Tennessee Titans free agency ‘would you rather’
By Will Lomas
Option C: Extend Kevin Byard
One thing became very clear to me as the season went on last year, Kevin Byard will be the leader of the Tennessee Titans defense sooner or later.
With Brian Orakpo and Derrick Morgan gone, there is going to be a lot of talk about bringing in locker room leaders and all that, but with Jurrell Casey and Kevin Byard, this team is in good hands for at least the next few years.
How do you reward a young All-Pro who is a leader on the field and off? Why not give him a huge extension?
If we are honest it is only going to get more expensive to extend Byard so why not do it now?
Jon Robinson has been a wizard this offseason, so if he could convince Byard to take anything less than $13 million per year over 6 years I absolutely would. That would lock him into a contract with the Titans until he is 31 then they can talk about an extension.
For my money, Byard is one of the best safeties in the NFL and he is the rare balanced safety that can actually do everything and isn’t limited to just being a ball hawk or a thumper. Why wouldn’t you want to lock a guy like that down for his prime?
The Titans have the cap to do that and try to front-load it as much as possible so that you don’t have to worry as much about it affecting long term cap room. Win-win.