Titans clinch No. 1 overall pick in 2025 NFL Draft with loss to Texans, Patriots’ win over Bills

The Tennessee Titans clinched the first overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft with Sunday’s home loss to the Houston Texans.

The Patriots entered Week 18 with the best chance to earn the top pick prior to their victory. However, New England’s win over Buffalo and Tennessee’s strength-of-schedule tiebreakers over the Browns and Giants moved the 3-14 Titans into the top slot.

The Titans played both quarterbacks, Will Levis and Mason Rudolph, in Sunday’s loss and neither has yet proven capable of effectively leading Brian Callahan’s offense.

It would not be surprising to see the Titans put a major emphasis on improving the talent at the position in the offseason. Callahan was part of a Bengals staff that found itself in a similar position in 2020, when Cincinnati selected LSU’s Joe Burrow first overall.

Tennessee would love to find that caliber of savior this offseason. The franchise also is expected to have ample salary-cap space this offseason, currently projected to be upward of $60 million by Over The Cap.

The last time the Titans held the first pick was back in 2016. They ended up trading it to the Rams — who selected Jared Goff — in a major swap of draft selections, one of which ended up being spent on Derrick Henry.

The Titans have not picked first overall since the franchise moved to Tennessee, although their predecessors, the Houston Oilers, selected DE John Matuszak (1973) and RB Earl Campbell (1978) in the top overall slot. The highest the Titans have picked was second overall in the 2015 NFL Draft, when they selected QB Marcus Mariota.