If you are a Tennessee Titans fan and you have listened to any radio station in the Nashville area over the last two months, you have probably heard comments about the team’s cap space.
For those who haven’t heard, the Tennessee Titans are projected to be $23 million over the salary cap in 2023. That is a scary number and has prompted people to talk about the hard decisions the next GM will have to make.
But…that isn’t really true. Ran Carthon’s first obstacle should be an absolute layup and it should take him about five minutes to figure out how to fix this problem.
In fact, given Mike Vrabel’s level of roster control, it might be something that has already been solved and just not announced.
Tennessee Titans can create cap space quickly
This is going to be an offseason of change, but a lot of that change has been written in pencil by fans for months. All they are waiting for is for the official word to come down and for the moves to be made.
There are a group of players that are likely to be cut both for cap reasons and they are:
1. Taylor Lewan
2. Bud Dupree
3. Zach Cunningham
4. Jamarco Jones
5. Robert Woods
And unfortunately, the smart money is on Ben Jones retiring, so you can consider his contract “cut” for cap purposes.
Those moves alone would create $46 million in cap space, bringing the Tennessee Titans’ cap space to nearly $27 million.
The expectation is that left tackle and wide receiver were going to be an offseason need either way, Rashad Weaver will take over Dupree’s spot, Cunningham will be replaced by Monty Rice and/or Jack Gibbens, and Jamarco Jones never truly existed.
Now the next part is going to be where Ran Carthon is going to have to make some moderately difficult decisions. Do you extend Ryan Tannehill to make lower his cap number and spread his cap hit out (which is the smart move)?
Mike Vrabel was clearly angry with David Long Jr., but do you let one of your best defenders walk because your coach is upset with him because he got injured?
How does Carthon feel about guys like Ryan Tannehill, Derrick Henry, Denico Autry, and Kevin Byard? Those guys are key players on the field that Mike Vrabel loves, but if he doesn’t think that the team is going to compete in the next two years then is there a way to help the team with a trade?
You don’t get many chances to use a rebuild as an excuse to move on from fan-favorite veterans so unless he wins a ring at some point in Tennessee, then this is probably the only time he can get a pass from moving on from a player like that.
Obviously, I’m not advocating for any of these moves (other than the five easy cuts), but these are things that will absolutely be considered over the next month. These are the questions that really matter so don’t get distracted by the easy cap decisions.