The Tennessee Titans have started making cuts, what comes next?

In the least shocking news of the day, the Tennessee Titans have released Taylor Lewan.

If you have been keeping up with the Titans or Lewan at all then you knew this was coming, in fact, Lewan had already openly talked about how he knew he was going to be cut before the season had even ended.

That doesn’t mean that this is the last that you will see of #77 however.

Right now, it appears that the door isn’t shut on Taylor Lewan returning to the Tennessee Titans on a different contract that doesn’t carry such a high cap number. Jim Wyatt first reported this from the Super Bowl and nothing has changed since then.

As long as that door is slightly cracked, there is a hope that he could come back and act as a bridge between the present and the future at left tackle.

He wasn’t the only cut the Tennessee Titans made today.

Wide receiver Robert Woods, linebacker Zach Cunningham, and kicker Randy Bullock were all released as well. The Tennessee Titans started the day $20+ million over the salary cap, but after those moves, they now have $12.5 million to spend if they want.

What is next for the Tennessee Titans?

Things are happening hour by hour in Tennessee, but there are some moves on the horizon that have been clear for months.

One will be cutting EDGE Bud Dupree. He made an impact when he was on the field, but he was paid a lot of money to be the bookend to Harold Landry in a contract year. While he helped prove that Landry was worth a big new deal, he could never stay healthy and whether that was an issue with the Tennessee Titans training staff or an issue of his own will be determined by whoever signs him next.

Another will probably be for center Ben Jones to retire. It is hard to imagine Jones coming back after the series of head injuries he sustained, and he will be missed badly by the coaches and the guys in the locker room.

Jamarco Jones is also very likely to be cut, but that isn’t very important except that the Tennessee Titans will almost certainly have to add at least five offensive linemen this offseason.

Those three moves would push the Tennessee Titans up to $26 million in cap space this year (with $152 million in cap space in 2024).

One more cut that could happen despite two years of incredible production and effort, is EDGE Denico Autry. His cut would bring that cap space up to $33.5 million.

The biggest question marks are on Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry whose trades would probably bring back something like a late 1st round pick and a 2nd round pick when you look at Tannehill’s cheap cost and Henry’s perceived immortality.

In addition to the draft picks, those trades would also take $24 million off of the books.

If Ran Carthon went full rebuild mode and did all of those moves, the Tennessee Titans would have $57.5 million to spend in 2023, $167 million to spend in 2024, and theoretically, they would have multiple first and second-round picks.

The dominos have started falling, and we are about to see just how much of a makeover Ran Carthon and Mike Vrabel want to give this team.