Tennessee Titans general manager Jon Robinson, who dealt out of the first pick in the draft last year, is talking about the potential for a trade high in the draft again.
Because of the 2016 deal that sent the No. 1 pick to the Los Angeles Rams, Robinson and the Titans have the No. 5 pick this year, in addition to No. 18.
“It’s got to be a two-way street, we’ve got to have somebody that wants to move up to that spot, but like I said last year, we’re open for business,” Robinson said at the scouting combine.
The deal with the Rams last year happened early, but Los Angeles knew it was getting the player it wanted once it had the No. 1 pick: quarterback Jared Goff.
Because four players will come off the board first, a trade partner is likely to want to wait. The Titans will discuss a variety of scenarios with potential trade partners in advance.
“We’re not really in the driver’s seat in this draft,” Robinson said. “… You have those discussions potentially before the actual draft starts. ‘If this happens, or if that happens, would you consider doing this?’ So you at least have some framework in mind, so when you’re under the gun and you have to make a decision, you’ve been able to think through it a little bit.”
The seed of the deal with the Rams came at the combine last year, when the Titans and Rams had adjacent booths at Lucas Oil Stadium.
In a chat with Nashville’s Midday 180, Robinson was asked who occupies the real estate on either side of the Titans this year.
“Ironically I did gaze around at that [Tuesday] to see if there were potential suitors,” Robinson said. “We’ll see how that kind of manifests itself. There are a couple across the way. I might get a couple extra steps on my step tracker thing and I might have to get in position to try to go make a deal.”
via ESPN