[FREE] The Do's & Don'ts of Titans Free Agency
Free Agency is approaching, so let's go over some do's and don'ts for the Titans' upcoming free agency cycle.
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Free agency should be an interesting time for the Tennessee Titans
With loads of cap room and plenty of holes to fill, Titans fans — and me included — will be expecting the team to take advantage of this free agency period.
And we won’t have to wait long for this process to begin either, as the legal tampering period begins on March 11th, which is just under 3 weeks away for those who are counting.
Patience is a virtue for these sort of things, but free agency brings the opposite of patience though, so who cares at this point.
So, with this lull in action being present right now, I thought it’d be great to go over some handy dandy free agency do’s and don’ts for the Titans once the market officially opens next month.
Some of these might dampen your dreams, some of these might already be on your mind. Either way, it’s good to refresh the mind with free agency expectations ahead of one of the biggest offseason periods in franchise history.
Let’s dive into these.
Free Agency DO’s
DO Expect the Titans to let Derrick Henry walk…barring some unexpected development
This topic has been touched on quite a lot during the last months of 2023 and all of 2024 so far. But we’ll address it again here.
Don’t expect the Titans to bring back Derrick Henry.
It’s not because he’s a bad player, but because of a few other important factors.
Henry is 30, has a crazy amount of tread on his tires, and his numbers over the last 2 years support the notion that Henry is an aging player at one of the league’s most physically demanding positions, with declining numbers that are sure to decline more.
Also, as we’ve seen over the last couple of seasons, the juice, that high end speed that used to be in the tank is no longer there.
These are the obvious factors.
The most complicated one, is that Henry would have to take a significant pay cut to remain in Tennessee, and that’s if the Titans are really interested in bringing him back.
Not only due to his valuation dropping, but because the $4.73M in void year money has accelerated onto the Titans’ books for 2024 and 2025, meaning even if the Titans let Henry walk, that $4.73M will still count against the cap.
If you add more money on top of that, then you can start to see the full picture.
This was talked about in more detail HERE.
So because of all these roadblocks, you shouldn’t expect Henry on the Titans in 2024.
DO Expect the Titans to sniff around the corner market
This isn’t some sort of surprise, but the Titans are in need of boundary corner help.
Last year’s starters — Kristian Fulton and Sean Murphy-Bunting — are both set to hit the open market, with only Murphy-Bunting being the only one out of the two possessing small chances of returning to the team in 2024.
But, if the Titans aren’t in love with Murphy-Bunting, there’s some options available on the upcoming market. Because let’s be real, there isn’t anyone in that corner room, under contract, that needs to be a starting boundary corner in 2024.
If you want to start with Bengals connections, Chidobe Awuzie has been in Cincinnati for the last 3 seasons, which coincides with Brian Callahan’s time in Cincy as well. He’ll be a cheaper option, as he hasn’t been able to replicate his impressive debut season with the Bengals, but a torn ACL during the tail end of the 2022 season is a big reason for that.
He’ll have a lot to prove and could provide some stopgap help at corner, while the Titans address more important needs.
But if the Titans want to target the big hitters, then names like L’Jarius Sneed and Jaylon Johnson are your names to watch. They’ll both command some hefty base salaries, maybe approaching or even surpassing the base salary leaders in the league today:
Xavien Howard: $15.4M
Denzel Ward: $15.32M
Jalen Ramsey: $14.5M
Carlton Davis: $14M
Charvarius Ward: $12.37M
Giving out big time CB1 money isn’t a move I expect the Titans to make, especially right now with how many holes they have to fill.
But the option is there, if they want to go down that route.
DO pay attention to any OT’s connected to the Titans
Addressing offensive tackle is a move you should want the Titans to make in the draft, with plenty of blue chip tackle prospects expected to be available within the top 10.
But the Titans don’t just need one tackle, they need two. Which makes them a potential team to watch for free agent tackles next month.
To be honest though, the upcoming free agent tackle class reeks, I mean it reeks of urine, fecal matters, pretty much anything that stinks can be used to describe the list of free agent tackles.
That’s usually a norm too, since top teams always lock up their top tackles. And if they can’t be locked down, they’re usually traded. Some do leak into free agency and get massively overpaid — just take a look at last year with Mike McGlinchey — and then we get moments of regret.
This year doesn’t appear to have a tackle that could be crazy overpaid, but there’s one free agent tackle that could make sense given the Titans’ situation.
Patriots OT Trent Brown is set to hit the market and fits a glaring need at either tackle spot for the Titans. He shouldn’t be expensive whatsoever and has been a serviceable tackle throughout his 8 year career.
The only roadblock(s) are his injury history — which is extensive — and the fact that reports stated he had an attitude problem in New England.
However, he still feels like a short term gamble worth being taken.
Other than Trent Brown though, there isn’t much to ride home about.
Except Michael Onwenu, who has put together some solid seasons at guard for the Patriots, but can slide over to right tackle if need be.
Free Agency DON’TS
DON’T expect the Titans to trade for Tee Higgins
If we were in a perfect world, the Bengals wouldn’t slap Tee Higgins with the franchise tag, leaving the Titans with a free run at one of the more underrated receivers in the league.
But we don’t live in a perfect world, nor will we ever. We live in a cold simulated space known as a reality, where disappointment is immeasurable and pain is everlasting.
The Titans’ reality in this case, is that the Bengals will hit Higgins with the franchise tag, ruling out any free run at Higgins and maybe even a run at Higgins entirely.
A tag and trade scenario has been thrown around recently, with the Titans obviously being on the receiving end of Higgins’ services. But life isn’t that black and white, in fact it’s more grey than anything.
If the Titans wanted to trade for Higgins, they’d have to give up draft compensation — more specifically, a top 100 pick — something the team just can’t possibly do right now, unless they want to slow the timeline of their rebuild. They need every pick possible to fill every last possible hole they can realistically fill on the roster.
Unfortunately for you Madden nuts out there — or in other words, sickos — that means no Tee Higgins donning the two tone blue in 2024. Maybe they can try again in 2025, but that’s if Higgins isn’t traded this off-season and he signs a deal with his new team.
Either way, don’t expect the Titans to go after Higgins this offseason. It doesn’t make sense and won’t make sense until the Titans can address more important needs first.
That won’t stop the rumors, but alas, you can’t stop people from indulging in fantasies to make their lives feel a bit more tolerable.
DON’T expect the Titans to splurge in free agency
The last and most important free agent don’t, is to not expect this team to splurge like crazy in free agency.
This might seem obvious, but when the average fan sees a big number in available cap space, there isn’t much stopping them from imagining things going buck wild.
Which is why I’m here, your reminder to fall back into reality where dreams don’t come true, unless you’re lucky.
Seriously though, teams aren’t made in free agency. We saw how the 2011 Eagles’ “Dream Team” panned out, it was an utter disaster that proved a cautionary tale against throwing money everywhere without having as much as a plan in mind.
Well, that’s the most extreme example in recent memory, but it serves as a precedent nonetheless.
Second, the Ran Carthon led Titans don’t seem like a team that’s set on showing the money in free agency anyways. Carthon seems like one that is more fond of the draft in terms of player acquisition, gathering young, cheap controllable talent while adding in some free agent signings if necessary.
Truthfully though, that’s how every well run team operates these days.
If you still have dreams about the Titans going crazy with their money, then drop them, they aren’t happening at all. But on the very, very, very, verrryyyy small chance I’m wrong, you can come back to this and say “I told you so”.
Free pass.
Overview
That’s it for my do’s and don’ts.
I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you’re smart about your free agency takes leading up to the big day.
Stay smart and educate a fellow fan that has fantasies of throwing cash at their roster problems. Because it won’t end well, it never has.
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