Tennessee Titans: Bernard Pollard Re-signed. What About Verner?

As the “franchise tag” deadline eclipsed at 3PM on Monday, March 3, the Tennessee Titans found themselves in a similar position as last year – not exercising it.

The Titans opted to not use it last year either, a year after using it on safety Michael Griffin.  This instead gave the Titans the opportunity to negotiate a long-term deal to keep the impactful defensive player on the roster.  This year, I was almost certain the Titans would use it on the young, emerging cornerback Alterraun Verner.

The status of contracts and negotiations have been kept relatively mum out of the Titans camp so far this offseason.

The Titans did, however, take care of business by coming to a new deal with safety Bernard Pollard on Monday.  The details of the contract have not been released but Pollard tweeted he would remain with the team.

Fellow teammate Verner quickly took to Twitter to send his congratulations to Pollard.

Hopefully the next breaking news out of the Titans camp will be that they reached a long term deal to keep Verner in Nashville as well.   The Titans have gotten very lucky with surprising cornerback play over the last couple years. I remember being distraught after the Titans didn’t even put forth an effort to keep Cortland Finnegan prior to him walking free to the St. Louis Rams to reunite with coach Jeff Fisher.

I hope we aren’t painting the picture for a similar situation with Verner.  I really think that 2013 was just scratching the surface for Verner’s true potential in this league.  He should and could be one of the NFL’s elite defensive backs.

Although, I am slightly surprised the Titans didn’t use the franchise tag on Verner due to the lack of contract negotiations, I can see why upper management did not utilize the franchise tag for a couple reasons:

1. They (Titans upper management) know that they will get a deal done to keep Verner with the team long term.
2. They are in a tight position with cap money and the franchise tag on Verner would’ve cost nearly $12 million.
3. All of the above

I have great reason to believe that in the coming days the Titans will get a deal done to keep a highly talented player in Verner on our roster for 2014 and beyond.