Tennessee Titans rumors: Arguments for and against trading for Julio Jones

Here’s what the Tennessee Titans haven’t traded for Jones yet?

Any deal with the Falcons is going to come after June 2nd because of Jones’ contract situation. Jason Fitzgerald explained the whole situation very well here, but this is the simplified version. The team that trades for Julio (the Titans in this case) would be trading for a deal that breaks down like this:

3-years/$38.33 million deal with $17.3 million guaranteed

2021: $15.3 million (all guaranteed)

2022: $11.5 million (just $2 million guaranteed)

2023: $11.5 million (no guaranteed money)

Basically, that means that the Titans would need to believe that he could make an instant impact in 2021, and then after that, you can worry about reducing his cap hit, extending him, cutting him, trading him, and etcetera because he only has $2 million guaranteed in his final two seasons.

Even at this discounted rate, the Titans are going to have to clear up some cap space if they are going to make a move. Albert Breer tweeted recently that they are currently in the bottom ten in terms of cap space in the NFL.

That shouldn’t be a major factor in stopping a trade because the Titans have so many malleable contracts on the roster. Ryan Tannehill, Rodger Saffold, and Ben Jones are all players that could reduce their immediate cap hit with a restructured deal and it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to give Ben Jones an extension given his high level of play and his lack of guaranteed money.