One of the biggest mistakes a team can make is overvaluing role players who don't do "valuable things" for a team. However, there are some rare occasions where it makes sense and the Tennessee Titans find themselves in one of those situations with defensive tackle Teair Tart.
It all starts with where the team is in terms of their timeline. How close are the Tennessee Titans to competing for a championship in the NFL? I would say there is a 0.1% chance that they win a title this year and that they have put the majority of their eggs into the 2024 season whether they admit it or not.
The most important thing that the Tennessee Titans can do over the next 10 months is do everything they can to set the team up for Will Levis to succeed.
I would normally suggest investing in a wide receiver, but I can hear Mike Vrabel laughing at the idea of a passing game from across the state. Since the franchise is going to pretend that the receiver position doesn't exist, the next step would be to invest in the offensive line.
Tennessee Titans can afford to build in the trenches
Ran Carthon and Mike Vrabel actually did a good job of that this season by bringing in Andre Dillard, Peter Skoronski, and Daniel Brunskill to be the left tackle, left guard, and right guard respectively. The weakest link on the line right now is Aaron Brewer, but he is a Mike Vrabel favorite so we are stuck with him (hopefully the move back to center will help).
With an offensive line in place, the last thing to do would be to build the defense so that they can take the pressure off of the offense. Kevin Byard, Jeffery Simmons, and Harold Landry are excellent pieces to build around.
Aside from those pillars, you have guys like Arden Key, Amani Hooker, Roger McCreary, and potentially Denico Autry depending on if he wants to keep playing in 2024.
One area where the Tennessee Titans are thin is at defensive tackle where the team has done an excellent job developing UDFAs into Band-Aids over the last few years. Among those UDFA success stories is Teair Tart, but his situation has been a little different than the rest.
Instead of one year of success and then fading into the background like Isaiah Mack, Sharif Finch, and others, Tart has gotten more and more involved in the defense each year. Not only that, but he has gotten better and better each year, and the Tennessee Titans took notice of that when they gave him a solid RFA tag this offseason which he finally signed on Monday.
Tart is 27, so he is straddling the line between being a young guy or being a veteran, but a four-year deal (including a reworked 2023) makes sense for everyone.
The Tennessee Titans would get the security of having Landry, Key, Simmons, and Tart all under contract for the next three seasons and they would only need to focus on finding depth behind them during that stretch.
Tart would get his first real payday and another chance to cash in after the deal. Being a run-stuffer ages very well and he would get an opportunity to put out some fantastic tape over the next four years with such great talent around him.
Obviously, I'm not suggesting breaking the bank for Tart, but there should be very few teams in the league that have as much space as the Tennessee Titans who value Tart as highly as the Titans should.