Tennessee Titans: Can Titans Afford Cook as a WR?
By Shawn Eagle
Mandatory credit: Don McPeak-US Presswire
With the Titans deciding today not to use their franchise tag on Jared Cook, can they afford to pay him WR money?
It’s obvious the Titans felt they would have lost a grievance on whether or not Cookie is a TE or a WR so they chose not to tag him.
Jared Cook’s agent had to have gotten with him and said that maybe he should be classified as a WR. After all, Cook lined up 56% of the time in the slot. Since he did play a majority of snaps lined up wide he should be considered a WR right?
According to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, “[T]he tender will apply to the position in which the player participated in the most plays,” declares Article 9, Section 2. So according to this section then Cookie is a WR. Is there any way you would want the Titans to have to pay him 10.5 mil to franchise him?
With the Titans all but giving up on the notion that Jared Cook would have indeed been declared a TE by an arbitrator then how should he be paid if a long term contract is negotiated? With his stats last year he didn’t even rank as a top 40 receiver. Now granted, he missed three games last year when he finished with 523 receiving yards, but even if he played those three games and averaged 100 yards each game, he would have finished as the 40th best receiver in terms of yards.
Does Cook even want to play for the Titans? Now I only ask this because he didn’t seem too excited at the end of the year thinking a long term contract would work out. Now, with the franchise tag issue cleared up, it seems like he has all of the leverage to be considered a WR in his corner. If the Titans thought they could have won arbitration, they would have gone to arbitration.
Working out a long term deal for Cookie would be ideal, but at what price range? Would Cook and his agent continue to want WR money? Sure they will, now.
All I know is it is about to get very interesting with Jared Cook and the Tennessee Titans. The Titans may be entering the draft with a huge need at TE/WR.
What say you?
Shawn Eagle
You can follow me on twitter @RS1Eagle