3 mistakes the Tennessee Titans have to avoid in replacing Nicholas Petit-Frere
By Will Lomas
1. Overpaying for a free agent
The Tennessee Titans are in a dangerous spot because the gut reaction is to scour the free agent market to find an offensive tackle that can plug-and-play for the first six games of the season.
Maybe a backup can step up and make an argument for themselves in training camp, but as it stands right now the most obvious solution is to find one of those journeyman veterans to plug in at right tackle.
There is one reason why the Tennessee Titans have to be very careful with what they do on that front: they can't let this suspension cost them DeAndre Hopkins.
Six games with Dennis Daley at right tackle isn't as bad as an entire season with Nick Westbrook-Ikhine as the WR2 if they could have had Hopkins. While NWI is obviously a better player than Daley, this turns a six-game problem into a season-long problem, and there is no guarantee that the veteran that they bring in won't struggle to get his footing.
I'm all for bringing in a free agent, but if they go that route, Ran Carthon and Chad Brinker will need to be very smart in how they structure a deal.