Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Cap Space Update, Bud Dupree Status And What Moves Come Next

Episode Date: February 24, 2023

The Tennessee Titans executed some major moves this week with the release of Taylor Lewan, Robert Woods, Zach Cunningham and Randy Bullock. How much cap space do they have now after the cuts. Also, what is going on with Bud Dupree after he was expected to be cut? Finally, what additional moves can the Titans make to clear more cap space? Tyler breaks it all down on today's Locked On Titans podcast!!Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnTitans/videosSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Ultimate Football GMTo download the game just visit Ultimate-GM.com or look it up on the app stores. Our listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo LOCKEDON (ALL CAPS) in the game store.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get startedFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How much cap space do the Tennessee Titans have and what moves are coming next? I'll discuss all that and more on today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. You are Locked on Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland.

Titans fans, we've got a lot to talk about today. Where are the Titans at with their cap space right now? What moves are coming next? We're going to talk Jeffrey Simmons extension. We're going to talk Bud Dupree and the timing of his situation. We're also going to talk about some restructures and some other extensions the Titans could use to create even more cap space. Before we get into it,

I do want to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round on all platforms and always for free. I do want to let you guys know that next week we are going to start the free agency preview as we go position by position through the offense and the defense to look at what is

available on the market for the Tennessee Titans. But make sure that you get subscribed and stay subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast for year round free Titans content. You're not going to want to miss what I have coming up next with that free agency preview. But with that in mind, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, nearly 25 years as a Tennessee Titans fanatic and a certified film junkie,

breaking down the X's and O's with you guys all year long. Also a staff writer for the Titans site over at Sports Illustrated. So with that all being said, let's dive into how much salary cap space the Titans have right now. So yesterday, they were able to carve out about $38 million in cap space from the four cuts that they made with Taylor LeJuan, Robert Woods, Zach Cunningham, and Randy Bullock. Now they were $23 million over the salary cap. So with those cuts, they got to about 14.8, 14.7 in savings. But you got to remember to take this into account.

The NFL determines your cap space by the top 51 salaries on your books at this time. So while the Titans cut all those players, four new players were able to slide into the top 51. So right now the Titans are in between 11 to $12 million, which yesterday I said it was about a two to $4 million difference depending on what you were looking at. So the Titans are at about $12 million in cap space. but the first order of business, according to ESPN's Diana Rossini, is a Jeffrey Simmons extension. Diana said this, Rand Carthon working hard, clearing up cap space as the Titans look to go younger and cheaper to an extent. A new very earned deal for Jeffrey Simmons should be the first order of business. And Diana has a great read on the Tennessee Titans organization. I got a feeling that Mike Vrabel

is her primary source. She gets a lot of scoops out of Tennessee. That's just my read of how things are presented. But she doesn't, Diana's not wrong there. The Titans do need to focus on getting Jeffrey Simmons an extension. Now, one thing that they can do is they could try to throw him some guaranteed money right now. Maybe take a salary down right now. But I think more likely it'll just be an extension that kicks in next year. But at this time, I mean, Jeffrey Simmons, $10 million on the salary cap.

So not a huge deal for the Titans to have Jeffrey Simmons, the second best interior defensive lineman in the entire NFL, at a $10 million cap hit. But I did think it was funny that Diana threw that in today because she's 100% right.

The Titans need to find a way to get Jeffrey Simmons taken care of, but that's not going to have a huge impact on the cap for the Titans one way or another. Most of that money and that cap hit that really needs to be paid attention to isn't going to kick in until next offseason when Jeffrey Simmons' new deal and his extension really starts to hit for big money.

But either way, I agree with her wanting to at least shout that out, that an extension for Jeffrey Simmons does have to get done. But I would expect to see that maybe in May or June, something like that for the Titans, because right now they really need to focus on carving out the books as we speak. And I did want to mention one other thing here. We talk about Jeffrey Simmons with an extension, but I think another person that

could see a potential extension is someone that we talked about recently in Derrick Henry. So this year, Derrick Henry's cap hit is $16 million. And look, Derrick Henry's a very good player, but you can't have your running back hitting your salary cap for $16 million. So I think there is a good chance that what they're able to do is they're able to do an extension with Derrick Henry, where they take some of the money that he has on his cap hit right now and take that off of his salary, turn it into signing bonus, add it in with some other bonus money to basically guarantee this year and next year for Derrick Henry and find a way to get that cap hit lower. I would say $6 million off, Take Derrick Henry's cap hit down

to about $10 million. This year, that would save the Titans another $6 million. So now you're talking about $18 million that the Titans have to play with. I think that's a move that absolutely has to happen. So the two biggest players on both sides of the ball for the Titans, Jeffrey Simmons, his extension should be in line. That should be something that comes next for the Titans. They have to get that done before training camp. They simply have to. So that should be something big that's coming next. But for the salary cap purposes, which we're going to continue talking about with Bud Dupree and some other moves the Titans can make with some players, I think you have to find a way to extend Henry. He's got money this year. Add in another year.

Give yourself two more years of Derrick Henry guaranteed and find a way to lower that cap hit because $16 million for Derrick Henry against the cap this year, it's just unmanageable. It's just not something that you're going to be able to deal with. So that's two of the biggest moves that are going to be coming next for the Titans.

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Jeffrey Simmons extension that should be coming down the pike here shortly for the Titans, but shouldn't have any kind of major impact on the Titans salary cap this year. But doing an extension with Derrick Henry and adding on an extra guaranteed year for him would really help lower that $16 million cap hit that Henry has on him this year. We're going to talk about more moves that could be made, a couple of cuts here that we need to talk about, including what is going on with Bud Dupree. After a lot of people expected Bud Dupree to be cut, we're also going to talk about some other extensions and some other restructures that the Titans could do as well to clear out even more cap space.

Before we get into that, I do want to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content on all platforms all year long and always for free. Stay locked into the Locked on Titans podcast. Get subscribed.

Stay subscribed. It's your team every day. But we got to talk about what is going on with Bud Dupree. So I'm not going to lie. I've been forecasting Bud Dupree to get cut since he signed his contract. In this offseason right here, it was a two-year deal. There was always an out. And quite frankly, Bud Dupree has not lived up to his contract.

Bud Dupree is a starter in the NFL if he can stay healthy. And I would say that he's worth about $10 to $12 million. But the Titans are set to pay him $20 million on the salary cap. If they cut Bud Dupree, they save $9 million. And they get $11 million in dead cap, yes, but then you never have to pay for it anymore. So it's kind of just biting the bullet right now. But Bud Dupree wasn't cut with the initial Titans that were let go on Wednesday. And it had a lot of people wondering why, wondering if maybe they were looking at

an extension or a restructure with Bud Dupree to keep him on the team. As I said on yesterday's show at one point, not so fast. I still think that Bud Dupree gets cut. And I said that it was probably going to be a post-June 1st cut. Even if it's not, whether they designate it post-June 1st, which would save them $15 million, or whether they go ahead and cut Bud Dupree as a normal cut before free agency, they would still save the $9 million there. I think that's money that you need.

But we got a very interesting piece of information from one of these cap gurus on Twitter about Bud Dupree on Thursday. And it is Jason from Over the Cap. They're SpotTrack or SpotRack, however you want to say it. And then there's Over the Cap. They're both very good sites.

They can differ by a couple of million dollars, which I talked about yesterday. But here's what Jason had to say about Bud Dupree and him not getting cut yesterday. He says, quote, regarding Bud Dupree not being a part of the Titans cuts so far, he has a partial salary guarantee in 2023, which pretty much means the Titans have to wait until the start of the new league year to release him. Okay. So if the Titans are going to cut Bud Dupree, which I think they will, they're not going to be able to officially do it until March the 15th, which is the actual beginning of the league year, 4 p.m. Eastern on March 15th. Now, you may also notice that that coincides with the beginning of the free agency period.

Okay? That is exactly how that works. Now, I don't want anybody to worry, oh, no, now the Titans won't be able to have the Bud Dupree money during free agency. Well, you guys know that free agency, if you don't know, now you know, but most of you know, that free agency negotiations start at the combine next week. Okay?

That's where agents and teams start to talk about free agency. That's why as soon as free agency opens, there's all these reports about deals and we see how complex these deals are with signing bonus, roster day bonuses, how much the salary is going to be the first year compared to the signing bonus money

and how they're going to structure the cap hit and front load and back load and all these different facets. How do you think they work that out in about 20 minutes? They don't. They talk about it at the combine and they talk about it leading up to free agency. So the Titans may not be able to cut Bud Dupree officially

until March 15th, but they're still going to be able to have conversations with free agents and negotiate with free agents based on that money, having Bud Dupree's money. They know they're going to cut him by March 15th. So they know they're going to have that $9 million in cap space. They know they're going to eat the $11 million in cap space. And they're still going to be able to negotiate with free agents knowing that they have that money. Now, here is one benefit though, that I mentioned on yesterday's show

that the Titans could be snooping around a little bit with Bud Dupree on a trade. Because Bud Dupree's salary is $17 million. Okay, that's a lot. We talk about trading a player and them just taking the salary. Even if they didn't take any of the guaranteed money due to Bud Dupree that the Titans are eating in dead money. Still taking $17 million in salary is no walk in the park for a guy in Bud Dupree. He's Still taking $17 million in salary is no walk in the park for a guy in Bud Dupree.

He's not worth $17 million anymore. But if you're a team and you acquire Bud Dupree and you give him an extension for one year and you move the money around to get him to, let's say, $10 to $12 million on the salary cap, I think Bud Dupree is worth about $10 to $12 million on the salary cap as a free agent. I think that sounds about right. So, if you know you're going to cut Bud Dupree and you can't do it until the 15th,

Dupree and you can't do it until the 15th, why would you not see if anybody wants to trade for Bud Dupree? Now, it's not going to be anything of incredible substance. I'm thinking a sixth or seventh round pick, but wouldn't you rather get a sixth or a seventh round pick to lose Bud Dupree rather than just cutting him anyways? I mean, it's something or nothing. Now, I think it's probably unlikely, but there may be a team out there who would say, you know what? If we get Bud Dupree for about 10 million a season for the next two seasons, I'll give up a sixth round pick for that because if we're right, Bud Dupree is a starting level edge rusher. And are you going to get that in the sixth or the seventh round? Probably not. edge rusher. And are you going to get that in the 6th or the 7th round? Probably not.

So, for the Titans, it would make sense to look for a trade between now and the 15th. But, again, you're not going to be incredibly impacted by Bud Dupree not being able to be released until the 15th of March because you can still do your discussions with free agents knowing that that money is going to become available to you on the 15th if you do Bud Dupree as a regular cut. So, that's something that absolutely is going to

happen. I'm sorry. Again, you can come dunk on me if I'm wrong, but I've been wrong for two years then, and that's fine because if the Titans keep Bud Dupree or extend Bud Dupree or restructure Bud Dupree, it'll be a grave mistake for Rand Carthon to do that. And I don't think they will. So just wanted to cover that real

quick. Why Bud Dupree is not being cut right now. They got to wait until the 15th. Why do, why announce that now or anything like that when you can still have the leverage and possibility of maybe trading him for a late round pick before you have to release him. So I think having this little period is actually a good thing for the Titans. But with that in mind, we are going to move forward because there's some more cuts and there's some more extensions slash restructures

that the Titans could do to save even more money than they have right now. Because right now as we stay in, they have about $12 million in salary cap and that ain't gonna cut it. Okay. So more moves have to be made. We're going to continue, continue today's episode in just a moment. Before we do want to let you know that today's episode is brought to you by the ultimate pro football GM app. We're talking about these cuts, these trades, these moves. If you want to be a general manager

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That's ultimate-gm.com. The Ultimate Pro Football GM app. Start your dynasty today. Titans fans, let's cap off today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We talked about where the Titans are at cap space wise right now, about $12 million. We talked about Big Jeff getting an extension. Diana Rossini from ESPN says that is the number one priority, and she is speaking for Mike Vrabel there.

Talked about Bud Dupree's situation. He can't be cut until March the 15th, so it would make sense for the Titans to maybe look for a trade partner during that time, but I still do expect Bud Dupree to be cut and it won't affect the Titans free agent discussions or anything like that. They know they'll have that money on the 15th. But now I want to talk about some other moves that the Titans can make to clear out even more cap space. So I've talked about Jamarco Jones before. $1 million, it'd be 1.4 in dead cap. Yeah, there is some logic to just letting Jamarco Jones come back. Maybe he's healthy and he can compete for an offensive line spot. A team that needs offensive line,

maybe that can make sense. And he was always a Vrabel guy, not a J-Rob guy. So maybe Vrabel wants him to come back and get a shot, but they could save 1 million by cutting him. We've obviously talked about Ryan Tannehill ad nauseum. Cut him. You save $18 million. You get $18 million in dead cap. The Titans aren't going to do that unless they have a better option to play quarterback ready to go. Because the Titans, whether we want them to or not,

some people are in the comments all the time saying they want the Titans to tank. I get it. I get it. Collapse for Caleb. Mayday for May. I understand all that if that's how you feel, but Mike Vrabel doesn't feel that way. And Rancart the Hun doesn't want to do that in his first year. So I think that they keep Tannehill. You can cut Jamarco Jones.

You definitely cut Bud Dupree. If you cut Jamarco Jones. You definitely cut Bud Dupree. If you cut Jamarco Jones and you cut Bud Dupree, that's an extra $10 million of salary cap space. You give an extension to Derrick Henry, restructure his contract for an extra year out. You save $6 million right there. So you could do that. And if you cut Bud Dupree, you cut Jamarco Jones,

you restructure Derrick Henry, now you're looking at like $28-$30 million in cap space. You could actually work with that. You can restructure Kevin Byard. Shout out to

FWordsPod. He made a big stake about this on Twitter on Thursday that Kevin Byard cannot play on a $19 million cap hit. Well, I think, yes, he can. Kevin Byard's worth that, period. But they could do a restructure or some sort of extension with Kevin Byard to lower his cap, say $6 million. Now you're talking about like $34, $35 million.

Also, Danico Autry has no further guaranteed money on his contract. It would be easy to do an extension with him. Maybe save yourself about $5 million there. Now we're getting close to $39.40. So those are moves. You could also do a restructure with Harold Landry. I don't know if I want to go that far into the well. I don't think they need $50 million in cap space.

You can settle in at about 35 and feel pretty good about what you're able to do. Getting a left tackle, getting a wide receiver, getting some depth pieces as well. So I think those are moves that should come next for the Titans. But here's one reason why I'm a little... I'm not as worried about certain restructures with certain players as I would be otherwise.

Because we talked about earlier this week or last week about how much cap space the Titans are going to have in 2024. If the cap goes up $20 million like it's expected, even if it only goes up to $10 million, the Titans have little to no money on the books and big contracts next year.

Now, you add in Jeffrey Simmons, you add in some of the free agents they signed this year, you add in the draft class from this year. Yeah, that'll take away a little more, but the Titans could be working with anywhere from $50 to $100 million in cap space next year. Probably closer to like $70 or $80.

So some of these guys, Danico Autry, Derek Henry, Kevin Byard, why not do an extension? Why not do a restructure? Move some of their money out. I'm not worried about Kevin Bayard not playing well. He's only 29. I'm not worried about Danico Autry not giving what he's supposed to give the Titans. I'm not worried about that. Derrick Henry as well, if you improve the offensive line, you're going to have Derrick Henry for next season and the

season after that. He's going to play just fine. So I'm okay with kicking the can down the road a little bit because the Titans are going to have so much road to play with in the future to keep that analogy going. So again, the Titans are at about $12 million in cap space. Okay? You restructure or extend Derrick Henry, save $6 million there. You restructure Byrick Henry, save $6 million there. You restructure Byer, you save $6 million there.

Now you're up to about $24 million. You cut Bud Dupree, which because of a salary cap rule can't happen until the 15th of March. You're going to save $9 million there. Now you're up to $33 million. You cut Jamarco Jones, you're up to $34 million. You extend to Nico Autry, you could save about $5 million. Now you're up to 49. I mean, that right there, even without cutting Tannehill,

you got enough money to fix the offensive line and add a veteran free agency at wide receiver. And still have some room to bring back Nate Davis and bring back David Long. So, outside of all of that, a big Jeff extension, as Diana Rossini said on Thursday, has to be one of the first things that the Titans do going forward. So, last thing, Joshua Wilson just said the Titans offensive line got weaker

without Taylor LeJuan. Did it? He's played 20 out of 50 games in the last three years. I think the Titans' offensive line is pretty much just the same because Taylor LeJuan doesn't play. People acting like cutting Taylor LeJuan was some big loss for the Titans. The dude never played. He played one and a half games last year.

The dude doesn't play football anymore. So I don't see it as that big of a loss because it's not like if you kept Taylor LeJuan, the offensive line would be any better because the dude doesn't play. So, just wanted to at least throw that in there for you guys because I saw some craziness there. But anyway, that's going to do it for me today, folks.

I'll be back with you guys on Sunday night on YouTube on Monday morning for my commuters out there. If big news happens with the Titans in the next 48 hours or so, Folks, I'll be back with you guys on Sunday night on YouTube on Monday morning for my commuters out there. If big news happens with the Titans in the next 48 hours or so, I'll be right back on here to break it down with you guys. But that's going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. time.