The Titans Heisted the Rams in This Trade, Will They Squander It Anyway?
As you have presumably already heard by now, the Titans traded the first overall pick to the Rams, for a bountiful booty:
In the event they can keep Marcus Mariota upright, Tennessee has their quarterback of the future, so it makes perfect sense for them to stockpile. If there’s not yet more wheeling and dealing, this is where they’re sitting, in addition to having the Rams’ 15th overall pick:
Okay, but they’re still the Titans. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2008, they’re 5-27 over the past two seasons, and they brought back Mike Mularkey whose 2-7 record as an interim coach in Tennessee last year brought his career mark to 18-39. As smart a move as it is to compile all these picks, they still have to execute them.
The good enough news is that they have a new general manager in Jon Robinson. Robinson spent two seasons in Tampa Bay, where the Bucs seem to have a pretty good foundation, but, as with the Titans, much of that is because they were bad enough before that to land a franchise quarterback in the draft.
Robinson’s first NFL gig was as a scout for Bill Belichick and the Patriots in 2002, and he stayed with them until 2013, eventually rising to director of college scouting. The opportunity to learn from osmosis from the grand wizard for that duration sounds exciting, but remember that Scott Pioli flamed out on his own in Kansas City, and that Belichick’s coaching tree has bore little produce in the pros.
It’s impossible to know how much of the Patriots’ success you can attribute to anyone in that building besides the two constants in Tom Brady and Bill Belichick; as far as decision-making goes, the latter lords over everything.
Nevertheless, Robinson’s first real move – Mularkey got extended two days after Robinson was hired, which means it probably wasn’t totally his call – is a blockbuster positive for Tennessee. We shall see what he does with it.