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Trader Jon? Titans GM Jon Robinson Talks NFL Draft

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. –** The Titans picked 10 players in Jon Robinson's first NFL Draft as the team's general manager.

A year later, the team selected nine players in the draft.

Heading into this year's draft, the Titans are scheduled to make just six picks, beginning with the 25th overall pick.

And that doesn't sound like nearly enough for Robinson.

During a pre-draft press conference on Monday at Saint Thomas Sports Park, Robinson made it clear he'd like to accumulate additional picks. He'll need to orchestrate a trade to make it happen, of course.

"I love my draft picks," said Robinson, shaking his head. "We'll see how it goes. There may be a situation that comes up Thursday night, and we bail on 25. It is the value of the player that is staring at you on the board versus the value of the picks that you can get.

"Can you get that player that you are considering at 25 four picks later or are you going to miss out on him? Or would you rather have another, I don't know, second or third round pick? That is stuff we'll have to evaluate. I am working through some of that now, just preliminarily, what that would take for us to dance around the board there late."

Robinson, hired as the team's GM in 2016, anticipates fielding calls from other NFL teams when the Titans are on the clock at 25, but he said the team could initiate some calls prior to that in the draft.

In addition to the 25th overall pick, the Titans also have picks 57 (second round), 89 (third round), 125 (fourth round), 162 (fifth round) and 199 (sixth round). The Titans don't currently have a seventh round pick.

"If there's a player on the board that we really like and we don't think he will make it to us, and we only have six picks, we don't want to give up too much draft currency if we don't have to," Robinson said of the first round possibilities. "But that team, maybe their player is gone that they were going to take and maybe they are willing to mortgage it for next to nothing, so…"

At the start of Monday's press conference, Robinson thanked Ryan Cowden, the team's director of player personnel, and Jon Salge, director of college scouting for the Titans, for their work leading up to the NFL Draft. He recognized the work of the team's college and pro scouts, and the coaching staff.

It's a process that started when last year's draft ended.

In recent months, Robinson and Titans coach Mike Vrabel made the rounds at pro days, and the team has hosted pre-draft visitors at Saint Thomas Sports Park.

"This is a shared vision that we want for this football team, one that I think we are aligned from a vision standpoint in the type of players we want to add," Robinson said.

"I think we've done a good job the last couple of years and hopefully we can do it again this week in finding value in all areas of the draft. … Really, there's value at every position in all parts of the draft that we can come away a more competitive football team at the end of the weekend than when we started."

Robinson kidded he needs to make sure there's plenty of food in the cafeteria on draft day. It could be a lot of waiting compared to previous years.

In 2016, the Titans picked tackle Jack Conklin eighth overall, and last year the team made two picks in the first round – receiver Corey Davis (fifth overall) and cornerback Adoree' Jackson (18th overall).

It sounds like the NFL Draft can't get here fast enough.

"At the end of the day we want to come away with good football players, guys who are going to buy into what we are all about," Robinson said. "The depth of our roster, I really like the depth of where our roster is right now. And we can add players at a lot of different positions.

"We are just trying to improve the football team."

TitansOnline.com looks back at some of the team's #1 draft picks over the years. (AP Photos)

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