Potential Fire Sale In Tennessee?

We are just over two weeks away from the NFL’s trade deadline, and as teams look around and assess what needs to be done in order to make the playoffs, phone calls are being made. One team perhaps receiving more calls than the rest of the league is the Titans.

Starting the season with a 1-6 record and less than a week removed from firing ex-head coach Brian Callahan, Tennessee is clearly being counted out by the rest of the league. Despite the lack of elite talent that has put the Titans in this position, there are players that contending NFL teams are interested in. Most notably, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, “seemingly everyone called the Titans to see if star defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons was available ahead of the…trade deadline.”

Unfortunately for those calling, the answer was a resounding no. Simmons is off limits, and he’s not the only one. The other player who would be a complete non-starter in any trade deal out of Nashville, according to Dianna Russini of The Athletic, is recent No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward. Tennessee drafted Ward with intentions of building their team around him, and they’re not going to give up on him after only seven games. Despite the team’s struggles early and Ward’s lack of production, the 23-year-old quarterback has shown flashes of brilliance and a drive and dedication that has others in the building excited.

As for Simmons, they’ve seen their 2019 first-round pick become one of the top players at his position. He’s currently in the second year of the four-year, $94MM extension that was tacked on to the end of his rookie deal, but many expect that he’s headed for a raise in the coming offseason. Simmons did leave today’s game with a hamstring injury, though, per ESPN’s Turron Davenport, so there’s a chance the calls for him might have slowed depending on the severity of the injury.

Essentially, Ward and Simmons will serve as the offensive and defensive pillars around which the team plans to build around. Aside from those two, though, Russini asserts that “the Titans are open for business on every” other player. At the moment, the most attractive trade targets in Tennessee appear to be on the defensive side of the ball. Cornerback Roger McCreary and outside linebackers Arden Key and Dre’Mont Jones could be players on the move soon.

A second-round pick in 2022, McCreary is playing in the final year of his rookie deal. McCreary has established himself as one of the league’s stronger nickelbacks, though he’s shown the ability to play on the outside, as well. Expecting that he’ll price himself out of Tennessee in free agency, the Titans would be hoping to get something for him now as opposed to losing him for nothing in the offseason.

Key looked early in his career to be a bit of a bust as a third-rounder out of LSU. Racking up only three sacks in his first three years of play, Key eventually found success in his fourth season and grew in his role more and more until he landed a three-year, $21MM deal with the Titans and became a full-time starter in the second season of that deal last year. Now in the contract’s final year, Key’s services will likely be shopped off with the hopes that he will continue his success with the contender to whom he gets traded.

Jones landed in Tennessee on a one-year, $8.5MM deal. He’s had consistently solid production at previous stops in Denver and Seattle and, so far this season, has been worth his money so far in Nashville. Like McCreary and Key, nothing appears to be awaiting Jones in the offseason but free agency, so the Titans will hope that somebody bites with an offer worth trading him for.

And what exactly would that offer look like? While the Titans have a lot of work to do in building up the roster around pillars Ward and Simmons, it would appear they prefer to do so with young players that they choose. Per Russini, Tennessee isn’t looking for players in exchange for any trade assets; the team wants draft capital. The Titans are hoping to stockpile future draft picks so they can move their rebuild plans forward with youth. We’ll see how well negotiations go over the next 16 days.