3 Titans players in contract years who have earned new deals
By Will Lomas
1. Jonnu Smith, TE
It is hard to think that the Tennessee Titans would spend all that time developing Jonnu Smith into the monster he has become, only to let him walk in free agency.
The question right now is, what sort of deal is Smith going to ask from the Titans?
Overthecap has his evaluation as right around $10 million based on what he has done so far this year. I have to think that the Titans would be thrilled to do a four or five-year deal at that rate because it would make Smith a top-5 tight end in terms of AAV, but it wouldn’t be near the top names like George Kittle and Travis Kelce who make $15 million and $14 million respectively.
At just 25 years old he is a rising player who is tied for the NFL lead in touchdowns by a tight end despite having a bye week already and despite missing half of the game against the Houston Texans last week.
He has really turned into a very well rounded player who is just as good at sift blocking as he is at catching screen passes or breaking tackles. For Mike Vrabel, he should be looked at as the embodiment of the “next man up” mentality after replacing Delanie Walker and filling his shoes well.
For Jon Robinson, he is the perfect example of patience paying off and why we should wait a few years before we make decisions on how good picks like Derrick Henry, Jonnu Smith, Nate Davis, Kevin Byard, Harold Landry, etc. are because all of those players continued to get better and better as their career continued.