PALM BEACH, Fla. — As NFL head coaches, general managers and executives canvass the grounds of The Breakers, conversations to nail down free agency loose ends and draft strategy alike abound.
Many top players have performed at pro days and/or visited teams directly since the scouting combine wrapped in early March. Scouts and coaches have convened to compare evaluation notes and watch further film.
Advertisement
With so many moving parts, what do the Tennessee Titans and Cleveland Browns intend to do with the top two 2025 NFL Draft picks? Let’s break down their latest comments from Monday interview sessions at the league’s spring meeting.
The Titans have the first overall pick. Does that mean they’re taking Cam Ward?
Tennessee will not yet publicly confirm this is their plan. But yes, they’re doing all their homework on Miami quarterback Cam Ward. The Titans met with him at the combine and visited his pro day; they held a private workout with him and they hosted him for one of their 30 possible prospect visits. They’ve watched his film and researched his background.
“We’ve had all of our possible [in-person] touch points,” Titans head coach Brian Callahan said. “We have a couple more hours of Zoom left to us, per league rules and we’ll use all of those touch points that we get and feel really good about what we’ve learned and how we’ve learned it.
Advertisement
“He’s an impressive young man and we’re excited. But we’ve got to get through the rest of the process.”
Callahan also praised Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, whom many view as the second-most highly touted prospect at the position. Sanders visited the Titans, and the team will attend his Colorado pro day on Friday.
“Our interactions with him had been really positive,” Callahan said. “I liked the way he comes across. He’s confident without being over the top, which is a good thing.”
The Titans need a QB, and those two could fit the bill. But would they consider trading down instead?
First-year general manager Mike Borgonzi might as well have picked “process” as a mantra this draft cycle. He wants his scouts to go through a Packers-style in-depth evaluation of players and he wants his decision-makers to join him in hearing any and all offers. Deep rosters of Titans brass have traveled to meet with top prospects, but Borgonzi and Co. still want to weigh the value of a franchise quarterback against the perhaps-evolving value that their pick may generate.
Advertisement
Are they eager to trade away? They’re not indicating that. Are they open to business?
“I think we’re open to everything at this point,” Callahan said. “You do your due diligence and you weigh [whether] you feel like it’s beyond the value you thought you would ever get.
“But then you also have to look at what is a potential franchise quarterback — and if you think they’re that good and they’re that type of player, those guys, to me, are priceless.”
Do the Browns want to trade up?
In NFL business, never say never. Or as Cleveland general manager Andrew Berry said: “We’re pretty open to anything that we think can be advantageous for us.”
Advertisement
But also: This seems unlikely. The Browns will have the second pick of the draft and they seem high on several prospects. They’re impressed with how Sanders’ upbringing as the son of Hall of Famer Deion Sanders shaped his understanding of the game on and off the field. They view Travis Hunter, the Heisman Trophy-winning cornerback and wide receiver, as capable of playing both ways (whether he does or not) thanks to his “elite ball skills — I don’t know if there’s been better, truly,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said. And they don’t believe Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter’s stress fracture is “prohibitive of him having a long and successful career in the NFL.”
So even if Ward is gone, they have options.
“I don’t know if there’s even been a trade from 2 to 1,” general manager Andrew Berry said. “It’s pretty rare for the No. 1 overall pick to get traded. It could be part of who’s sitting at the top of the draft, and it could just be the cost. The cost of going 2 to 1 is a lot different than the cost of going 76 to 75.
“You have to weigh all that in terms of how it fits into your overall offseason plan of what you can do in the draft.”
Would the Browns seriously consider not drafting a QB?
The Browns know they need a quarterback. Team owner Jimmy Haslam made that eminently clear when he talked Monday about needing to dig the club out of the hole their Deshaun Watson acquisition left them. Watson’s still technically on their roster (albeit injured reserve), and yet the Browns are already speaking in past tense about their “swing and miss” on him. So while Sanders is possible and Ward isn’t wholly out of the question, don’t be surprised if the Browns opt for a generational player like Carter or Hunter to elevate a talent-needy group, and then either rolling with offseason QB acquisition Kenny Pickett or — more likely — attempting to acquire a veteran, like current Atlanta Falcons backup Kirk Cousins.
Pickett isn’t likely their long-term answer, but the Browns viewed his availability as “opportunistic.”
Advertisement
“Kenny Pickett’s a guy we believe in [and] I believe in,” Stefanski said of the Steelers’ first-round pick who most recently played for the Eagles.
Has either team picked their guy?
The Titans insist that any March 31 decision would be premature today. Data points aren’t yet complete, including Colorado’s pro day this Friday for Sanders and Hunter. This year’s top prospect isn’t as obvious as the Chicago Bears’ 2024 pick of Caleb Williams, whom Chicago showed public interest in before draft week.
“It would be wrong to say there’s a leader in the clubhouse at this point,” Callahan said Monday morning. “We’re still going through the process.
Advertisement
“Once we make the decision, no matter what it is or who it is, we’ll be thrilled to death. But I think the right thing to do is to do it the way we’re doing it and make sure that you turn over all the rocks and you go through all the things that you have to go through until you get to that point.”
The Browns conceded more but not by much.
“Certainly there’s guys you know you’re circling,” Berry said. “But we want to get through this process before we make any determinations.”
Read the full article here