The Tennessee Titans are about to be in a rare predicament.
I’m not sure if this has happened since the salary cap has been instated, but the Tennessee Titans actually have too many good players scheduled to hit free agency.
This could be a pretty long post, so let’s start at the beginning. Where do things stand now for the Titans in terms of cap room. All numbers and values are according to OTC.
Current cap space: $30.5 million
This is great for a few reasons. First of all, it gives the Titans the opportunity to address some of these current contracts now. By structuring the contracts a certain way, they can reduce the cap hit down the road and take more of it upfront while they have this money.
A second reason that this is good is because the Titans can bring in free agents who may be cheaper long term to re-sign in 2020 and give them a chance to compete for a job.
For example, let’s say that they want to find a center of the future, but don’t think that they can pay Ben Jones $5.5 million next year (his current salary). They could bring in Stefan Wisniewski (who has been a career swing IOL in zone schemes) and sign him to a deal for 2 years, $8 million with $4 million GTD.
That looks big on paper, but what if it is structured like the Cameron Wake deal? Make it a $4 million deal all GTD in 2020 and then completely cutable next year. If you think he is an upgrade at center you just plug him in in 2020 and save $1.5 million.