When the Tennessee Titans drafted cornerback Caleb Farley in the first round of the 2021 NFL draft, the selection no doubt came with some risk, but it was a move Tennessee had to make.

That’s because Farley was considered a top-10 talent and the best cornerback in this draft year’s class by many, but concerns over past back issues caused him to fall right into the Titans’ lap at No. 22 overall.

In that particular spot, Farley was well worth the risk and he could turn out to be one of the biggest steals of the draft if he can stay healthy and develop into the kind of elite corner experts think is possible for him.

And Draft Wire’s Luke Easterling apparently agrees. In his rankings of every first-round pick from 2021, Easterling ranked the Titans’ selection as the ninth-best pick out of all 32 made on Day 1.

As he continues to recover from March back surgery, Farley has remained behind the scenes at Titans OTAs. It’ll be interesting to see if he gets time on the field in the coming sessions, or at mandatory minicamp from June 15-17.

What we do know is that he plans to be ready for training camp. When asked after the draft about possibly not being ready, Farley immediately shot it down.

“I rebuke that in the name of Jesus,” Farley said. “I’m expecting to be ready.”

If that turns out to be the case, the Virginia Tech product should challenge for a starting job right away, but will likely have to contend with veteran Janoris Jenkins and 2020 second-round pick Kristian Fulton for one of the two outside spots.