Cardinals reportedly open to trading 3rd pick; Could Titans move up?

Mar 30, 2023 - 11:00 PM

The Arizona Cardinals hold the third overall pick in the upcoming NFL Draft, and reports are that the Cardinals are open to dealing the pick.

And recently, NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah said on his “Move the Sticks” podcast with Bucky Brooks that he is hearing around the league that the Titans are a team to watch in a potential trade for the 3rd pick.

“Can I give you the team that I’ve been told to keep an eye on that’s exploring this and looking into this? Again, this is just people around the league who said do not sleep on numero 11, the Tennessee Titans,” he said. “The two teams to keep an eye on with the trade ups were the Raiders and the Titans.”

The Raiders currently hold the 7th pick and could be interested in moving up to get a quarterback despite signing Jimmy Garoppolo this offseason, so it certainly makes sense they would be a possible trade-up candidate.

The Titans are intrigued by CJ Stroud, and I think the only scenario in which the Titans trade up is in order to get Stroud if he falls to #3. That scenario isn’t the most likely, but isn’t outlandish either.

The Panthers are reportedly choosing between Stroud and Bryce Young, so if they choose Young and then the Texans choose Anthony Richardson or Will Levis, Stroud could be available at 3.

Titans GM Ran Carthon is no stranger to making a significant move in the NFL Draft to land a top QB prospect. In fact, the last time the #3 pick was traded was when the San Francisco 49ers, where Carthon was working in the front office, moved up from the #12 spot to #3 in order to take Trey Lance.

New Cardinals GM Monty Ossenfort came from the Titans, so there could be a connection there as well.

When the 49ers traded with the Dolphins in 2021, the price was the No. 12 overall pick, a third-round pick in 2022, a first-round pick in 2022 and a first-round pick in 2023.

That trade was also interesting because it was done before the draft with no guarantees on which quarterback would be available at 3 amongst the group of Lance, Zach Wilson, and Justin Fields.

The Titans could be looking at a similar package to trade up in this year’s draft.

I wouldn’t expect the Titans to make a pre-draft move (if at all) simply because there’s a decent chance Stroud goes into the top two picks, but if Stroud is available at 3, I imagine the phones in the Cardinals front office will be lighting up, and the Titans could be amongst them.

What do you think? Do you want to see the Titans trade up to #3?