Jadeveon Clowney and 4 other big moves the Titans could make next

What comes next for the Titans?

The Tennessee Titans made headlines yesterday for signing Derrick Henry to a 4 year/$50 million deal right before the deadline to extend franchise-tagged players.

What we didn’t know at the time was that while the move made Henry a player with an average annual value of $12.5 million, the cap hit for 2020 was actually $4 million less than what it was going to be on the franchise tag.

That is a fairly huge detail because that means instead of the Titans having $17 million in cap space (15th in the NFL), they now have nearly $24 million in cap space (6th in the NFL).

That opens up a lot of options for the Tennessee Titans, some bigger than others. And while there is one name destined to come up in every conversation about potential free agents in Tennessee, he also isn’t the only option for the team.

Right now the team is basically locked in at every starting position with the exception of EDGE, potentially kicker and then right tackle which will go the winner of Dennis Kelly vs Isaiah Wilson.

But then you have to start talking about other positions that need depth like wide receiver and defensive tackle.

So what options are out there that make sense for the Titans? Let’s start with the obvious.

Jadeveon Clowney, EDGE

Clowney is so penciled in on the Titans roster that he came up directly and indirectly in today’s press conference with Derrick Henry.

Indirectly (first):

Directly (second):

And of course, Clowney is an ideal fit for the Tennessee Titans and we have been talking about it for what seems like years at this point.

Not only does he solve the Titans need for an EDGE starter opposite Harold Landry, but he solves their depth problem at DT as well. During Mike Vrabel’s year as DC in Houston, Clowney played 15% of his snaps in the A-gap or B-gap.

That gives other EDGEs like Vic Beasley, Kamalei Correa, D’Andre Walker, and Derick Roberson the option of coming in and allowing Clowney to kick inside or go off the field and rest keeping the front fresh and challenging for offensive lines.

Josh Gordon, WR

Get used to this theme because three of these next four players are all wide receivers.

Specifically, I have actually written about the possibility of signing Gordon before saying:

"Gordon’s career on the field has been thrilling as the former Baylor Bear averages 17.2 yards per catch and only once in his NFL career has he had a season where he didn’t register at least one catch of more than 50 yards. When he was a starter he averaged over 70 receiving yards per game in his 6-year career, and even after missing two full seasons he showed he could be a quality wide receiver in the NFL when he was on the field. To me, the Titans have to at least attempt to sign him knowing that you are probably going to have one more year of Corey Davis before a move is made there. So why not make a big boom or bust signing now and then if you hit, great. If not, then no harm, no foul you just move on and make a bigger play for a WR in 2021."

Gordon is great when he is on the field and right now the Titans are trying to choose whether Trevion Thompson or Cody Hollister should be the WR5 on this roster. Are you telling me that you would rather roll the dice on those guys than signing Gordon?

If your answer is yes, don’t worry because even if the Titans signed Gordon, there is a great chance that those guys will be on the market ready to pick up at any point during the season.

Stephen Gostkowski, Kicker

If you are going to bring a kicker in to compete with Greg Joseph for the job, then it should be Gostkowski.

Right now there is a lot of talk about Gostkowski potentially signing with the Titans. The majority of that comes from the general unrest at the position, but flames were fanned when it was found out that he bought a house in Franklin, Tennessee (a suburb of Nashville).

Now that might be nothing because it is true that Gostkowski has been with the New England Patriots for his entire career until now. He played his college ball at Memphis, so maybe he is just coming home.

Well, I thought about that but he actually grew up in Mississippi and was born in Louisiana, and Nashville is about 5 hours from Memphis. So is that really all there is to it?

I don’t know, but it is interesting that a prolific kicker who played on the Patriots with Mike Vrabel (and while Jon Robinson was in the front office) is suddenly moving back home right when things are unstable for the Titans kickers.

Taylor Gabriel, WR

Another player that I have been writing about as an option for the Titans for over a year, Gabriel is someone uniquely equipped to play in Tennessee’s offense:

"The Tennessee Titans don’t need just any receiver, they need a speed receiver who can take the top off of defenses. Very few players have quietly defined speed as well as Gabriel has in his NFL career."

Now, Jon Robinson ended up finding that in Kalif Raymond who made some huge catches for Tennessee last year, but Gabriel is someone who could give the Titans more of that big play ability.

The beauty with this is that given the current lack of depth for Tennessee at wide receiver, they don’t have to cut Raymond for this move to make sense. Having more speed is never a bad thing and the Titans already have plenty of big pass catchers.

Corey Davis, A.J. Brown, Anthony Firkser, and Jonnu Smith all can win using height and physicality, but right now if the Titans wanted someone to take the top off of the defense Raymond is their only speedy option (but I know Brown could do it too even though it isn’t his specialty).

Bring Gabriel in, reduce his role and make him one of the most explosive players in the NFL again.

Keenan Allen, WR

Alright, let’s swing for the fences here.

The future of the L.A. Chargers passing offense is probably Mike Williams, Hunter Henry and Austin Ekeler, and that is a good trio. Sure, having Keenan Allen is going to help those guys, but right now it looks like the Chargers are going to have to let Henry walk in a year given their cap situation.

Making that worse, it is time to start figuring out how to pay that defense with Joey Bosa, Melvin Ingram, Chris Harris, Casey Hayward, Derwin James (5th-year option), and Uchenna Nwosu all set to become free agents in the next two years.

If we are being honest, the Chargers aren’t really trying to win in 2020 and they made that clear by saying that they feel comfortable starting Tyrod Taylor and then drafting Justin Herbert who probably needs some time to adapt to the NFL.

Instead, their best option is to trade Allen (who is in the final year of his deal) for a top-100 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. There they can load up on skill position talent if they want to, or even better they can grab Penei Sewell.

If you don’t know who that is, he is Oregon’s left tackle that people rave about and Herbert would obviously be extremely comfortable with him considering the time they spent together at Oregon.

The Titans have seen Allen twice in the Mike Vrabel era and in those contests, he combined for 9 catches and 133 yards including some really impressive grabs.

While the Titans offense isn’t the perfect fit for how much volume he wants, this doesn’t have to be a marriage. If the Titans trade the 3rd round comp pick they got for Jack Conklin and get back a year of a WR who averages 1,000-yard a season, then they will likely get that comp pick back in the 2022 draft.

In the meantime, they will add yet another weapon to an offense that would be absolutely loaded with threats.