Here's who was picked in the first round by the Titans when Vrabel was HC. LB Rashaan Evans (mostly a miss), DT Jeffery Simmons (hit), T Isaiah Wilson (huge miss), CB Caleb Farley (miss), WR Treylon Burks (miss), OT Peter Skoonski (too soon to tell but switched from OT to G so mostly a miss). Cowden was in TEN for 2 years before Vrabel got there. Those picks were WR Corey Davis (miss) and RT Jack Conklin (pretty much a hit). The only first round pick LV made while McDaniels was HC was DE Tyree Wilson (still early but hasn't shown much yet).
Cowden was with the Titans 2016-2022. Largely given credit from JRob when JRob wasn't soaking it all in.
The key takeaways-
Henry when they appeared to steal Demarco Murray from the Eagles.
Lewan followed by Conklin- bookend tackles. Conklin was all pro as a rookie. Trade for Dennis Kelly a very good reserve T. Everyone was a LT. We did not discuss RT as a position so much as someone would have to play there. I think on this often as a tactic for drafting. It may be the wise way.
Davis then AJB
Had DT Casey but drafted Big Jeff. Both the anchors of the defense and up there as very good players in NFL.
Kevin Byard was Lebeau's insistence of a pick. Very good safety built nothing like Polamalu but played Polamalu's position well. Vrabel (Steelers background) switched him to classic half of field deep coverage but he'd occasionally be at the LOS and wouldn't cover the TE unless it was a top TE then he was the man for the job. He was a real chess piece for Vrabel.
Cowden is phenomenal at adding UDFAs. It was really vital to cover bad picks and he always added some. JRob would say Director of Personnel deserves credit on these and stuff like that.
Nose tackles almost every year.
Third down backs like Faulk on paper but they all stunk....still they kept going to the well like an obsession and that's a Pats roots thing. (Dion Lewis too)
There were a good number of WRs that I liked just fine in 3rd to UDFA. Some busts but Tajae Sharpe and Taywan Taylor and some that were like yeah you're a fine third or fourth WR. They went to this well a lot.
Lebeau had DBs train as CBs and S. I enjoyed this and found it fascinating. Vrabel would be intrigued, go away from it, bring it back...over n over til finally doing it again.
Vrabel's pet was Otis Reese a safety turned LB that still hasn't really had much chance to play but it stuck and they drafted another safety turned LB.
It seems smart. DBs get injured sooo often and I'm curious if Vrabel has them dual train in camp.
One of the things I noticed is he's looking at who can tackle. Everyone is talking coverage but Vrabel was partially moving them around because he wants to see if they're chumps on the outside or not. They're last ditch last hope tacklers some times and...I would guess you see this.
Some of the DBs took too long to develop but did. Molden and Theo just signed nice free agent deals for depth guys finally getting a chance with other teams
Another reason is timeouts and I know he did it to BB at least once. The QB thinks the DBs are in wrong positions and...there's a late timeout. A bit petty like the punt delay of game stuff but I like those little nuggets in games.
(I've mentioned all the LBs before)
Summary- I think you'll be pleased that you're going to get some decent fillin 4th to UDFA players, safety, RB,T, DL are big, and a good player is a good player it'll work itself out later
