Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan and GM Mike Borgonzi met with the media on Tuesday morning from the Reese’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.
Callahan and Borgonzi each talked about the importance of seeing top NFL Draft prospects in person. Tennessee is zeroing in on the 1-on-1 drills of every practice and player interviews. Those things hold weight for the organization during the pre-draft evaluation process.
Those player interviews were even more important when Titans brass met with QB prospect Shedeur Sanders at the Shrine Bowl in Dallas last week. Both Callahan and Borgonzi finally made public comments about that meeting and their first impression of Sanders.
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"I really enjoyed meeting Shedeur the person. He's a really fun guy to talk to. He's really sharp. You can see all of the things, the maturity part of it is really impressive," said Callahan on Tuesday morning.
"Really enjoyed talking to him. He's a smart, engaging, and confident kid," said GM Mike Borgonzi. "We had a great conversation with him. It wasn't that long, it was the first opportunity we've really had to sit down and talk him. This is a process and we look forward to talking with him again."
By all accounts, it sounds like Sanders made a positive first impression on the Titans. But with it being so early in the process, that may not mean much. Tennessee is also impressed by Miami QB Cam Ward. "They've both done really good things on tape. They're in the discussion for a reason. They're the best quarterbacks that are coming out in this class," Callahan told me.
Ward and Sanders
Unlike Sanders, the Titans have not been able to meet Ward just yet. Ward was initially supposed to participate in the Senior Bowl, but ended up withdrawing his name.
There is not a huge need for the top quarterback prospects to participate in these events. We just saw Sanders opt out of practice at the Shrine Bowl, and it’s still in question if either quarterback will be working out at the NFL combine. That’s a frustrating part of this process, but it’s not uncommon in the modern NFL.
The fact of the matter is that Sanders and Ward are hands-down the best two quarterbacks in this draft class. No work out or throwing session is going to change that or override the years of college tape teams are working off of.
That being said, and interesting player to watch will be Ole Miss QB Jaxson dart. Dart is down at the Senior Bowl and was somebody Callahan mentioned he would have his eye on. There’s always a chance the Titans don’t pick a quarterback with the 1st overall pick and could be trying to target one further down the board.
I didn’t think Dart had an incredibly impressive first day of practice on Tuesday.
During his side media session, Borgonzi mentioned that the Titans were about to go through a gauntlet of prospect interviews over the next 17 days. By the NFL combine, they should have a good grasp on the quality of talent in this draft class and the make up of the high-end prospects being considered at 1st overall.
