The Tennessee Titans clearly needed a corner entering Thursday night's opening round of the draft, and they found great value by staying put.
Tennessee selected Virginia Tech cornerback Caleb Farley with the 22nd overall pick of the 2021 NFL Draft.
"Our trainers did a lot of work on Caleb Farley. We're comfortable with where he is. We're super excited to have him," Titans GM Jon Robinson said, per team reporter Jim Wyatt.
Once seen as the top corner in the draft, Farley fell in the months prior due primarily to health concerns. Farley underwent a microdiscectomy to address a back issue earlier in the pre-draft process, and though he'll be on track to be back in time for training camp, the procedure appeared to scare some teams off.
No matter to the Titans, who needed to replace both former first-round pick Adoree' Jackson and Malcolm Butler after parting with both of them in the offseason. They found a quality candidate in Farley, a long corner who uses his length to win inside and displays an innate sense for ball location.
The 6-foot-2 corner is the ideal style of corner to match-up against bigger receivers and run with them downfield, but he does lack overall experience, having only played two seasons at corner in college after arriving as an all-state quarterback. Farley also opted out of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, robbing him of another season's worth of reps at the position ahead of entry into the NFL.
He'll get plenty in Tennessee, where he'll immediately start as the Titans look to improve their changed position group.
