The Titans pulled a switcheroo at the running back position on Wednesday, waiving Jamie Harper and signing free agent Jalen Parmele.

Harper was the Titans' fourth-round selection in 2011 out of Clemson. A bigger back at 5'11", 233 pounds, the Titans seemed to draft him with the expectation he might be a short-yardage back, but he quickly fell out of favor and struggled to regain it. He finished his Titans career with 36 carries for 74 yards and 4 touchdowns. As he indicated after being notified the Titans would be parting ways with him, the writing was on the wall when the Titans signed Shonn Greene to fill the hole he might theoretically have filled. I thought there was a chance he could stick around as the RB3 behind CJ and Greene, but without the Titans' trust as a runner or the ability to play special teams he wouldn't have contributed much. His release puts about $150,000 in dead money on this year's cap.

Harper was released because the Titans wanted to sign Jalen Parmele. A member of the Jaguars in 2012, he carried the ball 8 times for 45 yards in the Week 12 contest between the two teams, a game in which he suffered a groin injury on the first play that he would aggravate later in the game and that would later send him to injured reserve. He broke in with the Dolphins and spent a couple seasons with the Ravens before getting his most extensive work (40 carries for 143 yards) in Jacksonville last year, where his position coach was new Titans running backs coach Sylvester Croom.

I re-watched Parmele's touches against the Titans and his biggest game (24-80, plus three receptions) the week before against the Texans. Like Harper, he's a bigger back, listed at 5'11" and 225 pounds. Again like Harper, I'd classify him as roughly replacement-level as a runner. If there are yards there to get, he'll get those yards. If there aren't, he won't. He caught a couple screen passes and dumpoffs. More importantly, unlike Harper, he's a special teams contributor. He returned kicks for Jacksonville last year and with Baltimore in 2009 and 2010. He also has experience playing coverage as well. It's easier to keep an RB3 active every week when he can contribute in that way. For that reason, I'd say the Titans' roster got better with this move. Not a lot better, and maybe not even noticeably better, but better.

Next up as I look in more detail at the Titans' draft picks (yes, I intentionally skipped Blidi Wreh-Wilson for now and am coming back to him) is fifth-round defensive end Lavar Edwards from LSU.

My initial reaction when the Titans selected Edwards in the fifth round, my initial reaction was he was a good fit for the tweener player Jerry Gray seems to like and didn't have last season with the departure of Jason Jones. For several reasons, I think that's why they drafted him. In Baton Rouge, he was not a starter but had experience playing both LDE and RDE, and also kicked inside on passing downs. At 6'4" and 277 pounds, he has good size for a defensive end. By comparison, Jones is listed at 6'5", 276 pounds, and Edwards' 35 1/2" arms make him longer than he is tall.

LSU had their defensive ends do a lot of mush rushing, concentrating less on sacking the quarterback (outside of obvious passing situations) and more on disrupting the quarterback run game. While perhaps a sensible strategy when it comes to winning, it makes watching their defensive ends unenjoyable for me. Watching Edwards reinforces what the scouting reports indicate, that he has excellent initial quickness that too often doesn't necessarily translate into what I think of necessarily as making plays. I'm pretty sure there's more than just the mush rush going on here, but actual technique flaws I'm not willing to pretend I can do anything other than repeat what I read about. This seems to be true of approximately every LSU defensive lineman. Tracy Rocker and Keith Millard, you have work to do.

Edwards was the third LSU defensive end off the board, behind Barkevious Mingo and Sam Montgomery, and he was third on the depth chart as well. His production would have been better if he played more, but I care very little, if at all, about college numbers. Being third on the depth chart is a concern, but sitting behind Mingo and Montgomery isn't like losing a quarterback competition to Tyler Palko (though of course Dave Wannstedt). At least some of his work at defensive tackle in sub package situations came as part of a three-man speed-oriented line.

What will he do for the Titans? It's hard to see him playing nearly as much as Jason Jones did two years ago. For one, Jones was a pretty good interior pass rusher. Second, even this defensive end depth chart is deeper than the one two years ago after Derrick Morgan blew out his knee. Third, what LSU asked of Edwards seemed to take advantage of his quickness. If the Titans really envision Edwards in that tweener role, that's not a role that privileges quickness so much, as we saw with the struggles Jones had. Rather, the Titans will probably ask him to anchor a lot. Can he do that? Tracy Rocker indicated at the press conference when they drafted him he thought he could. I'm sure Rocker's watch a ton more of him than I have, but that's something I'll have to see before I can trust. The defensive line shakeout is still a mystery to me. Pencil Edwards in somewhere in the top nine, though I'll have to see how he does with what they have him to do before I'll put him above ninth as a rookie.

Next up on my series of somewhat more in depth profiles of the 2013 Titans draft class is their fourth round pick, Cal center Brian Schwenke.

I think I've said this before, but at center there are two big distinctions. First, a center's job is to snap to ball and, for most teams, to make the line calls. Do the coaches have confidence in his ability to do these two things? If yes, then you can go on to the other questions. If not, then the player is a guard rather than a center. 2012 was Schwenke's first year at center after playing at guard his first three seasons, and his inexperience at the position was apparent early in his shotgun snaps. Too many of them were low in Cal's early season game against Ohio State. Per scouting reports, that was something he improved at as the season wore on, and improved technique work at the NFL level should continue to improve. Still, I'll be keeping my eye on it going forward. At the same time, according to draft analyst Eric Stoner, the Titans had about a six-hour meeting with Schwenke, one that ran so long they had to send other players home. That the Titans drafted Schwenke after that tells me they have a pretty good level of trust in him.

As a player, Schwenke went roughly where he deserved to go. He tends to play with good initial quickness, but his movement skills after that did not pop out to me. He plays with relatively good power, but needs to do more work there to become a quality NFL starter. This is not too unusual for a fourth round player. He does a good job of keeping his head up, checking for initial blitzers before helping one of the guards. That was a nice thing to see given his lack of experience, though he was sometimes a tick late reacting to what he saw. Again, this is nothing too unusual and something NFL coaching can fix. The most encouraging thing about Schwenke is the two people I trust when it comes to offensive line play, Ben Muth and Lance Zierlein, both had him as their top center in the draft.

When it comes to centers, there are roughly three tiers: the few great centers, the great morass of good enough ones, and the ones you need to upgrade. Schwenke for me is a guy who after a year on the bench is very likely to be somewhere in the good enough category. It's easier to find centers with non-premium picks, and the Titans used to do so regularly. Seeing Schwenke starting in 2014 would be a pleasant return to that tradition.

When Andrew wrote up the selection of Missouri linebacker Zaviar Gooden with the Titans' third-round compensatory pick, 97th overall, his reaction was a common one. Gooden is a weakside linebacker. The Titans already have a starting weakside linebacker, Zach Brown, whom they drafted in the second round last year. Brown has plenty of room for improvement, but looked pretty good at times last year and is not about to be replaced.

The real key to the pick of Gooden, though, is found in the Titans' media release before the draft. While the depth chart included in there is unofficial, one thing in particular stood out: Zach Brown was the only player listed at weakside linebacker. Brown is coming off offseason shoulder surgery. Offseason surgery is not a big deal until it becomes a big deal. Both Ruston Webster and Mike Munchak noted Brown's surgery as a reason for drafting Gooden in radio interviews after the draft, and Munchak indicated he may be limited until training camp. Backup weakside linebacker was on my list of team needs, but it was somewhat lower down and a position I thought would be most likely filled by a veteran, especially considering the overall youth of the starting linebackers. If there was the right veteran who fit their needs there and was willing to be a backup, though, they'd already have signed him.

So did the Titans really just draft a backup whom injury may force into the lineup in the third round? Well, mostly. There are situations in which Gooden could see the field on defense-this isn't drafting a backup offensive linemen or quarterback, whom you hope plays 0 snaps at all. In the right scheme, you could play him and Brown at the same time. That would most likely be in some sort of sub package. After last offseason's Akeem Ayers speculation that basically never panned out, though, I'm reluctant to suddenly declare the Titans will do a lot of exotic or particularly interesting things with their linebackers. Even when linebackers coach Chet Parlavecchio talked about playing them together, he said "you could see that develop into a situation where both of them are on the field at the same time." To me, that says it's something you could see in the future, but it's not necessarily in the immediate plan for Gooden. Further, aside from some brief and ill-advised moments with Gerald McRath, the Titans' nickel linebackers have been linebackers who played in base personnel. It just makes a lot more sense to do things that way.

Is drafting a backup a good use of a third round pick, even one in the compensatory part of the round? Well, it's not that unusual of a situation. Expectations for picks there are relatively modest. When I wrote about the 2007 draft, I noted Leroy Harris, who went half a round later and didn't become a starter until his fourth season, was about average. The expectations for Gooden are slightly higher than that, but not by that much. It speaks to a certain, well, lack of ambition, but that's not exactly a new criticism from me when it comes to how the Titans have used later picks. In a "win in 2013 or get fired' world, Gooden fills an immediate need that may be bigger than we all thought.

As far as who Gooden is as a player, he's a weakside linebacker, a fairly pure run-and-chase player who struggles in the box and when asked to take on players. The upside of a player like that is Zach Brown. Gooden tested really well at the Combine, but whereas Brown at times really flashed dominant athleticism, watching Gooden was similarly at times exasperating and not nearly as impressive an experience. At least when talking about the corners, the Titans have indicated they may be playing more man coverage. Gooden would be a better fit there, I think, than as a zone defender. With a young Brown's inattention to his responsibilities and without Brown's athleticism and recovery speed, Gooden's tape portends NFL difficulties without big improvement. But he should be really good on special teams.

After signing 15 undrafted free agents despite only having 12 roster spots after selecting eight players in the draft, the Titans needed to clear some roster space. And they did, releasing wide receiver Lavelle Hawkins and waiving wide receiver Michael Calvin and safety Suaesi Tuimaunei.

Obviously Hawkins is the biggest name of that trio. The Cal product was a fourth round pick in 2008 who struggled to find consistent playing time his first three years in the league, totaling only 19 catches and never more than seven in a season. He finally found a niche in 2011, as a slot receiver in new offensive coordinator's Chris Palmer run-and-shoot-inspired offense, and totaled 47 catches for 470 yards. The Titans were impressed enough by this to hand him a three year contract in January for $7.5 million, including a $2 million signing bonus, then barely used him. Drafting Kendall Wright and a return to health (more or less) by Kenny Britt relegated him to the sidelines. Hawkins finished the season playing in only 51 offensive snaps over seven games and had a mere 5 catches for 62 yards. As he himself recognized, it seemed very unlikely the Titans would pay Hawkins' scheduled $1.9 million salary for a receiver whom they played that little the prior season, and I always considered his release a matter of when rather than if.

Of the other players released, Michael Calvin was another Cal wideout. He joined the Titans on a futures contract in January after spending time last year as a rookie undrafted free agent with the Falcons. Suaesi Tuimaunei joined the Titans' practice squad last December when they elevated tight end Brandon Barden to the 53-man roster to fill Jared Cook's spot. He signed a futures contract at the end of December and was part of a crowded and murky bottom of the safety depth chart. Pending the announcement of the undrafted free agents, the Titans have nine receivers and eight safeties.

Hawkins' release creates $1.33 million in dead money, all of which hits the 2013 cap. The loss of his salary, though, increases the Titans' available cap room to about $7.0 million from $6.3 million. The cap hits from the Calvin and Tuimaunei releases are negligibile. The Titans should have about $4.4 million in salary cap space after signing their draft picks.

Now that we're after the draft, it's time to say some more things about the players the Titans drafted. I covered Chance Warmack on Friday, so next up is the Titans' second-round pick, wide receiver Justin Hunter.

Andrew covered some of this when he wrote up the Hunter pick, but the former Vol standout could be anywhere from a great player to Yet Another Titans Second Round Receiver Bust. Mike Munchak noted in an interview he was the top receiver on the Titans' board, which is completely believable. Even people who are more skeptical of his NFL future mention names like Randy Moss and A.J. Green in terms of his raw physical talent. Why, then, did people like Matt Waldman and Optimum Scouting rank him the 12th-best receiver in the draft class?

Simple. Hunter is a project for wide receivers coach Shawn Jefferson. As Waldman chronicled here and here, he has plenty of work to do to be a good wide receiver. Waldman compared him in a sense to Stephen Hill, but Hill's rawness as a prospect stemmed from playing in Georgia Tech's triple option offense with an unsophisticated passing game. Tennessee ran a dropback passing game (more or less) and had its receivers run a route tree. That Hunter is not more skilled at his technique is because, if you believe Derek Dooley, Hunter did not put in the hard work needed to be a better player. Reading the various scouting reports and watching Hunter drop entirely too many passes in 2012, Dooley's contention is completely believable.

With the draft in the books and before I delve into more detail on the players the Titans drafted, I thought it was worth taking a broader look at how the Titans handled the draft.

Coming into the draft, the Titans had two clear immediate needs, for a starter at right guard and a cornerback who could at least compete to play significant snaps as a rookie, even better if he could play in the slot. Beyond that, they had a need for depth at linebacker and defensive end in particular. Next in priority came future starters at a number of positions, including offensive tackle, linebacker, and safety. While not necessarily holes in the depth chart, the Titans also had a need for impact payers everywhere on defense, and particularly on the defensive line.

In selecting offensive guard Chance Warmack from Alabama with the tenth overall pick, the Titans filled that biggest need, for a starter at right guard. I wrote about Warmack before the draft and also covered him the day after the pick was made. Even the people like me who don't like Warmack that much think he's likely to be a good NFL player for a long time, and he clearly fills an extreme immediate need. That Jonathan Cooper was already off the board as the first guard probably made it easier for the Titans to grab Warmack here, though they seemingly would have otherwise considering that he was apparently the number two player on their draft board.

In the second round, the Titans traded up from their 40th pick to the 34th and selected Tennessee wide receiver Justin Hunter. There are two interesting things here, Hunter and the trade, and I'll discuss Hunter in this post and leave the trade discussion for another day. Before tearing his ACL in 2011, he flashed explosive big-play potential. As a tall (6'4"), thin (195 pounds) receiver, he inevitably drew comparisons to Randy Moss, though of course there are a lot more guys who look like Randy Moss than there are guys who play like him. Still, I thought he could be a top ten pick. In 2012, though, he played like a guy who was coming off an ACL injury, not showing the same physical explosion and struggling badly with drops. Hunter seems like Kenny Britt insurance, but this was a weird pick to me because the Titans seemed relatively set at receiver. Further, even early-round wideouts have shown they are very hit-and-miss in terms of rookie production. The Titans assumedly have a plan for how they'll use Hunter productively even as a rookie, but I don't know what that is.