NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee Titans general manager Ruston Webster recently said a lot of good things about quarterback Zach Mettenberger.

They weren’t necessarily anything we haven’t heard or concluded before, but it led to the most revealing thing we have heard about the No. 2 pick in the draft.

"There's also some other players involved too," Webster told Jim Wyatt of The Tennessean. "There's going to be good defensive players, good receivers, and where do those other guys fit in? Really, the [second overall pick] is not all about the quarterbacks. A lot of other positions are involved, too."

If the Titans decide to move forward with Zach Mettenberger as their quarterback, trading the No. 2 overall pick in the draft would be ideal. Jim Brown/USA TODAY Sports

Webster is leaving all doors open. He told me Monday that his strategy is to do due diligence on every option and not rule anything out.

Most people close to the team expect the Titans will go forward with Mettenberger and draft something other than a quarterback at No. 2.

Webster’s comments hardly signal to the rest of the league that Marcus Mariota or Jameis Winston is in line to wear a flame ball with a "T" in it on his next helmet.

I don’t think the Titans should be picking one of those quarterbacks at No. 2. And I’m not big into gamesmanship and the lying game that goes on for so many teams at this time of year all the way through the draft.

But given the context of this draft and this pick, I do wonder if the Titans should be attempting to smoke screen by notifying everyone in the league that they aren’t sold on Mettenberger.

It wouldn’t be hard to be convincing. From talking to NFL people in Arizona during Super Bowl week, it was obvious most aren’t Mettenberger believers. The Titans could let some negative comments surface but privately tell the quarterback it's only posturing.

Webster is honest and characterizes himself as straightforward. In this business, those are often qualities to admire.

But given the scenario the Titans face, you might need to be what my Nashville radio colleague Mark Howard called a "practitioner of the dark arts." I can’t see Webster transforming into that for the next 10 weeks.

It’s a bad quarterback class, so desperate teams are bound to fall in love with the few decent options. The Titans' affection for Mettenberger and laundry list of needs should help provide the discipline and the smarts to steer away from Winston and his maturity concerns or Mariota, whose great college skill set might not translate to the pros.

But some other quarterback-needy team will find a route to fall in love with one or both, and in an ideal world, the Titans could turn that into draft capital.

The Buccaneers will presumably take a quarterback at No. 1, and the indications are it will be Winston.

The Jaguars are third and just drafted Blake Bortles. The Raiders are fourth and just drafted Derek Carr. Washington is fifth and might go forward with one last big chance for Robert Griffin III.

The next quarterback-desperate team in the draft order doesn’t come around until sixth, with the Jets. Others in the category: the Browns (12th and 19th), Texans (16th) and Eagles (20th), who are connected to Mariota.

ESPN.com Insider Field Yates also thinks the Bears and Rams would be wise to consider trading up for a quarterback.

Maybe the Titans won’t be able to sell anyone on the idea that they would take Mariota second if someone doesn’t wow them with an offer. Even mock drafters who are relatively disconnected from the Titans have come to give them USC defensive end Leonard Williams most frequently.

The Titans need two things: They need someone to come to covet Mariota (or Winston, if the Bucs go with the Oregon QB). And they need that team to think the Titans are going to take him unless they get a good enough package to back out.

There is a lot working against the Titans.

It’s not a good quarterback year. There is a downside to each of the top two guys. The teams right behind the Titans aren’t desperate at the position. The teams that are desperate probably won’t think they need to go all the way up to No. 2 to get the second quarterback.

On Monday, I was a guest on the Charlotte radio show hosted by former Panthers GM Marty Hurney, who saw a flip side to Webster’s comments on Mettenberger. Maybe it’s an advertisement saying, the No. 2 spot is yours for the right price, come get your quarterback, knowing no one else can get in front of you.

We’ll see if it can work that way.

Maybe the Titans won’t be able to deal and will just wind up with the guy they think is the best player in the draft.

That might leave us feeling like they could have gotten more, but they will have added a blue-chipper. Is that really so terrible?