NFL personnel address if Titans can, will trade No. 1 pick of 2025 draft

Shortly after the Tennessee Titans hired Mike Borgonzi as their new general manager, he made it known he could trade the No. 1 overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft instead of using that asset to acquire either Miami quarterback Cam Ward or Colorado signal-caller Shedeur Sanders.

For an ESPN piece published on Friday, NFL executives, coaches and scouts suggested other teams may not meet Tennessee's asking price for the draft's first choice. 

"It takes two to tango," one AFC scout told ESPN's Turron Davenport. "Someone has to fall in love with one of these quarterbacks enough to give up a ransom to get to the top. I'd say it would take a pick swap no later than No. 7 overall and a [second-rounder] this year to go with a first-round and at least third-round pick next year."

Throughout the winter, numerous draft analysts and reporters have said they wouldn't rank either Ward or Sanders ahead of the six quarterbacks who became first-round draft picks last spring. A national scout told ESPN's Daniel Oyefusi that he felt "the top guys in this class wouldn't be in the top three from last year's crop." 

"Good debate on if they would be in the top five, actually," that scout added. 

Titans president of football operations Chad Brinker raised some eyebrows when he vowed in January the club would not "pass on a generational talent with the first pick in the NFL Draft." ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. seems to believe Colorado cornerback/wide receiver Travis Hunter could be such a talent, and ESPN's Field Yates predicted in his first post-Super Bowl mock draft that Tennessee will take Hunter at No. 1. 

With that said, a majority of individuals polled for Friday's article named Penn State pass-rusher Abdul Carter as "the best prospect in the class, regardless of position." 

"Carter is everything you want in a prospect — highest grade on the board with a very specific, defined path into your lineup. You know exactly what he is, how you'll project him," one NFC general manager told ESPN's Jeff Legwold. "But you can't deny [Hunter] is the most uniquely talented guy. I mean, [he] did things we haven't seen in a long time and might not see again. It's just a matter of where the coaching staff sees him, where a team sees him and how quickly everybody finds a rhythm with how it looks. ... You just know how gifted he is and just find a way to play him."

In short, a Titans team needing help on both sides of the ball would probably get a day-one starter if it stayed at pick No. 1 and grabbed either Carter or Hunter.