The Tennessee Titans have routes for what they can do with their quarterback troubles this offseason, and another one has opened up.
With the franchise tag deadline passing, the Minnesota Vikings did not keep quarterback Sam Darnold, making him a free agent when the new league year begins on March 12.
This led The 33rd Team writer Dan Pizzuta to list Darnold as the quarterback the Titans will eventually sign.
“Trading the first overall pick before the start of free agency would also help the Titans because they would need to know how aggressively to pursue a starting-caliber free agent on the market should they elect to pass on one on the draft,” Pizzuta writes.
“Moving the first overall pick to the Giants would only slide the Titans back to third overall, which would give them the pick of Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter or Colorado CB/WR Travis Hunter while keeping the ability to get out in front of free agency.
“The Titans started to lay the foundation last season while attempting to build around Will Levis to see what he had. That turned out to be not much. When Levis was pressured, he crumbled. Darnold’s weaknesses are similar but he was able to get in more big plays when not pressured.”
Once the Titans sign a quarterback, they open the door to what they will do with the No. 1 overall pick. If they sign someone before a trade, it could hurt the value that they could get for the top pick. If they trade the pick first, it could hurt their positioning in the negotiation process with whoever they try to sign.
There’s a fine line that the Titans have to walk down, so they need to be careful with how they handle this.