Tennessee Titans News & Rumors

Drafted in Round 3 to be Henry’s top backup, Evans could not stay healthy. When Henry broke down last season, Foreman became an unlikely producer. Overtaking a shot Adrian Peterson, Foreman matched Henry in yards per carry (4.3) — albeit on 86 fewer totes — and produced three 100-yard outings despite making only three starts. The Titans let Foreman sign a low-cost Panthers deal and brought back Hilliard, who averaged 6.3 yards per carry (on 56 handoffs), for less. Given Henry’s status, Hilliard and fourth-rounder Hassan Haskins are on standby.

Jenkins, whose name change seemingly received less attention than Shaquille Leonard‘s less dramatic adjustment or Robbie Anderson merely changing the ending to his, remains unsigned. The 33-year-old defender has been with three teams over the past two seasons. He did give the Titans 13 starts in his one-and-done tenure; PFF graded Jenkins as the top Titans corner. But Tennessee has drafted first- or second-round corners in three straight years. Skrine’s summer retirement clears the way for the Titans to go full-speed with rookie-contract corners, with 2021 third-rounder Elijah Molden figuring to man the slot alongside the higher-drafted players.

Draft:

• 1-18: Treylon Burks, WR (Arkansas)
• 2-35: Roger McCreary, CB (Auburn)
• 3-69: Nicholas Petit-Frere, T (Ohio State)
• 3-86: Malik Willis, QB (Liberty)
• 4-131: Hassan Haskins, RB (Michigan)
• 4-143: Chig Okonkwo, TE (Maryland)
• 5-163: Kyle Philips, WR (UCLA)
• 6-204: Theo Jackson, CB (Tennessee)
• 6-219: Chance Campbell, LB (Ole Miss)

Nick Westbrook-Ikhine stands to be Woods’ outside complement; Burks will be a situational player to start the season, The Athletic’s John Rexrode writes. Somewhat of a raw talent who had weight issues at Arkansas, playing north of 240 pounds at points, Burks will need to move into the starting lineup as a rookie. By 2023, the ex-Razorback star should be expected to be the centerpiece of the Titans’ aerial attack.

Burks produced a 1,104-yard junior season — including a 179-yard display against Alabama — and became this year’s sixth wideout drafted. Burks compounded his rawness by missing stretches of Tennessee’s offseason program; receivers coach Rob Moore confirmed Burks deals with asthma. The ceiling here is undeniable, but the Titans exchanging a proven pass catcher for one who obviously needs time to grow into that status does concern for the current team’s prospects.

It will be unusual to see a team’s fifth-round receiver play more often than the player chosen in Round 1, but that may well take place. After a strong offseason, Philips is set to have a regular role as a slot target from the start. Philips produced back-to-back 700-plus-yard seasons as a Bruins upperclassman.

Tennessee ranked 25th in pass defense last season, and PFF did not rank any of its returning corners among the top 50 at the position. The team was missing 2021 first-rounder Caleb Farley, and 2020 second-rounder Kristian Fulton performed better than he did in an abbreviated rookie season. McCreary impressed in training camp and rounds out an intriguing quartet of Titans corners. All of them have at least two seasons remaining on their rookie contracts, creating the potential for the Fulton-Farley-Molden-McCreary group to play together through at least 2023. More tape than measurables, the 6-foot rookie — fresh off a first-team All-American season — could be eased into action as a pro as well. That will depend on Farley’s return from an ACL tear.

Petit-Frere has beaten out Radunz for the Titans’ right tackle gig. He will be the team’s fourth primary right tackle in four seasons, following Jack Conklin, Dennis Kelly and David Quessenberry. The Titans declining Conklin’s fifth-year option set them adrift at this position, and the Isaiah Wilson debacle doubles as one of the worst draft misses in recent memory. A second-rounder out of North Dakota State, Radunz has been unable to commandeer the gig for which he was drafted. The onus shifts to Petit-Frere — a first-team All-Big Ten right tackle in 2021 and the Buckeyes’ two-year starter there — to stop the revolving door.

Willis’ slide to Round 3 is one of the most memorable in modern draft history, considering the first-round connections the small-school quarterback generated. The dual-threat QB seems no rival for Tannehill in 2022, being viewed as a project and being yanked from a preseason game for running too much. But Willis did win the backup job over Logan Woodside.

The Auburn transfer’s college resume (1,822 rushing yards, 27 TDs in two seasons at Liberty) will probably come up if Tannehill struggles, as young QB investments are rather popular among fans of teams with non-elite passers. But this seems like a multiyear training program for a player teams let fall to No. 86 overall. Still, Tannehill was a severe injury risk in Miami (25 missed games from 2016-18) due mostly to knee trouble. Since taking over for Marcus Mariota in October 2019, Tannehill has perfect attendance. But it would be interesting to see what the Titans do if their starter’s run of good health suddenly stops.

Extensions and restructures:

• Moved $2MM of RB Derrick Henry‘s 2023 salary to 2022

Henry now leads all running backs in cash for 2022, but the Titans put half of his raise into per-game roster bonuses. This potential $2MM bump is a nice carrot that can be interpreted in multiple ways.

The Titans are considering another extension for their superstar back, despite a 2021 Jones fracture costing him eight games. Henry’s importance to Tennessee’s offense notwithstanding, teams do not make a habit of doling out big contracts to 29-year-old running backs. Henry, who will turn 29 in January, is still signed through 2023. The former Heisman recipient would be a remarkable winner among modern backs were he to secure a second lucrative extension at that age.

This week’s transaction also made Henry’s contract tougher to shed. After less than $4MM in dead money would have come with a Henry 2023 release, the restructure — which added three void years to Henry’s contract — now involves a $10.2MM dead-money hit. Talk of a Henry release is obviously premature, given his onslaught over the past three years. But if he suffered another major injury this season, the Titans could be thinking of getting out of the four-year, $50MM deal they authorized at the 2020 tag deadline.

Henry was cruising toward a Jim Brown-esque third straight rushing title and still finished as a top-10 rusher last season, but even as he missed the eight games, the Titans put 900 carries on his odometer from 2019-21. That leads the NFL by 89 in that span. Collecting an additional $2MM is a nice bonus for one of the great players in the franchise’s Tennessee history, because recent running back history tells us Henry probably does not have much longer to be a high-earning player. Henry might only be still able to be penciled in for a monster workload because of the two years spent as DeMarco Murray‘s wingman to start his career.

Other:

• Reached extension agreements with HC Mike Vrabel, GM Jon Robinson
• Picked up $10.8MM fifth-year option on DL Jeffery Simmons
• Hired Tim Kelly to be passing-game coordinator
• OLB Bud Dupree pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault charge
• Signed WR Josh Gordon to practice squad
• Signed 17 UDFAs

Following a run of three consecutive playoff berths — the franchise’s first such accomplishment since Warren Moon‘s Run and Shoot Oilers operation went to seven straight postseasons from 1987-93 — Robinson and Vrabel were extension locks. This is Robinson’s third Titans contract and Vrabel’s second, and considering what the pair has achieved despite not employing a top-end quarterback or elite defense, the additional commitment is certainly earned.

Vrabel, 47, and Matt LaFleur helmed shorthanded teams to No. 1 seeds last season, but LaFleur had Aaron Rodgers buttressing that effort. At one point, Vrabel’s team was playing without Henry, A.J. Brown and Julio Jones. Each also missed parts of other games, yet the Titans ripped through a stretch in which they won five straight games against teams that went to the 2020 playoffs. Vrabel does not call plays, but there is now an extended sample size of Tennessee reeling off winning seasons — the last two producing more than nine victories, an ever-present Titans hurdle during the late 2010s — that cannot be ignored when discussing Vrabel’s value.

Robinson hired Vrabel despite the ex-Patriot linebacker/goal-line specialist only having one year of NFL coordinator experience, and that season came when the Texans’ defense struggled. The hire has proven to be a good one. As for Robinson, the ex-Buccaneers and Patriots exec has hits and misses.

The Titans withstood the Wilson whiff, the group of OLB misfires and managed to secure a bye despite the Jones deal not panning out. This season may provide the verdict if the Henry extension was right, but that may already be a win considering 2020’s 2,000-yard showing. Taking Tannehill off the Dolphins’ payroll for fourth- and seventh-round picks was easier as Miami was gutting its roster in 2019, but the former first-rounder has done the most to keep the Titans afloat after Marcus Mariota‘s injury-aided descent. How the Brown-for-Burks call goes will be another key Robinson legacy point, however.

While edge defenders passed Aaron Donald on his previous Rams contract, no interior D-lineman did. Donald’s new deal ($31.6MM per year) has created a gargantuan gulf between one player and the field at a position. Just as the quarterback market did when Patrick Mahomes was tied to a deal $10MM north of anyone else (due to a 10-year contract), Donald being $10MM north of the rest of the NFL’s D-tackles will not last. The Titans look to have the player set to bridge the gap.

After his first Pro Bowl season, Simmons is set to command a contract that could approach $25MM per annum. His minicamp hold-in effort signaled a desire for a new deal now, but for players with fifth-year options, teams like to wait until after Year 4 for extensions. The 2019 first-rounder broke through for 8.5 regular-season sacks and 12 tackles for loss, before destroying the beleaguered Bengals interior O-line for three more sacks in the playoffs. Simmons, 25, profiles as the top candidate to bring the D-tackle field closer to Donald, creating potential complications when his negotiations begin. Leonard Williams and DeForest Buckner are currently the second-highest-paid interior D-linemen, tied to $21MM-AAV accords.

Top 10 cap charges for 2022:

1. Ryan Tannehill, QB: $38.6MM
2. Bud Dupree, OLB: $19.2MM
3. Taylor Lewan, T: $14.7MM
4. Robert Woods, WR: $10MM
5. Derrick Henry, RB: $9.8MM
6. Denico Autry, DL: $8.65MM
7. Kevin Byard, S: $7.06MM
8. Harold Landry, OLB: $5.1MM
9. Jeffery Simmons, DL: $4.1MM
10. Zach Cunningham, LB: $3.99MM

After the Falcons, Packers and Vikings adjusted their quarterbacks’ cap hits, Atlanta doing so by trading Matt Ryan, no NFLer’s 2022 cap figure tops Tannehill’s. The 11th-year QB counted only $11.1MM toward Tennesse’s cap in 2021. Two seasons remain on his four-year, $118MM extension — now a lower-middle-class QB contract. But the deal does call for big cap hits in 2022 and ’23 ($36.6MM). Tannehill’s 2022 season will probably determine if he receives another Titans extension, while obviously playing the lead role in this year’s team overcoming a tough offseason.

From Simmons to Byard to a cornerback group full of highly touted prospects, young talent is present in Tennessee. While the AFC South is either this year’s third- or fourth-strongest AFC division, higher hurdles exist between the Brown- and Landry-less Titans and an approach of last year’s 12-5 record. If the new faces at receiver and on the O-line cause a Tannehill step back, the Titans could be in line for a major roster shift in 2023.