Last week’s final cuts all but closed the books on the Tennessee Titans’ disastrous 2020 draft class.
Of the six picks selected by the Titans during the COVID-plagued season, only second-round pick Kristian Fulton is still on the 53-man roster.
The Titans dropped fifth-round defensive tackle Larrell Murchison and seventh-round cornerback Chris Jackson onto the waiver wire, where they went unclaimed by the rest of the league’s teams. They now are on the Titans’ practice squad.
First-rounder Isaiah Wilson was a wasted pick with his considerable issues, seventh-round quarterback Cole McDonald only made it halfway through his first training camp and third-round running back Darrynton Evans was dropped after two injury-plagued seasons.
That’s not to say 2020 was a complete wash, thanks to three undrafted players from that year who have become starters.
Teair Tart is entering his second season as the team’s primary starting nose tackle. He’s solid as a run stuffer and hoping to develop more overall consistency in his game as he enters year three.
Another diamond in the rough plucked in 2020 is wide receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, who has become one of Ryan Tannehill’s most trusted targets. Westbrook-Ikhine caught 38 passes for 476 yards last season and could be poised for a bigger role in 2022 with A.J. Brown and Julio Jones gone and rookie Treylon Burks still ramping up for a bigger role.
And, of course, Aaron Brewer outright won the left guard job for the Titans after being their top backup on the interior for the past couple of seasons.
Many factors played into the draft class woes and the unearthing of some valuable finds from the undrafted ranks. Some of it was the fact that coaches and scouts were prohibited from in-person visits and pro days workouts due to the pandemic.
They were left to try sort through Zoom calls and the game film accumulated from the previous season, which probably contributed to a poorer success rate and greater surprise rate.
“I think that whole period of time was kind of weird for all of us,” Titans GM Jon Robinson says. “We were in the pandemic. We were locked in our houses so we couldn’t do anything. We tried to go through our process, but it was just different.
“I personally was not able to do what I normally do as I prep for the draft.”
That situation might also help to explain how players like Tart, Westbrook-Ikhine and Brewer fell through the draft cracks but ended up as starters for the Titans.
“We certainly did our due diligence on those guys, and they have certainly taken the opportunity that we’ve given them here, and worked to improve,” Robinson says. “They’re much better football players then when they got here, and that’s a testament to those guys.”