Titans Believe Jeremiyah Love is Best Player in Draft

For a while leading up to this year’s NFL Combine, it appeared that the Tennessee Titans had a relatively plain grasp on who they’d target with their fourth overall pick.

Between head coach Robert Saleh himself musing on a defensive prospects to analysts widely recognizing the team’s numerous defensive needs, that appeared to be the obvious direction laid out for the team regarding their most valuable draft stock.

Although now, on the tail-end of the event, a new report sings a different tune. According to Matthew Berry, the Titans believe Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love is the best overall player available in this year’s pool.

The Best Player Available

"The Tennessee Titans think Jeremiyah Love is the best player in the NFL Draft," Berry said, outlining what would be, at least according to the aforementioned information, an outlandish pick for a Tennessee team with much more pressing needs than the unit in the backfield.

Even so, the "superstar", franchise-defining aspect of a pick like this one - Love's near-20 touchdown effort this past season speaks for him there - could be argued to be of equal importance with filling basic needs.

Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love (RB11) | Jacob Musselman-Imagn Images

If the Titans truly believe Love is the most talented player in the draft, and he's available at No. 4 overall, why not take him?

Drafting talent-first doesn't always work, but the idea of pairing Love with Ward is a dream-like offensive scenario that imagines a system headed by two of the most promising young playmakers in the league.

A Dream-Like Offense

Ward still remains in need of an impactful, "WR1" level pass-catcher. Not only was his protection in his rookie campaign mostly lackluster (the QB took 55 sacks), but with Calvin Ridley and Tyler Lockett essentially being out of commission for different reasons, Ward was forced to rely almost entirely on fellow first-year players to get the job done.

All the same, Love - an undisputed first-round pick and certified offensive heavyweight - may be able to take pressure off of Ward to make player in a way that current lead back Tony Pollard cannot.

His young, explosive ability would help spearhead the franchise into their updated era under HC Saleh, too. If the Titans spend some of their offseason money on a receiver to fill that aforementioned gap, pairing that experience with the development of both Ward and Love, the Titans could be a highlight-inducing team to watch in the AFC South for years to come.

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