What near-trade means for Titans
You can never accuse Tennessee Titans GM Jon Robinson of being complacent.
While everyone was focused on free agency unofficially starting in 12 hours, Jon Robinson was calling up former colleague and current Houston Texans GM Nick Caserio to make a deal.
The Houston Texans are blowing up their roster trying to recover as many draft picks as possible in the process, and one of the victims is long-time starter Benardrick McKinney. Like nearly every free agent or trade candidate that the Titans discuss, McKinney has a clear connection to the coaching staff.
McKinney played directly under Mike Vrabel from 2015-2017 and was off to a great start, even earning second-team All-Pro honors in 2016.
Since Vrabel left, McKinney has slowly become less and less effective and was ultimately traded today for a pass-rushing EDGE who has never had more than 6.5 sacks (Shaq Lawson) and a late-round pick swap.
Houston gave Benardrick McKinney permission to seek a trade over the last few days. The Dolphins and Titans showed the most interest. It came together this AM. https://t.co/kE9qs8lI8D
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 14, 2021
McKinney would have been an interesting fit in Tennessee, but I don’t think their pursuit of the linebacker is the big takeaway here for Titans fans. In fact, I think there are two things that we should infer from this that have nothing to do with McKinney.
First, the Tennessee Titans are going to be creative in their pursuit of players this year and despite a rough outing last offseason, they are going to broaden their scope instead of narrowing it down (more on that in a second).
The other takeaway is that this is bad news if you are Rashaan Evans, but maybe not-so-bad news if you are David Long.
Let’s talk about Robinson’s creativity for a second.