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Under-the-Radar offensive tackles for the Titans in the 2021 NFL Draft

NCAA Football: Northern Iowa at Iowa Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

We’re continuing our week-long draft coverage with another installment in our “Under-the-Radar” series. I looked at some under-the-radar receivers and cornerbacks the Titans could look to target on Day 3 last week. We looked at EDGE rushers yesterday. Today, we’re looking at some offensive tackles.

The Titans pulled a mini-surprise earlier this offseason when they released starting right tackle Dennis Kelly. Kelly played good football in 2020. For whatever reason, general manager Jon Robinson decided that it was time to move on. The team seemingly replaced him by signing former Texans and Browns offensive tackle Kendall Lamm in free agency. Lamm doesn’t have a ton of starting experience under his belt, but has had some nice flashes when given an opportunity. The Titans also re-signed Ty Sambrailo, a swing tackle who started a bunch of games at left tackle last season after Taylor Lewan went down with a season-ending injury.

As things stand, I expect Lamm and Sambrailo to find themselves in a true competition for the right to start. I’d give the slight edge to Lamm, but he’s certainly not a shoe-in for the job.

I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the Titans draft an offensive tackle at 22nd overall. The team likes Oklahoma State’s Teven Jenkins quite a bit. I recently reported that they’ve met with Jenkins “several times” over Zoom throughout the predraft process.

If the Titans bypass Jenkins and other offensive tackles in the first round, they could wait until Round 4 or later to address the position. This class is incredibly deep at the offensive tackle position. With that said, let’s take a look at a couple of players that would make sense for the Titans to target on Day 3.

Spencer Brown, OT, Northern Iowa

Brown is my favorite mid-round tackle in this draft. I’m a big fan of what he brings to the table. Brown went down to the Senior Bowl back in January and had a great week. It was important for him to do that since his 2020 season was canceled. He also proved that he could play against better competition in Mobile. He did enough to quiet the small school concerns.

Brown is a massive blocker that comes in at 6-foot-8 and 311 pounds. He’s an elite athlete for the position. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.94 seconds. His 20-yard split was a 2.83 and 10-yard split was a 1.69. His broad jump was greater than 9-feet and his vertical jump was 31.5-inches. Brown ran the short shuttle in 4.4 seconds, and the 3-cone in 6.96 seconds. Literally every single one of these results is elite for his position. He scored a perfect 10/10 according to the always resourceful RAS.

As a player, it’s easy to see that Brown possesses rare size and length on tape. In addition to being an excellent athlete, he’s mean, tough and nasty. He’s smooth, fluent and rarely has any missteps in pass protection.

Another reason I really like the Brown-to-Titans match is because he played right tackle at Northern Iowa. I’m partially speculating, but I don’t think the Titans love the idea of offensive tackles having to flip sides in the pro’s. The last two times they drafted a tackle, it was Jack Conklin and Isaiah Wilson, who both played right tackle in college. They drafted both players to play right tackle. They passed on several opportunities to draft Laremy Tunsil, who was a left tackle.

Brown is a perfect fit and ideal athlete for the Titans’ demanding offensive scheme.

Walker Little, OT, Stanford

It feels a little strange to put Little on this list. He was once seen as a future first round pick, but a knee injury in 2019 followed up by opting out of 2020 has muddied these waters a bit. Even if he were to start during Week 1, it would mark the first time he’s played a game in two years.

This makes it tough to forecast where he may get drafted. The Draft Network’s Joe Marino recently placed Little at 200 on his final Big Board. I personally have Little considerably higher than that, but I think his projection is confusing enough to include him on this list.

Turn the tape on from 2018 and it’s easy to see why Little was once so highly regarded. He’s a massive blocker that was born to protect the edge. Little is a terrific athlete that has the potential to turn into a high-level starter if he can stay healthy.

Larnel Coleman, OT, Massachusetts

Small school alert. Coleman is an explosive player with a tremendous amount of upside. The first thing that will draw teams to Coleman is his terrific length. Coleman actually has the longest arms of any offensive tackle in this draft class. His greater-than-36-inch-arms has teams salivating over the possibilities.

Fans don’t always realize how much teams value length at the offensive tackle position. Coleman’s length is rare. He’s also incredibly strong. His tape is littered with examples of him being able to match power with power. He often shuts down any pass rush plan that emphasizes strength.

Coleman played basketball growing up. He also played tight end and defensive end in high school. His experiences playing different positions and sports helped turn him into a quicker and more flexible offensive tackle. The versatility is also nice here. Coleman has starting experience as both a left and right tackle.

Coleman has to clean up some of the technical aspects of his game, but my concerns don’t dip into any area that shouldn’t be fixable with NFL coaching. I also love the scheme fit here because Coleman predominantly played in an outside zone offense at Massachusetts, which is the same scheme the Titans run on offense.

Coleman is the type of player you take a chance on in the later rounds.

Jaylon Moore, OT, Western Michigan

Moore is one of my favorite Day 3 players, regardless of position. I think he’s going to give a team great value in the later rounds. Moore had a really nice week of practice in Mobile at this year’s Senior Bowl. As a prospect coming out of the MAC, that was big for him. I’m also a fan of the amount of experience Moore has under his belt. He started 32 career games at Western Michigan.

Under the Coleman heading, I wrote about the scheme fit. It’s the same reason I have Moore on this list. They ran a ton of outside zone at Western Michigan. Moore has already thrived in a system that is preferred by the Titans offense. He fires off the ball in the run game and consistently attempts to climb to the second level.

Moore is an ideal scheme fit on Day 3.