4 Tennessee Titans who are at risk of being cut after 2020

A look into the future for the Tennessee Titans.

With training camp nearly here, I want to take one more look at some Tennessee Titans players who are at risk after the 2020 NFL season.

These are players that have to find a way to either reduce their cap hit or make themselves invaluable to the Titans between now and the end of the season or they will end up in the precarious situation of being “on the bubble” with age not necessarily on their side.

You may be asking what specific groups are “at risk” well, I didn’t have a perfect idea of it until this weekend when I read this tweet from a cap guru:

OTC is my favorite site to use when finding cap space and ways to mess around to create cap space, so when Jason talks, I listen.

So, we are looking for players who make $4-$9 million per year with the caveat that if you have a big cap hit and can be cut without a lot of dead money, you are also probably a pretty clear candidate to be “at risk” after 2020.

Malcolm Butler, CB

Right now I am confident in saying that Malcolm Butler isn’t getting the respect he deserves.

With big free agent signings, too many times people worry about the impact you have on a team immediately, and when I say immediately I mean within the first month or two.

Butler is a prime example of that because while he did struggle badly in his first half of a season with Tennessee, he rebounded quickly, and since that time he has been one of the better cornerbacks in the NFL.

Without Butler, the Titans defense took a big step back and it can’t be stated enough how much different the end of Tennessee’s postseason run could have been if Adoree Jackson and Malcolm Butler had remained healthy the entire season.

Still, if there is an ideal 2021 cut candidate on the roster it is between Butler and the next player on this list because of what it would do for the cap.

Right now Butler is scheduled to make nearly $15 million in 2021 and only $4 million of that is guaranteed for 2021. Butler will be 31 at that point and the Titans just spent a 2nd round pick on a player who is capable of playing on the boundary in the NFL in Kristian Fulton.

Nothing is going to be ideal if the cap is only $175 million, but the Titans have a potential contingency plan in place in case Butler can’t prove to be invaluable.

Ben Jones, C

This one is bad because I think the Titans made a huge misstep in the 2020 NFL Draft at this position. In the first round, Tennessee should have taken a cornerback for obvious immediate reasons and for the reasons I listed in the last slide about needing long-term options.

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However, when Jack Conklin was allowed to walk in free agency it created a hole on the roster at a premium position. Looking at how the draft fell, I would have preferred the combination of Jeff Gladney, Matt Hennessy and Darrynton Evans.

But, this isn’t about crying over spilled milk, it is about why Ben Jones is a cut candidate even though the Titans have no backup center right now.

Jones is scheduled to make $7.3 million in 2020 and only $1 million of that is guaranteed. I would hate to see Jones get cut because I think he has shown the ability to be a good center when surrounded by talent.

However, there are 9 centers that are scheduled to hit free agency after the season who played 50% or more of their team’s snaps in 2019. Maybe that means that there is a deal to be made that keeps Jones in Tennessee where he won’t have to compete with those other free agents.

If not, it is hard to imagine the Titans keeping him if they sign Clowney and spend a lot of their cap space that they need to roll over into 2021.

Kenny Vaccaro, S

Kenny Vaccaro is one half of the best safety tandem in the NFL, and you are allowed to disagree as long as you know that you are wrong.

Having said that, he is scheduled to make $7 million or more over the next two seasons and Tennessee has a deep group of DBs including Dane Cruikshank, Amani Hooker, Kareem Orr, and Chris Jackson. That group is athletic and versatile, and it wouldn’t shock me to see the Titans try to play them all at safety and nickel this season at some point if they get the chance.

I think Vaccaro’s main competition will be Hooker and we have seen them use Hooker a lot back in his rookie season in 2019. While he didn’t make any big plays, the Titans front office was obviously high on him because they traded up to get him and the coaching staff must like him as well if he got the nod over an older player like Dane Cruikshank.

If Hooker is the guy then that is bad news for Vaccaro who has been everything the Titans wanted when they signed him, but who may be at the most risk here because of the pandemic. Without that, I think Vaccaro would be a mainstay on the roster for a long time.

Dennis Kelly, OT

Another situation where the team drafting a young player can come back to bite the veteran.

There is no doubt in my mind that as of July 27th, the Titans’ best option is to start Dennis Kelly at right tackle over 1st round rookie Isaiah Wilson. However, having a third offensive tackle on your books is expensive and it only has a big impact when one of your starters goes down.

Ideally, you have a guy like that, but if the Titans are going to be forced to make some hard choices between making sure their starters are talented and making sure they are deep, you have to side with the starters.

Kelly is well respected by everyone in the locker room and I think you would be hardpressed to find someone who can confidently tell you that they would have preferred Jack Conklin to start over Dennis Kelly this time last year.

So if Kelly does leave the Titans it will probably be through a trade and not as a cut, but either way, it is going to be tough to lose a swing tackle like Kelly if the Titans are faced with that choice. Especially because I will believe (until shown otherwise) that he is the second-best tackle on the Titans roster right now.