ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. hasn't deviated from his thoughts on what the Tennessee Titans are going to do in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft in any of his four mock drafts. But, in Wednesday's latest projection, he added an interesting wrinkle.

Kiper forecasts the Titans to pick Notre Dame tackle Joe Alt at No. 7 overall in Wednesday's mock draft, the fourth-straight time he's made that prediction. But this time around, Kiper also projected the second round, where he has the Titans using the No. 38 pick to snag Florida receiver Ricky Pearsall, a hyper-athletic pass catcher who profiles with a radically different body type than the Titans are used to featuring on the outside.

The Alt pick is one Kiper has stopped bothering to even explain. The Titans need a left tackle. Alt can step in and hold down that position from the day he arrives for rookie camp. Kiper has Alt as the first tackle off the board, the ideal position for the Titans to be able to grab him.

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In Pearsall, Kiper has the Titans doing something a little different. Pearsall ran a 4.41-second 40-yard dash at the combine, where he also vertical jumped 42 inches and broad jumped 10 feet, 9 inches. But he's a slighter-framed player at 6-foot-1 and 189 pounds who predominantly lined up in the slot in college, a bit of a deviation from the big-bodied targets the Titans have favored in recent years under previous coaching staffs.

"The Titans signed Calvin Ridley to a big contract last month, but 2022 first-rounder Treylon Burks has disappointed over two seasons and DeAndre Hopkins will be a free agent in 2025," Kiper said in his write-up. "There's room for a young wideout on this roster. Pearsall had 98 catches and nine touchdowns in his two seasons at Florida, and his 4.41-second 40 at the combine solidified himself as a top-50 pick."

The Titans have eight picks in the 2024 NFL Draft. They do not have a third-round pick because of last year's trade to move up in the draft and pick quarterback Will Levis, but they do have three seventh-round selections.

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Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Mel Kiper Jr. predicts Titans picks in first 2 rounds of NFL draft