Titans Rumors

Titans To Host OL Andrus Peat

The Titans have already made a number of moves along the offensive line, but more could be coming. Tennessee is set host veteran guard/tackle Andrus Peat, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports.

Peat, 30, has spent his entire career in New Orleans since arriving in 2015. He has served as a full-time starter for almost that entire span (102 of 111 games), but his playing time saw a decline this past campaign. The former first-rounder started 12 contests in 2023, but he logged a 75% snap share – the lowest figure since his rookie season.

The Saints have been met with injury troubles up front in recent years, and Peat’s availability has been a constant in that. The 16 games he suited up for last year represented the most in his career, one which has seen a number of injuries lead to missed time. The Stanford product has primarily been used at left guard, but last season he manned the blindside with Trevor Penning struggling to earn a first-team spot.

Peat has generally not fared well in terms of PFF evaluations, but his 2023 grade (60.2) marked his second-highest since 2017. He would provide a starting-caliber option to Tennessee at both tackle and guard, flexibility which could be valuable as the team re-shapes much of its offensive line. Aaron Brewer has departed in free agency, while Andre Dillard, Chris Hubbard and Calvin Throckmorton are unsigned.

The Titans added center Lloyd Cushenberry on a four-year, $50MM deal last week; the former Bronco will be counted on as an anchor in the middle of Tennessee’s O-line. The team has also invested in Saahdiq Charles, who has experience at both guard spots. Adding Peat would provide further flexibility up front as the Titans aim to rebound from a poor showing on offense last season. Tennessee currently sits third in the league with nearly $47MM in cap space, so finances will not be an issue if the Peat visit results in the desire for a deal.

S Marcus Maye Drawing Interest; Titans Visit On Tap

The 2024 free agent class features a number of veteran safeties released by their respective teams in the lead-in to the new league year. Marcus Maye is among them, but he could soon have a new home.

Maye is on the radar of “several” suitors, Dianna Russini of The Athletic reports. She adds the former Jets and Saints starter has a visit with the Titans scheduled for Monday. Tennessee’s only free agent move in the secondary to date is the addition of cornerback Chidobe Awuzie.

Kevin Byard occupied a starting safety role throughout his tenure in Nashville, but as part of the team’s efforts to move on from veteran contracts, he was dealt to the Eagles at the trade deadline. Byard became a free agent due to Philadelphia’s decision to release him, but he joined the Bears just before the start of the negotiating window. Maye did not reach the open market until the league year began, but he is now free to speak with interested teams.

The 31-year-old was informed at the end of February that he would be cut by New Orleans. The move was initially expected to occur with a post-June 1 designation given the financial benefits of doing so. However, teams are permitted to use that designation on only two players, and the Saints (in their latest round of salary cap gymnastics) did so with wideout Michael Thomas and quarterback Jameis Winston. Maye was therefore let go one day before free agency opened, but in any event he will provide his next team with a starting-caliber option.

The former second-rounder has started all 77 of his career games, but missed time through injury and suspension was a factor in his Saints tenure in particular. Maye was absent for 17 contests during his two-year run with New Orleans, and he posted only two interceptions and four pass deflections during that span. His next contract will no doubt check in at a lower figure than the three-year, $22.5MM contract he received from the Saints in 2022. If healthy, though, the Florida alum could prove to be an effective pickup for Tennessee or another team.

The Titans ranked 18th in the league against the pass last season, and their six interceptions were the fewest in the NFL. Adding playmaking on the backend via free agency or the draft would go a long way in helping the team rebound in the secondary under new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson. It will be worth watching to see how Maye’s Titans visit goes tomorrow and how many other suitors pursue him in the coming days.

Titans Release T Andre Dillard

Benched last season, Andre Dillard will not make it to Year 2 with the Titans. The team announced Friday it has parted ways with the former first-round pick. This move had been expected.

Tennessee gave the ex-Philadelphia draftee a three-year, $29MM contract to succeed Taylor Lewan at left tackle. While a recent report suggested there was a chance Dillard could stay, he was due $9MM in base salary next season.

Amid a cost-cutting spree last year, the Titans cut both Lewan and center Ben Jones. They also let four-year right guard starter Nate Davis sign with the Bears. The team brought in low-cost starters in Chris Hubbard and Daniel Brunskill but gave Dillard a midlevel accord despite his failure to commandeer an Eagles starting job. With Brian Callahan (and his acclaimed O-line coach father, Bill) coming in, the Titans will look elsewhere to fill their blindside post.

Dillard, 28, started 10 games for the Titans last season. Although two of those were the team’s final two contests, the then-Mike Vrabel-led staff benched the 2019 first-rounder around midseason. The team moved RT Nicholas Petit-Frere to the left side to take over for Dillard, keeping Hubbard on the right side following Petit-Frere’s reinstatement from a gambling suspension. When Petit-Frere and Hubbard went down with injuries, Dillon Radunz and sixth-round rookie Jaelyn Duncan were summoned as patchwork tackle solutions.

Unless a post-June 1 cut is coming, this move will cost the Titans nearly $8MM. New staffs are generally more willing to take on dead money, and with the Titans carrying more than $49MM in cap space even after the Calvin Ridley signing, it would not surprise if they took their Dillard medicine now.

Carthon mentioned Peter Skoronski as a tackle solution but later said the team believes it is best if the 2023 first-rounder sticks at guard. The team lost center Aaron Brewer but paid up for his replacement, in Lloyd Cushenberry. Tennessee also added ex-Washington guard Saahdiq Charles. As for its left tackle future, the draft represents a likely avenue here. A deep tackle class awaits, and the Titans hold the No. 7 overall pick.

Minor NFL Transactions: 3/14/24

Today’s minor moves:

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Ravens

Chicago Bears

Dallas Cowboys

Green Bay Packers

Indianapolis Colts

Kansas City Chiefs

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

New York Jets

Pittsburgh Steelers

Tennessee Titans

Washington Commanders

Titans To Re-Sign WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine

Nick Westbrook-Ikhine has spent his entire career with the Titans, and he has once again elected to remain in Nashville. The former undrafted free agent wideout has a new one-year deal in place with Tennessee, per Mike Garafolo of NFL Network.

As has been the case since 2022, this will be another one-year agreement, Garafolo notes. Westbrook-Ikhine earned $895K in 2022, and he saw that figure rise to $1.26MM last year. Another low-cost investment has no doubt been made this time around, but the 26-year-old has proven to be a consistent complementary piece of the Titans’ passing game over the past three years.

Westbrook-Ikhine has posted 38, 25 and 28 receptions from 2021-23 while seeing a regular workload on offense. His best season came in 2021, when he recorded 476 yards and five touchdowns. The Indiana product’s yards per catch average spiked to 15.9 the following year, and he will attempt to remain a deep threat on an offense which will be guided by new head coach Brian Callahan and feature a number of new players.

The Titans have made a number of investments on that side of the ball, including a $92MM deal for wideout Calvin RidleyRunning back Tony Pollard has been added as Derrick Henry‘s replacement, while the team’s O-line will feature center Lloyd Cushenberry on a lucrative pact of his own. Those additions will lead to increased expectations for Tennessee, a team which struggled on offense in 2023.

Ridley and DeAndre Hopkins headline the Titans’ WR room, and they will be the focal point of the team’s passing game. Westbrook-Ikhine will compete with third-year tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo for targets as a secondary pass-catching option, though. The latter posted an intriguing 54-528-1 statline last season, and he could be in line for a larger role in 2024. Even if that turns out to be the case, Westbrook-Ikhine will provide quarterback Will Levis with a familiar target on the perimeter.

Titans To Sign WR Calvin Ridley

After a Jaguars-Patriots duel formed in the Calvin Ridley sweepstakes, a mystery suitor revealed itself. The Titans are swooping in with a big offer to land the former first-round pick.

Ridley will commit to Tennessee on a four-year, $92MM deal, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reports. The Titans are giving Ridley $50MM fully guaranteed. A year after winning a lower-priced DeAndre Hopkins pursuit, Tennessee will pair him with Ridley.

This marks a windfall for Ridley, who will cash in despite missing the 2022 season due to a gambling suspension and leaving the Falcons early in the 2021 slate. After Atlanta traded Ridley to Jacksonville during his suspension, the former Alabama standout posted his second 1,000-yard year. Although the Jaguars wanted to retain Ridley, they may have stopped short of this price point.

As of Wednesday afternoon, however, the Titans checked in with the NFL’s most cap space. Ran Carthon‘s team carried $72MM before the Ridley agreement. While the Patriots and Jaguars both made offers, a stealth suitor may have topped them both. The Jags had been viewed as likely to retain Ridley, but they already have three veteran contracts at receiver (Christian Kirk, Zay Jones, Gabe Davis) and another at tight end (Evan Engram). Tennessee has Hopkins on a relatively low-cost accord, after beating out the Patriots in that race as well, giving the team a clearer path to pursue this year’s top free agent wideout. Indeed, in a piece written by Jeff Howe, Larry Holder, and Randy Mueller of The Athletic (subscription required), we learned that while the Jags’ and Pats’ offers were in the same ballpark, the Titans’ proposal was significantly higher.

At $23MM per year, Ridley checks in as the NFL’s ninth-highest-paid receiver; the $50MM guaranteed at signing, however, is the more important number. Only Tyreek Hill‘s 2022 Dolphins deal carried more locked in at signing. That illustrates where this market went and the aggressive pushes teams were making to bring in this market’s top receiver.

Ridley, 29, will also reunite with the Jaguars’ 2023 pass-game coordinator, Nick Holz, who landed the Titans’ OC job earlier this offseason. Holz was on-hand for a rather uneven Jaguars offensive season, with Press Taylor calling plays. Ridley, however, used the 2023 slate to rebound after effectively two years away. The 2018 first-round pick left the Falcons in October 2021, and while the team helped him find a desired trade destination — Ridley picked Jacksonville — money may well be talking for the Florida native.

PFR’s top 50 free agent ranks listed the Titans as a potential Ridley suitor — largely due to cap space and what has transpired since the A.J. Brown trade. The Titans have not seen Brown’s immediate replacement — 2022 first-rounder Treylon Burks — become a difference-maker. And less than two years after the ill-fated Brown move, the Titans ditched their GM (Jon Robinson) and HC (Mike Vrabel). The Titans were not offering Brown a deal in this ballpark; two years later, and with the cap exploding to $255.4MM, a new GM will sign off on this money for Ridley, whose career has been much rockier than the current Eagles WR1’s.

As Julio Jones‘ hamstring trouble — which helped lead the Falcons to trade him to the Titans the following year — produced a 2020 shutdown in Atlanta, his younger sidekick broke through. Ridley’s 90-catch, 1,374-yard, nine-TD season placed him on the All-Pro second team. Ridley said he played most of the 2020 season on a broken foot, but he was not informed of the break until June 2021. He underwent surgery, which was described as a minor procedure, but said he was not close to 100% by Week 1. This preceded Ridley leaving the Falcons, citing mental health reasons.

Ridley’s rookie contract tolled to 2023 due to the subsequent gambling ban, which will add more risk to this Titans bet. Although Ridley produced in spurts for the Jags in a 1,016-yard season, he will turn 30 before the 2024 season ends. Two of Ridley’s four 100-yard showings came against a struggling Titans team, though, and Carthon will place a big bet on Ridley having plenty left in the tank to help Levis. This contract will pair with Levis’ rookie deal, which runs through 2026.

Titans Rumors: Ridley, Gardner-Johnson, Dillard

The Titans have yearned for a No. 1 wide receiver since they traded away A.J. Brown. Literally since that exact moment, when they used the draft pick they acquired in that trade to draft Arkansas wide receiver Treylon Burks in the hopes that he would take over. They had also traded for former Rams wide receiver Robert Woods in hopes that he would return from injury to the form of his best years in Los Angeles.

When neither of those moves worked out quite how the wished, Tennessee signed DeAndre Hopkins. While Hopkins certainly gave them a season worthy of a WR1, it became clear that that was not quite enough, that the team still had to get better around Hopkins. Enter Calvin Ridley.

The list of free agent wide receivers this year is expansive, but it is anything but lucrative. Some of the top options like Gabriel Davis and Darnell Mooney had already signed and other top options like Mike Williams, Michael Thomas, and Odell Beckham Jr. came with their own caveats. According to Dianna Russini of The Athletic, the Titans brass was focused on a singular goal: landing the best wide receiver available.

With the options out there, they set their sights on Ridley and their focus narrowed. The team reportedly put themselves in position to land Ridley starting last night, keeping in constant contact with Ridley and company. Not wanting to allow for anyone else to obtain their treasure, they made their move, offering what they knew would be the best deal that any team might offer the 29-year-old receiver. The rest is history, they landed their man, and he will be donning Titans blue in 2024.

Here are a few other rumors coming out of Nashville:

  • With the Titans looking to add a defensive back to the roster, following the loss of Kevin Byard after his trade midseason, the name C.J. Gardner-Johnson has come up, per Adam Caplan at Pro Football Network. The veteran safety has some familiarity with the staff playing one of the best seasons of his career under new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson when the two were both in Philadelphia. Gardner-Johnson missed nearly all of the 2023 campaign with a torn pectoral muscle, starting the first two games of the season and making a comeback for the playoffs, so he may even come at a slight discount.
  • While retaining that their plans could change, Caplan also reports that the Titans are currently expected to retain veteran left tackle Andre Dillard, who just finished the first year of his three-year, $29MM contract. Dillard started 10 games last year and was forced to the bench for six others. $6MM of his $9MM base salary for 2024 became fully guaranteed today and he will carry a $10.68MM cap hit for the season. Cutting him now would only save $2.88MM of cap space while leaving $7.79MM of dead money, while designating him a post-June 1 release could clear up $6.47MM of cap space, leaving the team with only $4.2MM of dead money. If he is retained, he would be assumed to start at left tackle, leaving Nicholas Petit-Frere and Jaelyn Duncan to battle for the right tackle job.

RFA/ERFA Tender Decisions: 3/13/24

Here are today’s free agent tender decisions:

RFAs

Tendered:

Non-tendered:

ERFAs

Tendered:

Minor NFL Transactions: 3/13/24

Today’s minor moves:

Chicago Bears

Cleveland Browns

Houston Texans

Jacksonville Jaguars

Miami Dolphins

New Orleans Saints

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tennessee Titans

Washington Commanders

Titans To Re-Sign K Nick Folk

Nick Folk is sticking in Tennessee for another season. According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the veteran kicker is re-signing with the Titans.

Folk is inking a one-year, $3.755MM deal that can max out at $4.13MM via incentives. Folk played out the 2023 campaign on the final season of a two-year, $5MM extension he signed with the Patriots back in 2022.

The Titans were the fifth team that Folk added to his NFL resume, as he was traded to Tennessee from New England last offseason. During his age-39 season, Folk ended up having one of the most efficient seasons of his career. He converted a league-leading 96.7 percent of his field goal attempts, and he hit 28 of his 30 XP tries.

Kickoffs were a concern during Folk’s final season in New England. The veteran took on the responsibility in 2022 after Jake Bailey went down with injury, but the Patriots eventually had to promote another kicker to handle the duties. He rebounded a bit in Tennessee; after only 9.1 percent of his kickoffs resulted in a touchback in 2022, that number improved to 50.8 percent this past season.

With at least another season under his belt, Folk can continue to climb the NFL’s all-time scoring list. Folk currently sits 23rd all time, and he’s fourth among active players (behind Mason Crosby, Matt Prater, and Justin Tucker).