Plenty of Speedy Receivers Available, If Titans Want to Draft One

NASHVILLE – Only nine months after acquiring Julio Jones, Tennessee Titans general manager Jon Robinson didn’t make a solid commitment to keeping the veteran wide receiver on the roster for the 2022 season.

While praising Jones’ work ethic and passion for the game, Robinson also pointed out concerns regarding a 33-year-old player who missed seven Titans games due to injury in Tennessee last season – and seven in Atlanta during the 2020 season.

“When he was out there, he certainly helped our football team,” Robinson said at the NFL scouting combine earlier this week. “But it was one of those things that just really kind of seemed like a nick every week that we had to work through.

“It’s a balance that you always work through (with players like Jones). Their careers start to get a little longer, and you see some things and wonder, `Was that an isolated instance, or is this going to be a repetitive thing?’ It’s something we’re talking about internally with our medical team, staff-wise, with our scouts about that.”

The Titans would save $9.5 million against the cap by making Jones a post-June 1 cut, while also getting saddled with $4.8 million of dead money.

Whether Jones returns or not – and especially if he doesn’t – the Titans still look like a team that could use a big boost in the downfield play-making department.

In 2021, the Titans (with Jones and A.J. Brown missing a combined 11 games) finished 31st in the NFL in completions of 20 yards or more (35), 21st in completions of 40 yards or more (seven) and tied for 16th with an average of 7.0 yards per pass attempt.

The good news for them and other teams that have an immediate need for speed is this year’s draft class is full of wide receivers with elite speed, as evidenced by the show they put on during workouts at the combine on Thursday night.

Eight of 32 wideouts who ran the 40-yard dash -- finished with times under 4.4 seconds. They were: Baylor’s Tyquan Thornton (4.28); Tennessee’s Velus Jones (4.31); Memphis’ Calvin Austin (4.32); SMU’s Danny Gray (4.33); Rutgers’ Bo Melton (4.34); North Dakota State’s Christian Watson (4.36); Ohio State’s Garrett Wilson (4.38); and Ohio State’s Chris Olave (4.39).

That’s the most wideouts to accomplish the feat at a single combine since 2003.

In addition, the 2022 wide receiver class as a whole averaged a time of 4.48, the fastest by any positional group at a single combine during that same span of time.

Speed alone, of course, does not make one a great NFL prospect.

Longtime Titans fans will recall receiver Tyrone Calico, who ran a smoking 4.34 40-yard dash at the 2003 combine on his way to being a second-round selection by Tennessee later that year. He made all of 42 catches for 501 yards during a 27-game NFL career that lasted three seasons.

Another flyer at the combine that year was Charles Rogers, who ran a 4.39 40-yard dash and was later selected second overall by the Lions. Rogers managed 36 catches for 440 catches in his 15-game career.

But the 2022 crop appears to have more than just straight-line speed.

NFL Next Gen Stats, for instance, gave the receiver prospects at the combine grades for overall athleticism, based on how they produced in the various drills – as well as their height and weight. It’s interesting to note that four of the five top grades for overall athleticism went to receivers than ran sub-4.4 40-yard dash times: Watson (athleticism grade of 99); Thornton (athleticism grade of 90); Velus Jones (athleticism grade of 88) and Melton (athleticism grade of 88).

Stacking this year’s receivers any way you want, it looks like a good crop:

• SI.com’s Kevin Hanson has 15 receivers among his top 100 prospects, tied with edge rushers for the most of any position group. Six of the receivers – Wilson, Olave, Arkansas’ Traylon Burks, USC’s Drake London, Alabama’s Jameson Williams and Penn State’s Jahan Dotson – are in his top 30.

• The Athletic’s Dane Brugler has 14 receivers in his top 100 players, and he includes the same six as Hanson in his top 30.

• Pro Football Focus has 16 receivers in its top 100 players, substituting Western Michigan’s Skyy Moore for Dotson in his top 30.

Those kinds of numbers should give the Titans plenty of options if they choose to go wide receiver with either their first-round pick (26th overall) or third-round pick (90th overall).

Robinson has often said that two basic qualities – an ability to get open and an ability to catch the football – are the two primary attributes he and his scouts look for in prospective receivers.

But a high-quality set of wheels would be a welcome addition as well, offering a deep threat that would likely open up more of the field for both Derrick Henry and A.J. Brown.