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NASHVILLE, Tenn. —** The Tennessee Titans traded with Washington to move up eight spots Saturday and draft LSU quarterback Zach Mettenberger at No. 178 overall in the sixth round.

Their quarterbacks coach worked Mettenberger out a week ago, and coach Ken Whisenhunt said they considered selecting the quarterback sooner in the draft.

"We had to make the move to get him," Whisenhunt said. "We'd heard that there were other teams that were trying to move up to get him. At that point, we felt like it was a low risk-high reward type of situation."

The 6-foot-5, 252-pound Mettenberger threw for 3,082 yards and 22 touchdowns last season. He tore his left ACL in the regular season finale in November and had surgery in January. Mettenberger said he was ecstatic for the opportunity and asked about not being drafted until the sixth round, he called this a great opportunity.

"I'll make the most of it, and I'm ready to get up there and get working," said Mettenberger, the 10th quarterback taken in the draft.

Mettenberger started his college career at Georgia where he redshirted as a freshman and was competing with Aaron Murray for the starting quarterback job. He went to junior college before landing at LSU where he worked last season with former NFL coach Cam Cameron as his offensive coordinator.

The Titans sent their seventh-round draft pick to Washington to move up in the sixth round. That left them with six selections in this draft, their fewest since 2003.

They opened taking left tackle Taylor Lewan of Michigan with the No. 11 selection overall and running back Bishop Sankey of Washington in the second round. On Saturday, they used their first three picks on defense taking tackle DaQuan Jones of Penn State, defensive back Marqueston Huff of Wyoming in the fourth round and inside linebacker Avery Williamson of Kentucky in the fifth.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.