New Tennessee Titan Carnell Tate Was Ready to ‘Give Up the Bank’ for No. 17 Before Settling on 14

Carnell Tate came into the 2026 NFL Draft talking a big game about his jersey number and then quietly let it go before minicamp.

In the hours before he was drafted fourth overall by the Tennessee Titans, Tate told reporters he was fully prepared to open his wallet for No. 17, the number he wore throughout his standout career at Ohio State.

Speaking ahead of the draft, as reported by NBC Sports’ Mike Florio, Tate’s exact framing was blunt: he was ready to “give up the bank.”

But by the time rookie minicamp arrived, Tate told reporters he didn’t want to “bother” his teammate about it.

Why No. 14 Makes Sense

The number Tate landed on isn’t arbitrary. He explained that 14 connects to his mother’s birthday – November 14 – and doubles as a nod to his draft slot: round one, pick four, or as Tate put it, “one plus four.” He called it the “best number available” and framed the whole thing as a clean reset: “new team, new journey.”

Rather than force a number trade that would have cost him – by his own admission – somewhere in the upper hundred thousands, Tate found meaning in what was already there in No. 14.

The teammate holding No. 17 is Chimere Dike, a second-year All-Pro return man who has proven he is not easily moved off his number. Dike had already rebuffed a similar overture from free-agent signing Wan’Dale Robinson earlier this offseason.

Tate debuts in No. 14 this weekend when the Titans hold rookie minicamp at Vanderbilt Health Football Center. If his career goes the way Tennessee hopes, the number will stop mattering pretty quickly, and he’ll have kept a lot of money in the process.