There is still a long way to go before teams take any type of meaningful snaps in the 2025 season, giving analysts plenty of time to dissect rosters and speculate on what will happen during the upcoming season. 

Currently, breaking down the 2025 NFL draft and how it will impact a team’s fortunes is all the rage. By all accounts, the Tennessee Titans had a solid nine-man draft class, and could potentially receive contributions from all of them in the future. 

Count Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated as one who likes what the Titans have done and is optimistic about the direction they are headed moving forward. 

Tennessee Titans

I’m optimistic about where the Tennessee Titans are headed, and what they’re going to put around Cam Ward in the fall. And that’s in part because I think being so ahead on the quarterback assessments bought them time, in the end, to focus on everything else they wanted to accomplish in their first draft with GM Mike Borgonzi and a reshaped front office in place. I think two picks from last weekend in particular can illustrate that.

Those two picks were Kevin Winston Jr. and Gunnar Helm. Both players were limited to some extent during the pre-draft process due to medical issues, but their tape shows production and abilities that could transcend their current measurables. 

The first was Penn State safety Kevin Winston Jr. His final season as a Nittany Lion ended in September, with a partial tear to his ACL leading to surgery. It caused teams to back off him a bit—which is understandable. But the Titans had him at the top of the second round, grade-wise, as a guy with the size and strength to play close to the line, and speed and range to play deep. They could feel his impact on tape.

Raw speed was a question. He wasn’t ready to run at the combine. But weeks later, at his pro day, just six months out from surgery, he clocked a 4.5 in the 40-yard dash for the scouts on hand. Which showed his rehab was going well, his determination to show the NFL people what he had and also the potential he was actually a little faster than that.

The Titans got him with the 82nd pick. 

The ironic thing with Winston is that it was widely accepted by most analysts that the injury was the only reason he was available during this draft and he was almost universally viewed as one of the top safety prospects minus the ACL. Yes, selecting a player coming off an injury is a risk, but for Borgonzi and the rebuilding Titans, it was just good value for a potential impact player. 

Then, there was Texas TE Gunnar Helm. A hyper-productive weapon in a star-studded group of skill players, the 4.84 Helm ran in Indy cratered his stock. But digging deeper, you’d see that on his first try, he had a false start and, as he pivoted back to the line, he badly sprained his ankle. He gutted it out and ran his two 40s, albeit much slower than he’d have liked, and afterward his ankle was black and blue all over. At pro day, because of the ankle, he didn’t attempt another 40, but fought through drills.

The Titans snapped him up with the 120th pick.

While Helm was not near the top two tight ends on draft boards, his production in the SEC with Texas should have had him off the board earlier in the draft. He may not be an uber athlete, but he is a nuanced route runner and is well-rounded enough to come into the league and make an impact.

With the team restocking their weapons and building around Cam Ward, Helm is the type of security blanket that can grow with the quarterback and develop together.Â