Another Tennessee Titans draft class is all but gone following the finalization of the 2025 roster.
Titans fans would love to forget the failures of Jon Robinson’s final few years – 2020-22 – with only Roger McCreary and Chig Okonkwo left on the roster to show for three seasons and 23 total draft choices.
That purging of roster failures continued last week with Chad Brinker and Mike Borgonzi taking a hatchet to much of the 2023 draft class – the first of former general manager Ran Carthon’s tenure.
In fairness to Carthon, he arrived in January 2023, a little more than three months before that year’s draft. With Robinson’s firing in early December, the chore of running the scouting department fell to interim general manager Ryan Cowden, with obvious input from then head coach Mike Vrabel.
By the time Carthon walked through the doors to much fanfare, the basics of the draft board and much of the evaluations had already begun. So, in other words, there is plenty of blame to be shared by Carthon, Vrabel, Cowden, the scouting staff and the whole organization.
Last man standing
First-round pick Peter Skoronski, chosen 11th overall that year, is the only player from 2023 draftees remaining on the 2025 opening 53-man roster – quite a remarkable and stunning fact given these players were chosen just two years ago.
After Skoronski, the Titans traded up to select quarterback Will Levis, whose ups-and-downs of last year are well chronicled. Levis (wisely) elected to have shoulder surgery just before the start of training camp, probably seeing his “competition” with rookie Cam Ward wasn’t really going to be a fair fight. So, he chose to get his body healthy in 2025 to ready himself for a chance here or somewhere else for 2026.
At the end of camp, Levis was joined on injured reserve by running back Tyjae Spears, who will miss at least the first four games with a high ankle sprain, the latest injury to keep the former Tulane standout from being counted on.
Levis and Spears are actually two of the lucky ones from the 2023 class. Their checks from the Titans will continue, even while they are on the shelf.
The same can’t be said for any of the Titans’ three third-day picks. Seventh-rounder Colton Dowell, a local product from Wilson Central, was the first to go as he struggled to come back from a serious knee injury suffered late in his rookie year.
The other two picks – Tennessee did not have a fourth-rounder – Josh Whyle and Jaelyn Duncan had been – to use a college football term – over-recruited.
Whyle, a fifth-round pick who battled concussion issues and only showed occasional flashes on the field, knew he was in trouble when Gunnar Helm was chosen this spring in the fourth round and when undrafted 2024 rookie David Martin-Robinson flashed more ability as a blocker while bringing about the same level of promise as a pass-catcher.
Duncan’s fate was sealed earlier. He followed other Titan tackle failures like Nicholas Petit-Frere, Andre Dillard, Dennis Daley and Leroy Watson.
Taking the free agent route
New general manager Borgonzi used the offseason and signed free agent tackle Dan Moore to start on the left side (shifting JC Latham to the right). Veteran Oli Udoh was signed to back up while undrafted rookie Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson develops.
Those acquisitions put Duncan in a fight with undrafted third-year man John Ojukwu for one spot on the practice squad. When that spot went to Ojukwu, Duncan went to the unemployment line.
When asked about the quick demise of the 2023 draft class, Borgonzi, whose job it is to remedy the messes of his predecessors and make the Titans relevant again, was politically correct in his answer.
“This league is really tough and competitive year-to-year,” he said. “So it just happened some of the guys that we brought in, we felt like we were going to keep them. And those guys (2023 draft class) will have other opportunities here with other teams.
“But it depends on year-to-year, really, the guys you bring in, the guys you draft, the free agents that you bring in and the roster looks different every year. So those guys will be on teams, they’re talented. So, it’s just the way the National Football League is. It’s a year-to-year thing.”
Translated loosely, that means most of the players from 2023 are just like the bulk of the draft classes from the three prior years – either not good enough or no longer fit the plan.
What the Titans have to hope is that a similar column won’t be written two years from now about how the 2025 class has all but disappeared.
Terry McCormick also covers the Titans for TitanInsider.com