NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The draft is too late.

We’re almost there, but the wait is unreasonable.

The NFL reportedly dreams of its marquee spring event reaching the television heights of a presidential election, which tells us plenty about the degree of its self-importance.

Shoot for the stars as an even bigger TV event, I don’t care. But the best TV events come after the proper amount of buildup, and the current setup is too much.

The league has chosen a two-month window of speculation and prediction during which nothing actually happens, barring a trade or two.

It’s genius, really, but it could be better.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – If the Titans sit tight with six picks, they will have sponsored trips to Nashville for as many as 24 guys they don’t draft.

There is obvious intrigue when we learn of one of those official 30 visits, particularly because under Jon Robinson, the Titans have leaned heavily to drafting prospects who have been on that list.

Mike B. Herndon of Music City Miracles does a thorough breakdown of how visits and picks aligned in recent years.

Jon Robinson talks the same way about the pre-draft visits as his predecessors did, but it’s less believable.

[Unlocked.]

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The timing is a bit awkward, but Mike Vrabel and the Titans will take a bonus three days of work.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday he and his staff will be on the field for a minicamp that comes for a team with a new coach. Technically it’s their "voluntary veteran minicamp." It's an extra teams get when a new head coach takes over.

Vrabel said Monday afternoon he and his staff would sketch out the depth chart to order things later in the day.

Media will get a small snapshot of it Wednesday.

Basically, the staff will get to show their vets how practices are going to work.

Here’s Vrabel talking through what he’s hoping for. [Unlocked.]

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The first-round is Thursday and my thinking on the Titans at No. 25 has not changed.

While a talent could drop to them and prompt them to take an offensive lineman (James Daniels is the one for me), a safety or a receiver, linebacker is the position at which they most need new blood.

An edge guy who can be a piece of the pass rush right away and fully replace Brian Orakpo or Derrick Morgan in a year would be big. There is also plenty of room for an inside guy who could be on the field all the time.

I’m presuming Harold Landry will be gone. But these guys have a chance at being on the board when the Titans draft, and I stack them in the order that I like them based on what I know.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Thanks for stopping by the mailbag less than a week before the draft.

It’s a big week ahead, and we will learn a great deal about the organization and have all sorts of new angles soon.

In the meantime, the best questions of the week.

Do draft day falls result from GMs caught off guard or is it more media being behind scouts/gms info? #PKmail

— Chris Garete (@cjg6710) April 21, 2018

PK: Draft day falls come mostly from us believing too much about what is pieced together before the draft, and the circumstances of a draft that may change the course of a couple teams.

We can’t help ourselves, but the whole process from a media and fan perspective is weird and doesn’t, frankly, make a lot of sense.

Without knowing the degree of influence of the people who actually grade and draft players, we create a consensus scenario of what should happen. And then we measure teams and prospects against that scenario, which may not have had much basis to it in the first place.

So maybe we regard a guy too highly when he doesn’t get drafted as early as we expect. Or maybe two teams right in the range of where we expected him to go

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Josh Sweat could be this year’s Adoree’ Jackson.

No, Sweat isn’t a pesky cover corner. He’s likely a 3-4 outside linebacker and edge pass rusher.

The similarity could be that the Titans see Sweat as a bit more valuable than the draft analyst consortium does. Jon Robinson didn’t hesitate to grab Jackson 18th overall last year, pulling a bit of a surprise that addressed one of the Titans’ big needs.

Perhaps Robinson won’t hesitate to grab Sweat 25^th overall a week from tonight, pulling a bit of a surprise that addresses one of the Titans’ biggest needs.

(Photo courtesy FSU Sports Information/Mitch White.)

At 6-foot-4, 261 pounds with 4.53 speed he’s got the requisite size and speed. The model for a pass rusher in a Titans system probably looks a lot like Sweat, though it would come with better instincts, more polish and without the left knee that endured a dislocation and a torn ACL back in his senior year in high school.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Titans 2018 regular season schedule seems to be reasonably balanced and fair.

Tennessee didn’t break through to an appearance on Sunday Night Football, but will play twice on the road on Monday Night Football (Nov. 5 at Dallas and Nov. 16 at Houston) and once at home on Thursday Night Football (against Jacksonville on Dec. 6).

That game at the Cowboys extends the Titans’ bye as their first game after their Oct. 21 matchup in London against the Chargers.

It’s impossible to effectively judge what will turn out to be good and what will turn out to be bad.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The biggest logistical decision the Titans made last season was to stay in Arizona for a week between road games against the Cardinals and 49ers.

On the front end, it seemed to make sense. But it backfired.

The Titans blew the Arizona game 12-7 and then sat and stewed it in for a week at a hotel, commuting to practices at Arizona State and then producing another dud in Santa Clara, Calif., 25-23.

They were 8-4 when they went West and they were 8-6 when they returned, en route to 8-7 with a home loss to the Rams.

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