Day 1 Takes: Titans hit bull's eye with Carnell Tate, Philly Special, & Mike Vrabel's word salad
Surprise! Tennessee went wide receiver at No. 4 overall, and it's the right call. Howie Roseman does it again. And what in the hell was that presser from Mike Vrabel?
ICYMI:
Inside this piece:
Why Carnell Tate is exactly what the Titans need.
Howie Roseman plays a different game. Again.
The Patriot Way!
Another smart draft in… Cleveland?
Caleb Downs → Dallas.
Cameras panned into the Tennessee Titans draft room. Somewhere in the back, you could see Brian Daboll. The team’s new offensive coordinator wasn’t front and center as his team’s No. 4 overall selection neared. In that exact moment, you couldn’t help but wonder what curse words were cycling through his mind. Arizona had just selected running back Jeremiyah Love.
Surely, the rebuilding Titans would take a defensive player at No. 5.
Then, the name dropped.
Carnell Tate. Wide receiver. Ohio State.
Love this pick for a Titans team on the hunt for relevancy. And not only because an angel gets its wings every time mock drafts are burnt to smithereens.
If you had the misfortune of watching the Titans through the 2025 season, I apologize. It was a harrowing experience. Out is Brian Callahan. In is Robert Saleh.
This season’s all about figuring out whether or not 2025 No. 1 pick Cam Ward is the future.
Love would’ve unquestionably helped on that quest, but Tate is the next-best consolation. All 11th hour nitpicking of the Buckeyes wideout felt like paralysis by analysis. Turn on any Ohio State game and you see a 6-foot-2, 222-pound weapon who makes everything look easy. His routes are poetic. Not rigid, not labored. With subtle cuts up field, Tate routinely wasted DBs. The definition of football speed. “I saw him run by this guy, I saw him run by that guy,” one scout told Bob McGinn. “He runs by whoever he needs to get past.” It’s rare that a 20-year-old looks this polished.
His hands are smooth. He doesn’t fight the ball. Tate high-pointed acrobatic catches in traffic.
Watching Tate get separation at the top of routes reminded me of covering a young Davante Adams in Wisconsin. There’s a timely burst a stopwatch fails to capture.
Ohio State is a wide receiver factory, too. Brian Hartline’s work with everyone who’s passed through Columbus helped get him the head job at South Florida.
In theory, Ward now has a true weapon to grow with in Daboll’s offense.
“He’s a bigger, vertical guy,” Titans GM Mike Borgonzki said. “The route running is very efficient. I thought he had exceptional ball skills to be able to track the football, his catch radius, downfield. He’s going to be a great fit in this offense. Tate has the ability to play big downfield. All these contested catches downfield. His ability to go up and catch the football, contort his body in certain ways, I think is going to be great for Cam.”
Borgonzki referenced that “burst” deep. He sees it off the line of scrimmage, too.
Explosion is sorely needed in Nashville.
Passing on a defensive player at No. 4 overall makes more sense the closer you look at Saleh’s track record, too. In San Francisco, he made a habit of getting production out of players drafted beyond the first round. Fred Warner, perhaps the best linebacker in the NFL, was the 70th overall pick. Linebacker Dre Greenlaw went No. 148. Cornerback Deommodore Lenoir (No. 172) and safety Talanoa Hufanga (No. 180) both were fifth-rounders. Azeez Al-Shaair shared his wild undrafted story with us last season. One preseason hit with the 49ers changed his life. Saleh saw a special something inside of Al-Shaair.
Hell, recognizing anyone on the 49ers’ defense last season was a challenge. Ninety percent of coaches fail miserably with that injury-ravaged group. San Francisco was one win from the No. 1 seed.
Saleh did not see a need to use top-5 capital on a defensive player. He even got to work on that defense at the tail end of the first round, trading back in for Auburn edge rusher Keldric Faulk, one of the youngest players in the draft. Borgonzki sees shades of Arik Armstead.
Tennessee has a long way to go to brawl with the three teams in its own division, but I wouldn’t bet against Saleh ensuring AFC South games are bloodbaths. Closer you look, it’s obvious he got a raw deal in New York. He’ll have no problems fixing this defense as draft classes stack up.
Ward, Tate, Daboll, even free-agent add Wan’Dale Robinson now supply tangible hope on offense.
In college, Tate was the No. 2 receiving option. In the pros, he’ll be the No. 1. That’s uncommon. Tate also admits he had no idea he could go this early in the draft.
But he doesn’t lack confidence. Nor should he.
“I bring any and everything to the table. I’m a complete receiver. I do it all.”
Howie does it again
Pittsburgh broke the all-time record for single-day attendance at the NFL draft on Thursday night, per Adam Schefter. A reported 320,000 fans descended upon the Steel City. The city was rocking when it was time for the Steelers to make their selection at No. 21 overall, too.
Terrible Towels took over the crowd. “Renegade” blared. Legends past were all on-hand.
If only those Steelers fans knew what was happening behind the scenes. As revealed after the fact, Steelers GM Omar Khan was on the phone with Makai Lemon when the Philadelphia Eagles called to inform the wide receiver they had traded ahead of Pittsburgh — at No. 20 — to select him. A wild scene in the green room.
The Steelers settled for Arizona State tackle Max Iheanachor. Born in Nigeria, Iheanachor moved to Compton, Calif., at 13 and played football for the first time in 2022 in junior college. He’s a project. He was not Khan’s first choice.
Howie Roseman, the Eagles GM, got the last laugh. Every year, we see general managers freak out and give up too much capital to get their guy. Roseman’s been with the Eagles since 2000. He has a feel for what’s real, what’s smoke and always know when to snake his way up the board. Since January, all we’ve heard is that this is the year to trade down. Roseman wisely defies convention. On draft day, he often waits for a talented player to slide… slide a little more… and pounces.
In ‘21, he traded with the Cowboys to land DeVonta Smith. In ‘26, he traded the Cowboys the 114th and 137th picks to slide up from No. 23 to No. 20 for Lemon. Clearly, it was worth it.
I also like the strategy of aggressively chasing one of the three best wideouts in the draft. There’s a noticeable drop-off after Tate, Jordyn Tyson and Lemon. Maybe Lemon isn’t the prototypical “X.” Philly is still positioned nicely for life after A.J. Brown.
Here’s their weaponry around Jalen Hurts:
RB Saquon Barkley
WR DeVonta Smith
WR Makai Lemon
WR Dontayvion Wicks
WR Hollywood Brown
TE Dallas Goedert
There’s no excuses for the team’s highly compensated (and maligned) franchise guy. Hurts must start throwing the football over the middle of the field with receivers who specialize in precisely that.
There are scouts who see Amon-Ra St. Brown-like scrappiness to USC’s Lemon.
Three years ago, there wasn’t much hype around the wide receiver class, either. Nobody was even taken until the 20th pick. Jaxson Smith-Njigba is now the richest receiver in the game. Zay Flowers and Jordan Addison have panned out. With one trade, Roseman made sure he got himself into a similar sweet spot of the draft.
The key? Not passing on Justin Jefferson for Jalen Reagor. That decision surely weighs on Roseman’s mind.
The Patriot Way
In another universe with another owner, the New England Patriots could punish Mike Vrabel. This whole thing only gets grosser. Three weeks ago, the head coach thought he could swiftly make this all disappear by dismissing photos with Dianna Russini as “laughable.” So much for that. This smugness might’ve been what compelled someone else to bring a new round of photos to light with the New York Posts’ "Page Six releasing new pics of the two kissing at a NYC bar on Thursday. Apparently this extramarital affair has lingered on for at least six years, right through the birth of her children and Vrabel moving from Tennessee to Cleveland to Foxborough.
Scummy cheaters are nothing new in pro sports, but there’s a shocking level of brazenness to what Vrabel and Russini carried out. Both had the audacity to insist we ignore our lying eyes. Never mind the fact that they were interlocking fingers… at a $2,160/night, two-person bungalow… two hours from the owners meeting. (Addressed last week here.) Russini resigned from her (extremely lucrative) position at The Athletic. Her career as a reporter appears over.
So, what about Vrabel? While this is not apples to apples, you cannot help but wonder how he benefitted from this arrangement. Speaking of those Eagles, there sure was a lot of A.J. Brown reporting from The Athletic’s top NFL investigator last season, reporting that figured to benefit New England. I cannot imagine Roseman is thrilled with this week’s developments.
Then, there’s the issue of his own team. First came indignant defiance, the belittling of anyone who’d take those Sedona photos seriously. This week, we saw a somber, guilt-filled Vrabel tell us that he addressed the matter with the team.
Next, a midnight report indicated he’s going to miss Day 3 of the draft to seek “counseling.”
Right on cue, the next day, the second round of photos drop and Vrabel decided to hold another press conference. Words were spoken. Substance, however, was not in short supply. He claimed the initial “laughable” comment was meant to protect his family and didn’t provide a coherent answer as to why Saturday was best for a therapy session. Apparently it’s Family First… just not Rounds 1 through 3. Football is most important on those days. Asked if he’d need to step away from future football obligations, he left the door open.
However you slice this, Vrabel’s credibility takes a colossal hit. Affairs unfortunately happen in the world. But this was an NFL head coach parading around out in the open — humiliating his family — while harping on the virtues of faith. There will be players who no longer take him seriously. I’m mildly surprised he wasn’t encouraged to take a leave of absence this offseason and let Josh McDaniels run the team until further notice.
Maybe that’s because his boss cannot take a moral high ground.
These Patriots are owned by a billionaire who enjoyed the happy ending heard ‘round the world.
New England has won more than any team this century. This is also the franchise of Orchids of Asia and Spygate and Deflategate and Aaron Hernandez. If there’s something football to take away from this all, it’s the lack of a moral compass from this franchise as a whole. Vrabel did phenomenal work with these Patriots, as documented. This team was in a bad, bad place post-Belichick. But all of this cheating, lying and public conceit leaves a permanent stain.
No Huddle
Caleb Downs fell to the 12th overall pick. He’s a safety. He also may go down as one of Jerry Jones’ finest draft picks ever. Hard to see the Buckeye DB failing. DC Christian Parker will find ways to weaponize him.
Miami’s starting from scratch and it makes sense to select a left tackle to protect Malik Willis. Still, I was surprised to see new coach Jeff Hafley take Alabama’s Kadyn Proctor. Several scouts around the NFL question his passion, a red flag for a coach who says he wants players that sincerely love this sport. (One scout to McGinn: “Had the transfer portal issue where he kind of quit on the team and was going back to Iowa and then he came crawling back and his teammates accepted him.”)
Rueben Bain Jr. fell to No. 15 overall. He was dominant at Miami with 9.5 sacks and 15.5 TFLs. His style of play blends well with the longer Al-Quadin Muhammad. Both are violent. Both give Todd Bowles’ sagging pass rush some bite. Credit to Real Football co-host Jim Monos for hinting at a Bain slide. He’s a historical outlier. Teams pass on edge rushers with short arms for a reason — the NFL is a totally different game.
The Buffalo Bills traded back three times. After dealing a second-rounder for DJ Moore, they wanted to recoup picks. Prediction here is that Brandon Beane and Joe Brady find one of those space-eating nose tackles for Jim Leonhard’s defense. Two are still on the board: Ohio State’s Kayden McDonald and Georgia’s Christen Miller. More intel here.
Love the NFL cutting back the time to pick. Eight minutes is perfect. Keep this thing moving.
Shedeur Sanders? Deshaun Watson? Spergon Wynn? No clue who ends up starting the most games for the Cleveland Browns at quarterback. It’s an evergreen concern. But after refueling the roster with a ton of young talent last spring (DT Mason Graham, LB Carson Schwesinger, RB Quinshon Judkins, TE Harold Fannin Jr.), they’re off to another promising start. The Browns were able to trade down — as widely speculated — and still get Utah tackle Spencer Fano. At No. 24, they then added explosive KC Concepcion. Going offensive line, then wide receiver was a smart order of operations for this team. At this point last year, guilty as charged. I thought passing on Travis Hunter would be a mistake. That take is starting to look dead wrong as Cleveland meticulously reloads. It’s nothing flashy. They’ve got some underrated personnel men who know what they’re looking for. (Now, about that QB…)
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Love having GoLong to go back & read those scouting reviews after the Packers make their picks. Thanks TD & Bob Mcginn! Such a GREAT site!
Solid work on Vrabel. Sadly, this kind of stuff can easily be written off by many fans…”consenting adults” and so on…it’s important to remember that there are two families, a husband, a wife, and multiple children of various ages, who will be forever scarred by all of this. Patriots fans can pretend it’s not a big deal, but they’re deceiving themselves.