Pros and Cons of Vic Beasley not playing with the Titans in 2020
By Will Lomas
Con #1: The Titans would get back $9.5 million
Right now, Vic Beasley is scheduled to be paid $9.5 million and he is the 7th highest-paid player on the Titans roster.
While that seems like a misprint, it is true now that Derrick Henry is off the franchise tag and on to a much more team-friendly deal.
If Vic Beasley were to opt-out of his deal with the Titans, that means that he would get $150,000 as essentially a loan from the team, and he would remove his entire cap hit from the roster.
Tennessee currently has $24 million in cap space on the books for this year which is 4th best in the NFL (pending whatever the final number is with New England). This move would push them up to nearly $34 million, putting them in 3rd and very close to the top spot which is the Cleveland Browns with $38 million.
That is a lot of money and a lot of flexibility when you remember that a cap drop is likely coming in 2021, and for a player that is more of a supplement to the starting defense instead of a true starter, that would be a very nice consolation prize.
Sure, cap space doesn’t mean that you have a better team or that you will automatically be able to improve your roster next year because bad deals get signed every single season. However, it does mean that you will have the freedom to pursue anyone that you believe can help your team and that is valuable for an NFL GM.