Top draft expert predicts Titans leapfrog Colts for ‘high ceiling’ QB

While Ryan Tannehill will likely be the starting quarterback for the Tennessee Titans in 2023, the team is reportedly exploring options to land a new franchise QB for 2024.

ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. believes Tennessee has its eye on one of the top four QB prospects in the 2023 draft, and he has the Titans trading up from No. 11 to No. 3 overall with the Arizona Cardinals to take Florida Gators quarterback Anthony Richardson in his latest mock draft.

“The 6-4 Richardson might have the highest ceiling of any prospect in this class,” Kiper Jr. said. “If he puts together all of his tools and isn't rushed into being the guy in Week 1, he could be a star. It's a big ‘if,’ though because he was extremely inconsistent as a passer in college and has a ways to go to clean up his mechanics. Now, the hope for Tennessee is that it can coach him up, unlock some of those traits and let him show his dual-threat ability. And it could sit him behind Tannehill in Year 1.”

Kiper Jr. likens the trade compensation the Titans would have to send the Cardinals to the price the San Francisco 49ers paid the Miami Dolphins in 2021 to jump from No. 12 to No. 3 and draft QB Trey Lance. That move cost the 49ers first- and third-round picks in 2022 and a first-round pick in 2023.

With Alabama’s Bryce Young and Ohio States C.J. Stroud the presumed top two picks, Richardson is the better fit for the Titans system than Kentucky’s Will Levis.