As our team at PFSN noted earlier, the first surprise of the 2026 NFL Draft occurred when the Tennessee Titans selected Ohio State receiver Carnell Tate with the fourth overall pick.
Despite early mock drafts slotting Tate in at four, much of the attention had shifted to Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love or even a teammate of Tate’s in Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles. It was eventually Tate as the first Buckeye off the ball, much to one analyst’s dismay.
Skip Bayless Slams Titans for Drafting Carnell Tate
Skip Bayless was not a fan of the Titans’ decision to draft Tate with the fourth overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. “Way too high for Carnell Tate. Nothing special about him – by far Ohio State’s second-best receiver. AND HE JUST WENT FIFTH OVERALL??? Wrong,” he wrote on X.
Bayless didn’t offer any additional insight into his stance on Tennessee’s choice for the talented wideout. It’s an interesting stance to take as a whole, given where the Titans’ receiver room sits. It further reinforces why Love was receiving mock pairings with Tennessee, regardless of any positional value discussions: they need to infuse some juice into this offense.
Cam Ward took his lumps in what was a reasonably normal rookie season for an NFL quarterback, minus the unevenness from those catching his passes. Tennessee spent fourth-round selections on Stanford’s Elic Ayomanor and Florida’s Chimere Dike last year before signing free agent Wan’Dale Robinson back in March. Tate also joins Calvin Ridley as the only other Titans receiver who entered the league as a first-round pick.
The duo of Ayomanor and Dike was helpful if not unspectacular. Both ranked in the top-100 amongst NFL receivers last season according to PFSN’s WR Impact Metric, with the former ranking 99th among wideouts with an impact score of 64.9 and the latter ranking 80th behind a slightly better impact score of 70.5.
Tate received a 90.62 draft grade from our analysts, the top mark amongst all receivers in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Our analysts also described him as “primarily a vertical threat for Ohio State, who lacked polish. He flipped the script 180 degrees in 2025, reinventing his game and becoming a true route running expert with rare sink, throttle control, and stem IQ for his size.”
“Tate still has the long-strider range, body control, and logic-defying catch-point focus that makes him so potent in 50-50 situations (he boasts a jaw-dropping 28.2% catch rate over expectation, per TruMedia), but at the same time, he’s a deadly multi-level separator who can win 1-on-1, convert on clutch downs, and generate big plays,” PFSN’s scouting report on Tate noted.
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