Tennessee spent the last two weeks turning veterans into draft capital, and the Amani Hooker deal with Buffalo on Tuesday pushed the pile higher. Going into Week 10, the Titans are slotted at No. 2, and they own nine picks in the 2027 draft, including two first-rounders and two second-rounders, according to Tankathon’s pick tracker.
The first-rounders are their own and Chicago’s pick from the Jeffery Simmons trade. The second-rounders are their own and the one Buffalo sent for Hooker. Add a third, two fourths, a sixth and a seventh. The fifth went to the Bills as part of the Hooker deal.
That’s a lot of ammunition for Mike Borgonzi, and fans around Nashville already know where the first of it should go.
Pass rush is the top need
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PFF has Tennessee with the league’s lowest team pass-rush grade, something we dug into when an NFL analyst singled out Keldric Faulk before the bye. The first-round pick has one sack and two hurries on 86 pass-rush snaps, per PFF, and the most disruptive interior rusher on the roster now plays in Chicago.
By our count, the problem looks worse once Simmons comes out of the totals. The Titans have 20 sacks through eight games, per ESPN’s team stats. Remove Simmons’ four, and Jacob Martin’s 6.5 sacks make up about 40 percent of the 16 that are left. That’s a heavy load on one veteran edge rusher for the second half of the season.
Safety just jumped up the list
Hooker’s exit takes five interceptions out of the secondary. Tennessee has eight as a team, so the safety it just traded accounted for more than half of them.
ESPN’s depth chart now lists Tony Adams at strong safety and Kevin Winston Jr., a 2025 third-round pick, at free safety. That’s a thin back end for a pass defense that gave back two late leads in Cincinnati while Joe Burrow threw for 462 yards. Luke Easterling’s latest mock already sent Tennessee two cornerbacks in the first round, and a safety could join that conversation on Day 2.
Replacing Jeffery Simmons up front
Simmons left with four sacks and six tackles for loss in seven games. ESPN’s depth chart now has John Franklin-Myers and Solomon Thomas starting inside, with Nazir Stackhouse and Jonah Laulu behind them. Franklin-Myers has 1.5 sacks this season.
Borgonzi showed last April he’ll move around the board when he wants a player, trading up with Buffalo to land Faulk at No. 31. Tennessee’s rookie class has given him a real case for patience, and nine picks give him the room to fix more than one of these spots in a single draft.
More on the Tennessee Titans
- Titans Are Trade Deadline Winners After Selling Jeffery Simmons, Amani Hooker for Top Picks
- Titans Send Amani Hooker to AFC Contender and Land the Second-Round Pick They Demanded
- Titans Make Decision on Amani Hooker as Contenders Call Before Trade Deadline
- Tennessee Titans Could Turn No. 1 Pick Into a Franchise-Changing Haul
