Do the Tennessee Titans want to go after the big name or the small trade?
The Tennessee Titans and Dallas Cowboys are similar in a lot of ways, so it makes sense that there are actually two trade targets that the teams could discuss.
One of the big similarities between the two teams is that the Dallas Cowboys are also facing a cap crunch nightmare at the end of this season.
The difference there is that the Titans actually have some people signed after next year but it really feels like a huge chunk of the starters on both sides of the ball for the Cowboys are up for grabs after this season.
According to OTC, the Cowboys have 14 players set to hit free agency after this year that played 40% or more snaps. Compare that to just 10 from the Titans.
The big name stands out because he seems like one of the players in the NFL most likely to be moved before the season, La’el Collins.
The former LSU lineman had all the potential coming out in the 2015 NFL Draft and it looks like he finally lived up to that potential this year. However, the Cowboys are going to lose him to free agency after this year.
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And if you think they will re-sign him then you are basically saying that they gave up a 3rd round draft picks to do that. Obviously I am talking about when they spent a 2019 3rd round pick on Connor McGovern and interior offensive lineman from Penn State.
The plan seems like McGovern will start at left guard and 2018 2nd round pick Connor Williams will move from left guard to right tackle.
For the Titans, Collins could come in and immediately sure up the right guard position giving them a massive body with experience on the inside next to whoever wins the right tackle job. This is very similar to what they did on the left side with Rodger Saffold.
The other candidate for a trade is Antwaun Woods. If that name sounds familiar to you, it means you have been a Tennessee Titans fan long enough to know the pain of losing an UDFA to another team only for that player to develop and turn into a starter in that system. If this pain is new to you, don’t worry you get used to it.
Woods was a DT out of USC when the Titans got him after the draft and he always looked like he could play in the NFL. Turns out he can and he was very good last year as a run stuffing nose tackle type.
There is no reason to trade Woods if you are trying to keep the 53 most talented players on your team, however that isn’t the case as I noted in my DT breakdown for the Titans:
"“Woods would make that list [of UFAs that the team needed to re-sign] too in most years, but the Cowboys are actually really deep at DT. Between the draft and UDFA they landed Trysten Hill and Daniel Wise, after they had already added Kerry Hyder and Christian Covington in free agency.The aren’t going to keep seven defensive tackles in a four-man front, right?So why not go ahead and bring in Woods who will be an RFA after this season to fill a short term gap and then to possibly be a young player to add to the Jurrell Casey, Jeffery Simmons rotation (Woods is just 26).”"
He is the perfect bridge player until Simmons gets healthy and he could absolutely be a long-term rotational player going forward for the Titans.
If the plan for the future is to play Casey/Simmons together and then ultimately move Simmons to 3-tech in the future when they need someone to take over Casey’s role, then why not have your in house replacement at 1-tech already set up?
The Tennessee Titans can’t go wrong making a move for either one of these players and I think their paths to starting and making and impact on this team are both clear. If I had to make a list of five teams that I think are most likely to do business with the Titans, Dallas would be one there.