Why the Tennessee Titans can add Joe Haden for nearly free

The Tennessee Titans need to add another cornerback.

Before you jump to any conclusions, here why Joe Haden needs to be on the Tennessee Titans roster sooner rather than later.

The time for trades is right now in the NFL, and teams are desperate to move players before everyone sets their eyes on the regular season.

One name that has been thrown out for years is Cleveland Browns CB Joe Haden, but now there is more juice behind it and everyone has agreed with this JLC tweet:

Hearing from multiple teams that the Browns are aggressively trying to trade CB Joe Haden. Very motivated to move his contract
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) August 29, 2017

The contract is the big issue with Haden, almost more so than the player itself. I think there is a chance that a team could actually get compensated to take Joe Haden off of Cleveland’s hands.

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It isn’t that crazy either, if you remember the Browns sort of brought this concept to the forefront of the NFL with they acquired Brock Osweiler and a 2nd round pick for essentially nothing.

This was a salary dump pure and simple and it is what they are looking to do with Haden right now.

Despite what you may think, Joe Haden is actually only 28 years old and won’t turn 29 until after the season. That means if you trade for him now you can get two years of under-30 production from him.

He makes a lot of sense as a guy who could come in and be the other outside cornerback if the Titans don’t love LeShaun Sims. He could be your starting outside cornerback on this roster with Logan Ryan if they want to let the young guys develop.

Meanwhile, you could have Adoree Jackson be the nickel CB who comes in and pushes either Haden or Ryan to the slot depending on the matchup. Sims can be on the bench as a high end backup.

The team has the flexibility to do that now that they have guys like Kalan Reed and Curtis Riley as CB/S hybrids. The DB group could look like this:

CBs: Joe Haden, Adoree Jackson, Logan Ryan, LeShaun Sims

Safeties: Kevin Byard, Cyp, DaNorris Searcy, Brynden Trawick

CB/S: Kalan Reed, Curtis Riley

That is a two deep list at CB and safety with swing guys who can do it all.

Now, the question of compensation needs to be talked about. I think that you could get away with giving up a 5th round pick and getting back a 4th from them. That is a minor upgrade, but it gets the Titans into the top of Day 3 which has value.

Ian Wharton explained why this might make sense.

I don't know where the Joe Haden trade rumors are coming from but with a $14m cap hit and mediocre play, he might have negative value.
— Ian (@NFLFilmStudy) August 29, 2017

The Titans have this brief window before they have to pay Lewan and Marcus Mariota giant money and they need to walk away with something to show for it.

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If they aren’t going to make a move for someone like Marcell Dareus or another blue-chipper, and if they don’t have any goals of signing a big name free agent then this is a great way to use that excess cap room.

So, the Tennessee Titans walk away with a 4th round pick and get better in the process. That would be a great move from Jon Robinson.

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