Tennessee Titans trade with Carolina Panthers that helps everyone

Titans and Panthers should make a deal.

The Tennessee Titans pulled out a win yesterday to reach 2-0, and the Carolina Panthers suffered a devastating loss.

Sure, the Panthers lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but the devastating loss is losing Christian McCaffery for the next 4-6 weeks with a high ankle sprain. That basically means that the Panthers offense now rests in the hands of Teddy Bridgewater.

Injuries are running rampant in the NFL right now, and the Titans are dealing with their own misfortune. Adoree Jackson is on injured reserve and the Tennessee secondary is suffering because of it, but more relevant right now is the bone bruise that A.J. Brown is suffering.

That is an injury with no real timetable and it is being considered “week-to-week” which is never a good sign.

The good news is that Brown hasn’t gone on I.R., so you would expect that the Titans think that he will be alright in the next two weeks or so given that the news came out before the game on Sunday and you would want to get him to I.R. as quickly as possible for an earlier return (minimum is 3 games away).

So what am I getting at? Well, let’s talk about what the Panthers and Titans might want to discuss.

Let’s start the fire sale early in Carolina.

The Panthers are at the dreaded 0-2 mark to start the 2020 NFL season, and you probably know that this is the line of demarcation between teams that are potential playoff teams and teams that are very unlikely to make the playoffs.

Justis Mosqueda did the math on the new playoff format and he updated the probability chart to reflect what 0-2 means in this new world of 14 playoff teams.

Right now, the Tennessee Titans have a 66% chance to make the playoffs based on all the historical evidence, and the Carolina Panthers have an 11% chance that gets cut in half if they lose to the L.A. Chargers next week.

Going on the road across the country to L.A. with no Christian McCaffery is going to be a really tough challenge for the Panthers, and I’m not saying the season is lost but I am saying that it is going to be an uphill battle in a tough conference.

I think the Panthers should be accepting all calls on trades for players not named McCaffery and Derrick Brown.

One of the most intriguing trades I can think of that really gives the Panthers something for nothing, is the Tennessee Titans calling them about Curtis Samuel.

Why the Panthers would trade Samuel.

If you haven’t seen much of the Carolina Panthers over the last few years, you might be wondering why the Panthers would trade Curtis Samuel despite spending a top-40 pick on him just three years ago.

Well, a better question might be why haven’t the Panthers used him this year?

Last year Samuel played more snaps than anyone other than the Panthers starting center, right tackle and McCaffery, but this year he is third on the depth chart behind D.J. Moore and Robby Anderson.

Samuel is 5th on the Panthers with just 6 touches so far this year, and that is in games where Carolina has been trying to move the ball and score points, so this isn’t like he is on a team that is trying to sit on a lead and run the clock out.

The former Ohio State Buckeye is in the final year of his contract and I would assume that he is not in the team’s long term plans. Likewise, I don’t think they are going to sit back and be passive in free agency after this season so they probably don’t expect any sort of compensatory pick for him in 2022.

Why not trade him away now to the Tennessee Titans and pick up some draft compensation, because the odds are that you are 14 games away from your season being over and having nothing to show for your 2nd round pick just a few years ago.

Why the Titans should jump on this trade.

Can you look at this and tell me what is wrong with this picture?

https://twitter.com/jwyattsports/status/1308012193967935488

Acceptable answers include:

-Cam Batson played as many snaps as Adam Humphries

–Kalif Raymond and Cam Batson combined for 62 snaps on offense

-Raymond played 28 snaps and had 0 receptions, while Firkser had 45 yards on just 14 snaps

The list goes on really, but the best answer is that there is no chance that an aspiring playoff team should have Raymond and Batson play this many snaps if they can do anything in their power to do better.

Tennessee has a chance to add a WR with legit 4.31 speed and who you can use horizontally and vertically. He is the best of what Kalif Raymond offers the Titans, except Raymond ran his 4.34 at his Pro Day (notoriously a place where players test faster) and Samuel ran his 4.31 at the NFL Combine.

The Titans shouldn’t expect to get a superstar, but if they get someone who can consistently stretch the field better than Raymond and someone who is better in a gadget role than Cameron Batson, then why wouldn’t you?

A deal would be cheap and it would give the Titans much better depth at a position that is becoming more and more crucial every game that Derrick Henry fails to top the 4 yards per carry mark.