Assembling A Winning Team In Tennessee: Drafting A Guard.

Let's be honest, drafting a guard in the first round is no fun. It's not going to be popular, it won't sell tickets, it won't generate revenue sales, it won't draw praise from the draft day commentary for our "outside the box thinking", but I'll be damned if it doesn't plug up a gaping hole real quick.

If nothing else, hopefully it ends the "crappy running back v.s. crappy O-line" arguments.

Does anyone actually see David DeCastro dropping all the way to 20? Because that's literally the only way that picking a guard in the first round may seem even slightly defensible to me. Drafting for a need is all fine and good, but look, this is offensive guard we're talking about. I don't want to trivialize their importance, but the odds of finding a successful starting guard in rounds 2-4 or even 5 seem to be astronomically higher than finding, say, a successful starting cornerback or pass rusher.

Yes, there will always be exceptions to the rule, so please don't go posting a list of all the good players drafted past round one, I get it, there are some of those out there, it's just that the hit rate is much higher when we're talking interior linemen that it seems logical to take a player at a different position in the first round and at least wait until the second to take a guard.

However, if by some chance DeCastro does end up falling to the Titans, they would be wise to at least consider him. He really is a fantastic talent and makes the team a whole lot better from day one which is ultimately the point of the draft. Dynasties are built on the acquisition, development, and retention of stars. DeCastro is a star in the making, so naturally he fits the bill based on that simple set of criterion. That alone should at least warrant consideration. He's a great prospect and may end up being the best player available when our pick rolls around, so he also kind of hits in the BPA camp.

Right now, there's one guy that's made me think that DeCastro could really be a great pick. Steve Hutchinson and his absolutely domination of the position over the last decade plus is truly inspiring. Earlier in his career, he got by on sheer physical domination, much like DeCastro. Thing is, he's also an extremely intelligent player (like DeCastro), so when his physical ability began to decline he was able to assume the role of the wily veteran and simply apply some of those smarts to add to his game. He won't be the same player that he was back in the mid-00's, but I can see a very similar career path for the big man from Stanford if he plays his cards right.

Finally, perhaps the best reason to draft DeCastro is to get the running game going. We should all recognize at this point that an elite running game isn't necessary to win big, but it sure wouldn't hurt if we could somehow get CJ back into his 5 YPC territory. DeCastro goes a long way towards making that happen.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of this idea. I mean, should Ingram, Jeffery, and a whole mess of other prospects at positions more difficult to draft for are gone, then DeCastro is my man, but I think that maybe we'd be just as well waiting until the second round to grab the second or third rated guard in the draft. That being said, I really doubt I'll be having too many regrets when this guy is smashing holes into the porous defensive lines of Indy and co.