their seven draft picks this weekend. They never traded up. They never traded down. They seemingly started at the top of their list of needs and crossed positions off in order until the draft ended. Offensive tackle? Check. Defensive tackle? Check. Linebacker and cornerback and receiver and safety and edge rusher? All checked.

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Let's leave the quality of these picks to the side for a second and focus on the strategy. Remember: Four short months ago, these Titans fired coach Mike Vrabel after they lost 18 of his final 24 games. They replaced Vrabel and company with a coach, offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator who all are first-timers. All with upside, sure, but that's a lot of newness.

Then the Titans let face-of-the-franchise Derrick Henry leave in free agency, along with quarterback Ryan Tannehill, defensive end Denico Autry, linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair and a whole host of starters and role players. These are the surefire signs of a tank, of a teardown, of a team willing to reset its contention clock for the sake of getting younger, cheaper and more unwatchable in the present in hopes of a brighter future.

That is not what's happening. What's happening is the Titans have attacked their needs this offseason with compete-now additions and better-figure-it-out-soon projects. Teams on the downswing don't shell out the cash for the top wide receiver and top center on the free agent market, or trade draft picks for a cornerback better than the top cornerback on the market. And teams looking to rebuild through the draft usually don't do so by valuing need first and foremost.

It's hard to see a world where the Titans didn't draft first-round pick JC Latham, second-round pick T'Vondre Sweat and fourth-round pick Cedric Gray explicitly to start at left tackle, defensive tackle and inside linebacker — the three most obvious holes on the roster. GM Ran Carthon said the team turned down offers to trade back in the first and second rounds but it did mull moving up in the fourth round to ensure they could get Gray.

By that logic, this draft wasn't about getting more pieces. It was about getting the right pieces.

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What Titans achieved in NFL draft 2024

None of this is a commentary on how good these picks actually were. There's inherent risk in taking Latham, who played right tackle at Alabama, and flipping his life around to play the most important position on the offensive line. There's inherent risk in taking Sweat, who's heavier than any defensive player who took a snap in the NFL last season, and saying the expectation is for him to be a three-down contributor. Just like there's risk to drafting safety James Williams and converting him to linebacker, or drafting a 188-pound receiver who has dealt with repeated injury concerns in Jha'Quan Jackson.

There are no guarantees in the NFL draft. As a general rule, acquiring more picks through trades tends to be the easiest way to flip a roster. The fact that the Titans pooh-poohed that possibility at every turn to address needs of the present is the clearest sign the people in charge don't believe this roster needs to be flipped.

So what did the Titans accomplish in the 2024 NFL Draft? Well, if things go well this season, this draft class is going to be a big reason why. Assuming Latham, Sweat and Gray are competent and Jackson, Williams, cornerback Jarvis Brownlee Jr., and edge rusher Jaylen Harrell can make the squad, the Titans have raised their floor significantly. These were the positions they needed to improve to be able to compete this season.

Thus it would stand to reason that's the goal.

Now it's up to the players and coaches to spend the next four months figuring out how to make that goal reality.

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: What Tennessee Titans achieved with their picks in 2024 NFL Draft