7. Tennessee Titans: Joe Alt, OT, Notre Dame
For months, just about every mock draft has had the Tennessee Titans selecting an offensive tackle with the No. 7 overall pick. And with Notre Dame’s Joe Alt emerging as the consensus top prospect at the position over the past few months, that has then led to a lot of projections with Alt ending up in Nashville.
Some of the buzz out of the NFL Combine, however, seems to indicate that this is much less of a formality for the Titans than we might’ve expected. Wide receiver could very much be in play for this team, as could a number of other premium positions such as edge rusher or cornerback, depending on what the board looks like for Ron Carthan in the war room.
At the end of the day, though, I have a hard time thinking that anything other than taking Joe Alt if he’s still on the board wouldn’t be malpractice. Will Levis flashed some promise that will earn him another shot in 2024, but the Titans have to give the big-armed youngster a chance, which starts with keeping him better protected than he (or Ryan Tannehill or Malik Willis) were at any point in the 2023 campaign.
Coming out of Notre Dame, Alt looks to epitomize plug-and-play as a bookend tackle. He checks all the boxes physically and the tape matches what you’d want to see, even if his size does occasionally limit his overall mobility – he’s technical enough to still make it work, and the Titans should jump on a new blindside protector.