Time to talk about Taylor Lewan’s contract with the Tennessee Titans

How does a restructure help?

This is a two-part question. First, we need to talk about what the precedent is for a high-profile player to sign an extension designed to relive cap space immediately looks like.

Secondly, we would need to figure out what deal makes the most sense for both parties.

There is no better contract in the NFL to use as a baseline for this than the deal Patrick Mahomes just signed. No one in the NFL had more leverage than the agent for Mahomes did when he was discussing an extension for the QB.

Mahomes was a 25-year-old quarterback who started two years in the NFL and won an MVP in the first year and a Super Bowl ring the second year. No quarterback has ever had that level of success at that age and been in a position to negotiate a new contract.

However, to make sure that the team didn’t have to blow up (specifically by being forced to let Chris Jones go) to accommodate his new contract, he signed a deal that only counted $5.3 million against the 2020 cap hit.

That deal will shoot up in 2021, but that is a problem for the future and it is one that will be easy to solve once the cap starts going back up (presumably after the 2021 season). But, being willing to wait a year to cash in on his deal allowed the Chiefs to reload and win the #1 seed in the AFC this year.

So, what we need to talk about is what sort of deal makes sense for Taylor Lewan. The deal and structure that I would love to see is this:

-4 years/$80 million with $31 million guaranteed

-2021: $5.3 million cap hit, $5.3 million guaranteed

-2022: $22.2 million cap hit, $10 million guaranteed

-2023: $25 million cap hit, $9.7 million guaranteed

-2024: $27.5 million cap hit, $6 million guaranteed

I used the David Bakhtiari and Garrett Bolles contracts as the basis for this contract. Lewan gets more guaranteed money, but a lower total number than Bakhtiari did (because Lewan is getting this after an ACL tear and he is a year older). It is just the opposite with the Bolles contract where the annual total value is higher, but the guarantees are lower (again, age and injury were factors).

For the Titans, this gives them $9 million more in cap space in 2021 which is probably going to be the difference in keeping a guy like Corey Davis or Jonnu Smith or letting them walk. Currently, the Titans are scheduled to have $72 million in cap space in 2022 so adding a little more that year isn’t a big deal.

Lewan gets a massive new contract that keeps him in the top-5 in annual value for left tackles in the NFL and it gives him the security of more guaranteed money in 2021 despite the lower total. It also gives him $26 million in new guaranteed money for the 2022-2024 seasons.

TL;DR: Titans get Lewan for an extra year and push his cap hit down the road when the cap should be much higher. Lewan gets a nice contract with maybe less upside than the best-case scenario but MUCH more security for a guy coming off of an ACL injury.