On the verge of becoming a perennial postseason contender, the Tennessee Titans aren't letting up in 2018.
"We'll certainly have a lot more time to just kind of sit back and watch, but we'll be aggressive as well," Robinson said, per Jason Wolf of The Tennessean. "If there is a player that we really, really, maybe we thought he was going to go in the top 10 and for whatever reason he's slipping down the board, we'll try and position ourselves to maybe acquire the guy. Or if we get action on our pick at 25, and a team wants to come up to our pick so that we trade back, I think I have proven that I am willing to trade.
"My phone line is always open."
Whether this thirsty version of Robinson is just saying this as a smoke screen to appease his company's investors or whether he is truly calling on all comers is a mystery. Should he mean it, Robinson will look to convert his so-so draft capital into something roster-changing. The Titans have one selection in every round of the draft, including the aforementioned 25th selection.
Tennessee is no stranger to wheeling and dealing before the draft. The Titans traded out of the first pick in the 2016 draft, letting Los Angeles draft Jared Goff and in return reaping a haul of picks that turned into Derrick Henry, Jack Conklin and Jonnu Smith, among others. The Tennessean reports that Robinson has made 10 draft deals in just two years as Titans GM.
With top-10 salary-cap space (roughly $51 million) and few starters hitting free agency (Avery Williamson, Quinton Spain, Josh Kline, DaQuan Jones), Tennessee is in a good place to spend and take risks. Prime among the Titans' needs this offseason is acquiring premier edge rusher talent and interior O-line help; top-10 free agents Ezekiel Ansah and Andrew Norwell will be there for the taking, if they're not tagged. But Robinson insists that he'd prefer to keep a cushion and not drain the Titans' cap dry on one player.
"You've got to be judicious with how you're going to allocate the funds because you never know if a player may become available via trade," Robinson explained. "And you might send a pick to a team for a player that you really didn't know would become available and you have to inherit that salary. There's players that you're going to want to re-sign along the way.
"So you can't just push all your chips in there on the table; you've got to be selective and try and make the right decisions for the football team."
