NFL free agency is upon us and the Tennessee Titans need to add wide receivers to their roster over the course of the offseason.
The Titans have DeAndre Hopkins under contract for the 2024 season, but no long-term answer currently on the roster and not much depth in the short-term.
For these reasons, it would surprise nobody if the Titans added a wide receiver in free agency. But there's a good case to be made that Tennessee should wait to make their big splash until the 2024 NFL Draft.
ESPN's Bill Barnwell recently released a list of NFL free agents and put them in tiers by potential impact. The list is another really good example of why the draft is the best route to go for a team in the Titans' position.
Barnwell had no wide receivers in the "Tier 1: Franchise Players" group. He had no wide receivers in the "Tier 2: Pro Bowl-caliber starters" group. Any wide outs that would fall under these umbrellas usually doesn't make it to free agency. These are your Michael Pittman Jr., Tee Higgins types.
Tier 3 is labeled as "capable starters," but even this group had just Hollywood Brown and Calvin Ridley in it.
If the Titans needed another reason to prioritize wide receivers in the 2024 NFL Draft and, in my opinion, draft one with the 7th overall pick...take a look at the pool of free agents. The only way to get a star wide receiver for the long-term is to draft one. They don't make it to free agency.
We all know that wide receiver is a need for the Titans this offseason, but I'd much rather see Tennessee take Malik Nabers or Rome Odunze in the draft than overpay for Tyler Boyd or Darnell Mooney to be your big addition.
The way things are done in today's NFL, you build your defense through free agency and your offense through the draft. Skill positions in particular need to be homegrown if you want to have sustained success.
More must-reads: