NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Mass in the middle.
That’s the Titans' approach to the defensive line after selecting Texas’ mammoth defensive lineman T’Vondre Sweat 38th overall in the second round of the NFL draft Friday evening. He’s 6-foot-5, 366 pounds and while I’m getting conflicting reports on his body fat measurement at the scouting combine, both numbers I was told are giant.
“He’s going to present problems in the middle," Ran Carthon said. "Hard to move.”
"We think that T’Vondre can be a three-down player,” Brian Callahan said. “He’s got an ability to push the pocket, he’s got explosiveness, he can play the run as good as anybody in the class. The way the board unfolded the top two receivers left got picked and then there was a bunch of nose tackles that went ripping off the board as well. So you can see it’s a premium around the league.”
The Titans resisted numerous trade offers though nine trades were made from pick 33 to pick 46.
That means the Titans really liked two of the three receivers that went in the first five picks of the second round -- Keon Coleman, Ladd McConkey and Ja’Lynn Polk. The interior D-linemen Callahan referred to were Ruke Orhorhoro and Jer’Zhan Newton.
At the combine, Sweat spoke about managing his weight by staying active and not taking days off. Friday, he talked about his diet.
He likes the calamari at the Cajun restaurant Pappadeux’s, but he’s not eating there now.
Right now he weighs 366.
“I’m going to go down more,” he said. “I can play good at 366. My coach said this past season, ‘Yeah you played great but you could have played better at 355 or 350.’ …If I go to 355, 350 most likely I’ll be a Hall of Famer.”
The Titans want him in that range.
His new team has a realistic view of Sweat’s weight, and they believe they have a realistic motivator to help him keep it in check.
“He’s a big man that has big man issues and weight and body fat is part of that,” Callahan said. “And he has to work hard to make sure he maintains it. We will work with him to set the weight that he needs to be at and the expectation is that he will be at that weight. Informed him when we made our visit down there that it is also very expensive when you’re not at the weight that you’re supposed to be at.
“So he’s well aware of what that cost can be and it's significant if you’re significantly overweight. But I trust that he’s going to do what’s been asked of him. It's for the best of both his production and his playing and for us as a team. I think all those things have been conveyed very clearly to him and I don’t anticipate it being an issue.”
The Titans steered clear of a trade down though Carthon said the team received eight or nine calls before the second round started plus continued calls after things started. Six trades were made from pick 34 to pick 46, and no one dropped back further than 13 spots. One only dropped three.
Here are Carthon and Callahan on the trade possibilities.
The phone didn’t stop ringing but there was a level of talent the #Titans were not willing to dip out of. pic.twitter.com/KdunefHQJo
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) April 27, 2024
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