The Tennessee Titans have agreed to trade their first round pick in 2020, right tackle Isaiah Wilson, along with a seventh-rounder in 2022 to the Miami Dolphins for a seventh rounder in the 2021 NFL draft, sources told ESPN on Monday.
The deal is contingent on Wilson passing a physical once the new season starts on March 17th, and if he does not, the trade cannot be officially completed and Wilson would be returned to the Titans roster.
Tennessee had taken Wilson out of the University of Georgia with the 29th overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft and subsequently signed the Brooklyn native to a four-year, $11.6 million contract in August. It was all downhill for Wilson and the Titans after that, however.
First, he was found to be attending an off-campus Tennessee State party during Titans training camp (not to mention the COVID-19 implications), and he followed that up with a DUI charge after he lost control of his car and crashed into a concrete wall in September.
He found himself on the reserve/COVID-19 during training camp and again in October, which helped limit the 22-year-old to just four snaps for the Titans all season before they eventually decided to put him on the non-football injury list in December.
Titans general manager Jon Robinson didn’t offer a confident assessment of Wilson’s status with the team during a virtual press conference last month in which he said that he hadn’t spoken to Wilson since putting him on the NFI list and that the youngster needed to make a “determination on whether he wants to do what it takes to play pro football.”
The move doesn’t move the needle much for the Titans, who still had a dominant ground attack (second most rush yards in the league) and a well-protected quarterback (seventh-fewest sacks allowed) last season without their first round pick.
Currently, Tennessee surprisingly sits in second behind the Indianapolis Colts (+100) on the odds table for the AFC South, with +110 NFL odds (888sport). Their odds to win the Super Bowl are sky-high as expected, but even their +1,300 odds to win the AFC leave them tied for just eighth on the odds table, right behind the Dolphins (+1,200), who may have just gotten a steal in this Wilson deal.
Miami had been high on the former Bulldog coming out of college and had been likely to use a pick on him had he fallen to them in the second round, a source told ESPN. Instead of burning a second-rounder on him last year, the Fins now have an essentially free chance at helping the talented lineman (who, let’s not forget, had a first or second round grade) get back on track and become a solid NFL contributor.
The fact that head coach Brian Flores attended the same high school as Wilson (Poly Prep Country Day in Brooklyn) and fellow lineman Solomon Kindley was a Georgia teammate of his in college will hopefully help the young gun stay in the right lane, get his career back on track, and help a very intriguing Dolphins team to make a run into the playoffs for just the third time since 2002.
