{"id":879114,"date":"2026-05-01T00:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T00:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/879114\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T00:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T00:15:17","slug":"afc-notes-keylan-rutledge-carnell-tate-jaguars-draft-texans-titans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/879114\/","title":{"rendered":"AFC Notes: Keylan Rutledge, Carnell Tate, Jaguars Draft, Texans, Titans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Regarding the Jaguars taking TE Nate Boerkircher<\/a> at No. 56 overall,\u00a0Jeremy Fowler of ESPN<\/a> reports that the tight end entered the draft realistically expecting to go in the third or fourth rounds.
\nAccording to Fowler, Boerkircher believed the Broncos were high on him and considered him to be an option early in the fourth round, and he had \u201cno idea\u201d that he was on Jacksonville\u2019s radar.\u00a0\u00a0
\nOne veteran NFL agent characterized the Jaguars\u2019 selection of Boerkircher as them going against perception and doing things their own way: \u201cFor better or worse, Jacksonville is going to do this their way \u2014 they are going to pick the players they want, perception be damned.\u201d<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Fowler<\/a> writes Texans\u2019 No. 26 overall pick, G Keylan Rutledge<\/a>, was considered a sleeper first-round talent and Houston identified him as their favorite during the pre-draft process.\u00a0
\nFowler writes that assistant GM James Liipfert was also a former Georgia Tech player and has \u201cdeep ties\u201d to the school, while OL coach Cole Popovich had a private workout with Rutledge days before the draft.\u00a0
\nOne NFC executive told Fowler that Houston had Rutledge as the top guard on their draft board, ahead of Penn State\u2019s Olaivavega Ioane, who went No. 14 to the Ravens.\u00a0
\nAs for trading to No. 36 DT to select Kayden McDonald<\/a>, Fowler reports that GM Nick Caserio was prepared to move up to No. 33 overall and explored getting back into the end of the first round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regarding the Titans taking WR Carnell Tate<\/a> at No. 4 overall in the 2026 NFL Draft, Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated<\/a> writes that many teams around the league didn\u2019t expect new HC Robert Saleh to take the receiver.\u00a0
\nAccording to Breer, Tennessee\u2019s decision came down to Tate or LB Arvell Reese<\/a>, and the tipping point was the team clocking the receiver\u2019s 40-yard dash time in the mid-4.4s at their Pro Day instead of the 4.53 he logged at the NFL Combine.\u00a0
\nBreer also mentions the Titans were impressed by Tate as a route runner and think he can succeed in \u201call three levels\u201d of the field.\u00a0
\nBreer adds that Tate was the top player available on Tennessee\u2019s draft board at No. 4 and they were always aware that the receiver would be their selection if he fell to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors<\/a> on X.com<\/a>\u00a0and FACEBOOK<\/a>\u00a0for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Regarding the Jaguars taking TE Nate Boerkircher at No. 56 overall,\u00a0Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that the tight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2060],"tags":[2222,2240,28133,7,212,125,2401,213,101677,2201,51905,89911,6,901,53910,6043],"class_list":["post-879114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-arvell-reese","tag-carnell-tate","tag-cole-popovich","tag-football","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-jacksonvillejaguars","tag-jaguars","tag-james-liipfert","tag-kayden-mcdonald","tag-keylan-rutledge","tag-nate-boerkircher","tag-nfl","tag-nick-caserio","tag-olaivavega-ioane","tag-robert-saleh"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116496441238299549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}