Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans NEED to CUT Players Soon, Who to Cut & How Much It Saves

Episode Date: February 14, 2023

Now that the NFL season is officially over, the focus will shift to early offseason roster moves. The Titans must get cap compliant by March 15th and to do so they will need to make some important veteran cuts. Who should be cut and how much will each cut save? Tyler dives into the top candidates 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!BetterHelpThis episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at Betterhelp.com/LockedOn and get on your way to being your best self.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

Titans fans, I'm going to tell you which Titans players must be cut in the next few weeks. 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 Roller. Titans fans, cap cuts are coming. Cap cuts are coming. The Titans have to become cap compliant by March the 15th and with the season officially over for the entire NFL, it's time to talk about who needs to be cut for the Titans to get cap space. Before we get into that, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by BetterHelp.

It's not a crisis line. It's not self-help. It's professional therapy done securely online, available to people worldwide. And they have a special offer for my listeners. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com slash locked on. 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, including the Locked on Titans YouTube channel and your favorite podcast app. And always, always for free,

make sure you get subscribed, stay subscribed. If you're watching the video on YouTube right now, throw a thumbs up. Show is free. All I ask for in return is the press of a button. It goes a long way to help support the show as well. So definitely do appreciate you guys tuning in. So a couple of weeks ago,

we did the offseason roadmap. And we talked about cut candidates for the Titans. Guys who made sense to be cut to get some salary cap space for the Titans. But now with the NFL season officially over for everybody, I want to kind of rehash that conversation. Go back over who those cut candidates are and how much money they could save the Titans. And the first person that we have to talk about, you already see the name in the comments, is Ryan Tannehill. And Ryan Tannehill's situation is complex. There's no way around it.

It's going to be a tough decision for the Titans. If you cut Ryan Tannehill. If you release Ryan Tannehill, you're going to save $17.8 million. But he leaves behind $18.8 dead million dollars. $18.8 million of dead money, however you want to say that. The point is, you save quite a bit of money by

cutting Ryan Tannehill, but you also have a lot of dead money as well. And the reality here is we can talk about all the other options and we have Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady before he retired. People will talk about Derek Carr. That's crazy to me, but what have you. Trading up for a quarterback, going with Malik, going with Dobbs.

All of that is fine. You can discuss that all you want. But the reality is if the Titans want to win next year, which Amy Adams-Strunk said when she fired John Robinson, she wants this team to be great. Mike Vrabel doesn't look like the type of guy who wants to tank. Rand Carthon has said multiple times he thinks this is a competitive team that just needs to retool.

The Titans are going to go out there and try to tank. They want to win. And for the Titans, realistically speaking, the best way to go out and win next year is to keep Ryan Tannehill. And I've seen some people talk about extending Ryan Tannehill, restructuring his contract to make some room. Guys, I got to tell you, I do not think that's the right move. One of the reasons that the Titans

are in this precarious situation with their salary cap is because they kicked the can down the road so many times with these restructures. The reason that Ryan Tannehill's contract is so expensive right now is because they restructured his deal to fit in Julio Jones.

You're kicking the can down the road by doing a restructure and an extension. I don't want to tie myself to Ryan Tannehill until he's 37, 38 years old. You let Ryan Tannehill play out the last year of his contract here and the money goes way down. Now, other than just cutting Ryan Tannehill outright this offseason in the next few weeks. There is the other option of designating him as a post-June 1st cut. And that means that basically it goes on the books as if you cut Ryan Tannehill after June 1st. And when you do that, you save more money.

The Titans would be able to save $27 million and only have $9 million in dead cap if they designate Ryan Tannehill as a post-June 1st cut. But the downside to that is you don't get that $27 million in savings until after June 1st. And for me, I just think the best way forward for the Titans realistic.

Now, you guys know what I would do is I'd cut Ryan Tannehill and I'd go with Dobbs or go with Malik and hope you could be in position to draft a quarterback in 2024. But the Titans are not going to do that. So to be realistic here, the best thing the Titans can do going forward is keep Ryan Tannehill, play out the last year of his contract that has guaranteed money, and then move on from him next year. It gives you a chance to win, and it also doesn't give you further penalties for his contract in the future.

Now, I know that to some of you guys, that's going to be a sad thing to hear. A lot of you guys just want to get rid of Ryan Tannehill no matter what. Just whatever you got to do. I want a new quarterback. Get rid of him. And fine. If you're so frustrated with the season and fed up with everything that we've seen going

back two years, I get it. I do. But we have to be realistic here. And for me, you just can't cut Ryan Tannehill until you have a better planet quarterback going forward because the Titans want to win next year. They don't want to tank for a quarterback. They don't want to lose. They want to win as many games as they possibly can.

So to me, spitting it to you straight, the Titans are not going to cut Ryan Tannehill unless they already have a trade in place to move up in the draft or they have something worked out like with the Packers to trade for Aaron Rodgers or something crazy that we won't be expecting. Basically, if the Titans do release Ryan Tannehill in the next few weeks, the conspiracies will begin. That's all I know there. But wanted to tackle the tough decision that the Titans have

with Ryan Tannehill to start out today's show. Again, we did talk about this a couple of weeks ago, but now the NFL season is finally closed. Want to go back over what the options the Titans have are once again. But Ryan Tannehill, for me, can't cut Tannehill unless you have a better plan in place. And I just don't see a better plan in place for the Titans as things stand right now. But we're going to move forward to some players that I do think the Titans need to cut and will cut here in just a moment.

Before we get into that, though, do want to let you guys know that today's episode is sponsored by Better Help Online Therapy. Guys, when you're at your best, you can do great things, but sometimes life gets you bogged down and the reality is you may feel a little bit overwhelmed or like you're not showing up in the way that you normally would or that you want to. Listen, I'm here to tell you that working with a therapist can help you get closer to the best version of you because when you feel empowered, you're more prepared to take on everything that life throws at you.

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Titans fans, we are going to continue today's episode breaking down the Tennessee Titans cut candidates. Now that the NFL season has closed, the roster moves are going to come fast. They're going to come quickly. It's going to be a blur the next few weeks. And I just talked about Ryan Tannehill. It's a tough decision for the Titans because you would save quite a bit of money

by cutting Ryan Tannehill nearly $18 million. But a team that wants to win next year without a viable replacement for Tannehill, there's just no way that they're going to cut him. And if they do, like I said, if they do cut Ryan Tannehill in the next few weeks, well, the conspiracy theories will start to roll because they have to have something in place,

whether it be a trade up in the draft or a trade for a veteran quarterback that would make sense to give you an upgrade or a better option than Ryan Tannehill. But in my opinion, I don't think Tannehill is going to be cut. So with that being said, let's talk about some of these players that I do think will be cut.

Before we get into it, I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content on all platforms, all year round, and always free. You're not going to beat that anywhere else. So get subscribed. Stay subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast. It's your team every day. But the Titans are $23 million over the salary cap.

So if they don't cut Ryan Tannehill and save $18 million there, they're going to need to make a lot of other moves to get there. And I bring you guys back to that quote from Mike Vrabel that I talked about last week where he said they got to add a lot of pieces to the roster and find ways to be able to do that. Well, if he's going to want to add a lot of pieces to the roster, they're going to need some salary cap space to accomplish that. So if they don't cut Ryan Tannehill, which I don't think happens, then there are some other

guys that are going to have to be cut. No question about it. Number one amongst them, Taylor LeJuan. Now we talked about LeJuan a lot on yesterday's show, but Taylor LeJuan has $0 in dead money and $14.8 million in savings. I mean, that's a $15 million saving with just one cut. I mean, with zero dead cap and zero guaranteed money on LeJuan's deal, that's truly a no-brainer. And that's why Taylor LeJuan himself has said, I'm going to be cut. That's going to happen.

He knows it. You all should know it too. Taylor LeJuan will be cut by the Titans. Quick, say $15 million. I think that that might be the first cut that we hear about from the Titans is LeJuan. So,

that's absolutely happening. Next, is where the real conversation begins. And some of you may defend this player. Some of you may think that they shouldn't cut this player. I think it's absolute foregone conclusion that this guy is cut and it's Bud Dupree.

One of the worst moves of the John Robinson tenure was giving that contract to Bud Dupree. Made him the highest paid edge rusher on the free agent market that year. Passed up Carl Lawson Trey Hendrickson and my favorite edge rusher from that year Hassan Reddick who was really good in the playoffs passed up him to give a big money contract to a guy coming off an ACL tear. Bud Dupree never got close to give a big money contract to a guy coming off an ACL tear.

Bud Dupree never got close to living up to that contract. If the Titans cut him, they're going to save $9.3 million. So look, you cut LeJuan, you cut Bud Dupree, right there, that's $24 million, and you're back under the cap. So right there, just those moves together, you're back to basically a million dollars in cap space. You got to do a little bit more as we'll discuss to give yourself some actual cap space to work with, but right there, get your cap compliant.

Bud Dupree does, however, have $10.8 million in dead money. That's why I think among all of the candidates that we're going to talk about, Bud Dupree is the top candidate for a post-June 1st cut that would save them $15.7 million on the cap and drop his dead cap to $4.4 million. Now, you don't get those savings until June, but having $15 million to play with in June,

you can sign your draft class, you can sign some veterans who were cut during training camp. You can have some money to play with during the season as well. So it would make a lot of sense, in my opinion, to cut Bud Dupree after June the 1st. But either way, either way, Bud Dupree will be cut by the Titans and should be. What a mistake giving him that contract was.

And a lot of people, when I mention that, like to say hindsight and blah, blah, blah. It's easy to say, no, no. I have video evidence of when Bud Dupree was signed. I did not like the contract from the moment that it happened. So not surprised to see it not work out and be on a short list or a long list, depending how you feel, of mistakes that John Robinson made.

The next guy that I want to talk about here is Robert Woods. Now, if there is a guy that I could see doing some sort of contract restructure or something like that, it would be Woods because the Titans do need help at wide receiver. Cutting Robert Woods with no viable plan to replace him at this moment in time could be seen as risky. Not for me, though. I would go ahead and cut Robert Woods pretty swiftly.

He saves you $12 million on the cap, only $2.5 million in dead money. Look, Woods was okay last year, 527 yards, 53 receptions, led the team in both categories, but he was traded for when the Titans had A.J. Brown. If the Titans had A.J. Brown and Robert Woods, probably makes sense to have Robert Woods, but asking Robert Woods to be the number one wide receiver for most of the year, just not something that's going to work out. So to me, it's pretty simple. Mike Vrabel has talked about the team speed needing to improve.

Well, Robert Woods doesn't really help you in the team speed department. Paying him nearly $14 million next year in this situation, he's just simply not worth that. So to me, it's simple. You cut LeJuan, you cut Dupree, you cut Robert Woods. If you cut LeJuan and Robert Woods in the next few weeks, well, them two together is $25 million in cap space. And now once again, as I said earlier, you're cap compliant.

You don't have to make any rash moves or do anything crazy until you get to March, until you get closer to free agency, and you can decide what you want to do then. But I think those guys are obvious cuts for the Titans. We're going to talk about some more cut candidates to cap off the show, but just as a little recap for you guys, not cutting Ryan Tannehill, not unless you got a valid replacement,

whether it be a trade up in the draft or like a trade for Aaron Rodgers set up. If Ryan Tannehill gets cut, the conspiracy theories will start to roll. But at this moment in time, you don't cut Ryan Tannehill. You do cut Taylor LeJuan. You do cut Bud Dupree.

You do cut Robert Woods. So we're going to discuss some lower level options that the Titans have here to cap off today's Woods. So we're going to discuss some lower level options that the Titans have here to cap off today's show. Before we get into that though, do want to tell you guys about the best tasting protein bars in the galaxy from our friends over at Built Bar.

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Titans fans, we are going to cap off today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We're going over cut candidates for the Titans. We talked about Taylor LeJuan, Bud Dupree, Robert Woods. I think all those guys need to be cut. If they are all cut in the next few weeks or so, that's going to save the Titans quite a bit of money. That's going to save the Titans quite a bit of money. You're looking at about $37-36 million in cap relief just with those three guys alone. So it would make a lot of sense for them to get cut.

I don't think that the Titans need to cut Ryan Tannehill unless they have something up their sleeve already figured out. Whether it be a trade up in the draft, a trade for a veteran quarterback, something like that. I don't think you cut Tannehill, but those other three veterans, you cut him. As for the next veteran, Zach Cunningham. Cunningham played in six games for the Titans this year. And let's be honest, when he was on the field, he didn't play that great. I mean, he got outplayed by Dylan Cole at times during the season. So you cut Zach Cunningham $8.9 million in savings, $4.5 million in dead money. It's going to be a weird year at inside linebacker.

If they let David Long go as a free agent, they are totally revamping the linebacker court. And I think it would be pretty nuts, but I don't think you can bring back Zach Cunningham at $13 million on the cap. You just simply can't do that. So, they're going to cut Cunningham. They should cut Cunningham.

And that would be another $9 million. $8.9 to be exact. $9 million in savings. So we cut Taylor LeJuan. That's $15 million. You cut Bud Dupree. That's another $10 million rounding up. You're at $25 million. Now you're

back under the cap by $2 million. You cut Robert Woods which is $12 million. Now you're up to $37 million in cap relief which minus the $23 million that they're in the hole now that's $14 million. Now you're up to $37 million in cap relief, which minus the 23 that they're in the hole now, that's $14 million. You cut Zach Cunningham.

That's $9 million. You're up to $46 million in cap relief minus the 23. Now you got $23 million to play with in cap space. Now you got the ability to go add some pieces. Not to mention these next few. Randy Bullock. You cut Randy Bullock $2 million in savings, only $600,000 in dead money. Look, Randy Bullock has stabilized the Titans kicker position after just the travesty that it was at times prior to 2020. But at the end of the day, Randy Bullock made one field goal over 50 yards all year. He's not one of the better kickers in the NFL. He's not terrible, but he's not one of the best.

You're not paying Randy Bullock $3 million. You just can't justify that to me. So you cut Randy Bullock. There's another $2 million. Now you're at $25 million in cap space. Jamarco Jones. $900,000 in savings. $1.4 million in dead money.

Look, I would get it if they decide to keep him because, I mean, $1.4 million in dead money and only $900,000 in savings. I would get it. You bring him back. Let him compete for one of those guard spots. I mean, he was on4 million in dead money and only $900,000 in savings. I would get it. You bring him back. Let him compete for one of those guard spots. I mean, he was on IR like the entire season. So maybe that would make sense.

But Jones may not want to be with the Titans. I mean, the only news that Jamarco Jones ever made with the Titans was getting in an argument with Taylor LeJuan before a training camp practice. He may not want to be here either. Now, I'm hoping, I'm hoping that maybe the Titans could find a trade for Jamarco Jones, even if it's a conditional seventh round pick. That's fine.

Because if they do that, they're going to save themselves $2 million on Jones and only have to pay $400,000 for him in dead money. So, I would love to see a trade for Jamarco Jones to a team looking to add some depth, but after last year, why would anybody trade anything for him?

I think that's fair. But either way, that would be the optimal move. Trade him for a conditional seventh rounder. If he makes the roster of the other team, then the pick conveys. You know, I would take that. I would take that.

If he doesn't make the roster, then the Titans don't get the pick. But either way, they get the cap savings. So, that's what I would like to see. But either way, I think you just cut the guy. Why have him around? Save your $900,000 and move on. It's just how I feel. Call it whatever you want. But anyway, recap. Don't cut Ryan Tannehill unless you have some crazy, crazy conspiracy theory move planned that's going to happen

and you already got something figured out with the team to trade up in the draft or get a veteran quarterback or whatever. Don't cut Ryan Tannehill. Cut Taylor LeJuan. Cut Bud Dupree. Cut Robert Woods. Cut Zach Cunningham. Cut Randy Bullock.

You give yourself about $25 million in cap space and now you make some additions to the team. Again, we talked about it a couple of weeks ago, but with the NFL season officially ending with the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl, I felt like it was a good time to remind you guys

because these next few weeks, it could be pretty nuts, 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.