Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Ran Carthon Masterclass: Current Cap Space & Contract Structures for Top Signings

Starting point is 00:00:00 When it comes to the contracts, we've seen a Rand Carthon masterclass, this free agency. I'll explain how 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. Today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

Starting point is 00:00:50 Make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $200. If your bet wins, visit fanduel.com slash locked on to get started. It is a financial Friday on today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. I know it's Thursday night on YouTube, but it's a financial Friday. I'm breaking down where the Titans are at with their cap space situation right now. Also want to dive into the contracts of the Titans big four signings,

Starting point is 00:01:22 Calvin Ridley, Lloyd Cushenberry, Chido Woozie, and Tony Pollard. So excited to kind of have an educational and informational show on this week-ending edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. But with that said, before we get into it, I do want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round, always for free. Make sure you get subscribed, stay subscribed.

Starting point is 00:01:51 Let me throw this out there. My 33rd birthday is March 22nd. It's today if you're listening on Friday. Tomorrow if you're watching on Thursday. All I ask for from you guys in return for my year-long Tennessee Titans work is hit subscribe. If you're already subscribed, throw a five-star review on Apple iTunes, Apple Podcasts,

Starting point is 00:02:14 whatever you want to call it. It helps out the show quite a bit. I always ask for the likes on YouTube, and I appreciate all the support there. Let's get some five-star reviews on the Apple Podcast app. That would definitely help out the show quite a bit. Again, it's my birthday. Free Titans content all year round.

Starting point is 00:02:30 All I ask for in return is a little help here. All right? But let's dive into the money. All right? Because it's been a Rand Car-a-thon masterclass, in my opinion. So the Tennessee Titans right now, as we speak, have, according to the websites that we follow, SpotTrack, Over the Cap, have about $50 million in cap space. All right. So that's where

Starting point is 00:02:54 they sit right now. And I get, if you're looking at that, you're like, wait a minute, why don't the Titans go make more moves? But I explained it a little bit earlier in the week. The Titans don't necessarily have $50 million that they can actually spend. That's not how this is going to work. So at first, the Titans were at about $80 million in cap space. Okay. You got a cap hit of $10 million for Calvin Ridley to get you to 70. Cushenberry and Chidobe Awuzie are about 6 to 7 apiece. So you combine those together, you're looking at about, you know, $67 million in cap space remaining. Tony Pollard's $4 million.

Starting point is 00:03:37 You're looking at about 63. You got $5.4 million from Kenneth Murray. You're looking at about $57 million. And then you have $2.7 million from Mason Rudolph, $1.2 million from NWI. Essentially, all of the contracts that we know the details for already with Ridley and Cushenberry, that's about $36.6 million in salary cap hit.

Starting point is 00:04:04 So if the Titans had $80 80, you bring that down, you're thinking, okay, the Titans are looking at about, you know, $44 million in cap space. But remember, they cut Andre Dillard, which saved them $3 million there, so you're back up to $47. And then the way that it works during free agency is your cap space is determined by your top 51 cap hits. And the Titans have more than 51 players. So when Calvin Ridley comes on, someone slides off.

Starting point is 00:04:34 And when Cushenberry comes on, someone slides off. And that counteraction kind of saves the Titans about $3 million there as well. So I'm going to throw something up on the screen right now. Obviously, I'm going to read it out for the podcast, folks. Don't you worry. But the Titans have about $50 million in cap space. Like I just said, you minus $10 million

Starting point is 00:04:57 from the contracts that we don't have signed yet. Nick Folk, Sebastian Joseph, Sadiq Charles, Jack Gibbons. We don't have the figures on those quite yet, but that's going to be around $10 million. That's $40 million. And then you add in the draft picks, and the draft picks are $11 million total, but with the top 51 counteraction,

Starting point is 00:05:18 once the rookie goes on the top 51, someone will fall off the top 51. So the rookies will be about seven and a half million dollars. So the Titans really only have about 32 and a half million dollars that they can actually spend. Okay. So it's not the 50 million that it looks like, or that you hear, you know, that just doesn't actually make sense. It's more like 32 million. And the Titans had about $10 million in cap space throughout the regular season last year. So if you think about keeping that, you know, 10 to 12 million to play with during the season, the Titans really

Starting point is 00:05:56 only have about $20 million in functional cap space left to actually work with. And when you think about it that way, it's funny because people, they have $50 million. Why don't they go out and spend even more? Well, in reality, when you look at it this way, they only have about $20 million of cap space that they can actually spend. And if you want one-year deals

Starting point is 00:06:17 with veteran players, like Chase Young, for example, Chase Young would have been $10 million on the salary cap hit and they only have $20 million left. So it's not as easy to just go out and sign all these one-year deals because with one-year deals, you don't really have the ability to manipulate the salary cap hit

Starting point is 00:06:36 the way you do with longer-term deals, which we're going to look at with the other guys. So I wanted to go, I know that this isn't, you know, the most vibrant, hot takes, opinionated analysis like you're used to here, but I wanted to go over the nuts and bolts of how this money is actually working so you guys can the salary cap, when the rookies get added to the roster. So the Titans can't be out there acting like they have $50 million to work with. And like I mentioned on an episode earlier this week, you can rollover cap space in the NFL like old rollover minutes on your cell phone. So if the Titans wanted to keep $20 million to roll over to next year,

Starting point is 00:07:26 to use in next year's free agency, they could do that. They don't need to, but they could. Right now, looking forward one year, the Titans have like $118 million in cap space next year. Now, that's going to go way down when they add more players, rookies that are going to hit the cap next year, more free, rookies that are going to hit the cap next year, more free agents who they might sign who can hit the cap next year. Also, the Titans are just going to have more players,

Starting point is 00:07:52 like their futures deals, their practice squad players, stuff like that on the roster to take up space. They're not going to have $118 million, but the point is, even with Calvin Ridley at $26 million next year, even with Cushenberry at $15 million next year, even with Chito at $26 million next year, even with Cushenberry at $15 million next year, even with Chito at $10 million next year, even when the salary cap hits go up next year, the Titans are still going to have some of the most cap space in the entire NFL.

Starting point is 00:08:14 So I want them to go out and sign some people now, but remember they don't have as much money as it seems like, only really about $20, $22 million to work with. And remember they can roll over that cap space to next year where the Tennessee Titans can make some big deals next year to add to the team. Do you want one or two one-year deals for veterans right now? Or would you like a longer

Starting point is 00:08:36 term deal with somebody next year? You got to balance all that together. It's not the $50 million remaining go sign people that everybody acts like. So wanted to dive into that. Make sure that we're all on the same page where the money's at. I hope that was educational for you. But now I want to dive into the contracts. Calvin Ridley, Tony Pollard, Lloyd Cushenberry, Cheeto,

Starting point is 00:08:54 and go over how those are actually structured so you can see the truth behind the reported contract details. Before I get into that though, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. What's the first thing that you do if you had an extra hour in your day? Would you go for a run? Would you take a nap?

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Starting point is 00:10:00 betterhelp.com slash locked on to get 10% off your first month today. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P.com slash locked on. Titans fans, let's continue today's Financial Friday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We just broke down where the Titans cap space situation is.

Starting point is 00:10:38 It's not quite as rosy as a lot of people are acting like. The Titans don't have near as much money to work with as people think that they do because you're not thinking further enough ahead. But the Titans have spent the money that they have very wisely. And they have structured things very wisely. And all credit to Rand Carr-Thon and Chad Brinker for the way that they've set these things up. But I want to dive into these contracts. Specifically, Calvin Ridley, Tony Pollard, Cushenberry, Cheeto,

Starting point is 00:11:07 and show you guys how this stuff is actually structured out and why the reported details are never the truth. All right? So this is a great opportunity to learn about contract structure in the NFL and take a look at how different the actual money is from what you hear in the reports. And this is going to, I think that this kind of stuff, once you start to learn about these kind of things, it changes the way that you have football conversations with your friends, with coworkers, because your casual average fan just doesn't have any clue

Starting point is 00:11:39 about how this stuff actually works. So it kind of opens your eyes to the money side of the NFL. But I'm going to start with the Calvin Ridley deal. So the Calvin Ridley deal was told to us as four years, $92 million. Whoa, that's so much. Holy crap. But no contract in the NFL is what it seems. No contract in the NFL is what it seems. Like that report, four years, $92 million, that came from Calvin Ridley's agent. And look, yes, if Calvin Ridley plays the whole entire contract for the Titans,

Starting point is 00:12:19 then it'd be four years, $92 million. But that's not going to happen. Calvin Ridley is not going to play four years on this contract. If Calvin Ridley is good and the Titans want to keep him after two years, they're probably going to redo his contract, give him an extension, move the money around again. Like, the NFL stands for not for long. That's why you get all these four-year $92 million reports. But when we look at the deal, so

Starting point is 00:12:46 what makes up cap hit? Because Calvin Ridley, four years, $92 million, that's $23 million a year. That should be $23 million on the salary cap. No. Calvin Ridley is only going to cost the Titans $10 million in salary cap space this year. He only represents $10 million of the $255 million salary cap limit that the NFL has. How is that possible? Well, when you sign a contract, a player gets a signing bonus. That's the money that they're going to get up front. Calvin Ridley got $20 million in signing bonus on a four-year contract. So that means that your signing bonus is spread out

Starting point is 00:13:36 throughout the life of your contract. So if Calvin Ridley got a $20 million signing bonus and his contract is four years. 20 divided by four means $5 million per year. So when it comes to hitting the cap, that's $5 million per season that has to hit the salary cap for Calvin Ridley. All right.

Starting point is 00:14:02 Then the other part of your salary cap hit, you have your bonus and then you have your actual salary. So we all work jobs. Alright. A lot of you guys have worked jobs where you have a salary and then you get a bonus as well. So your cap hit is your salary plus your bonus money for that year. So this year, Calvin Ridley has a low, low salary. It's $4.4 million. Basically $4.5 million. Alright? He's got $5 million in signing bonus.

Starting point is 00:14:38 Remember, because his $20 million signing bonus was divided by four of four years of the contract. So if his salary is 4.5 million, and then he has a signing bonus of 5 million, he has roster bonuses of 500,000. Well, 4.5 million plus 500,000 is 5 million plus the 5 million for the signing bonus. That's his $10 million salary cap hit. So bonus plus salary, salary cap hit. So that's why Calvin Ridley is making $23 million a season, but he's only getting $10 million of the Titans' salary cap space because the Titans spread the bonus throughout the life of the contract,

Starting point is 00:15:20 which happens with all NFL contracts, and then made the salary really low. Now, why would Calvin Ridley only take a $4.5 million salary in year one? It's because he gets his signing bonus up front. So from Calvin Ridley's standpoint, he's actually getting, you know, his salary of $5 million and then his $20 million signing bonus. So Calvin Ridley's getting $25 million in cash this year. And then

Starting point is 00:15:47 next year is when the base salary goes up and the cap hit goes to $28 million. But for all intents and purposes, this is a two-year $48 million deal for the Titans. Because after two seasons, the Titans can cut Calvin Ridley and they would save $16 million and they would eat $10 million.

Starting point is 00:16:12 So if his cap hit is $10 million this year, it's $28 million next year. That's $38 million. And then $10 million of dead cap if they cut him in 2026, well, that's $48 million total for his services over two seasons. There you go. So, I mean, that basically covers everything.

Starting point is 00:16:35 And he's got roster bonuses, game bonuses of $500,000 each of the first two seasons that are, you know, that's an extra million. And that's how you get your $50 million, $48 million guaranteed over two years. So basically, if Calvin Ridley sucks and this doesn't work, the Titans are going to have a two-year deal worth $48 million to pay for it. So it's not a four-year, $92 million deal. It's really a two-year, $92 million deal. It's really a two-year, $48 million deal. Do you see the difference there of how it's reported versus what the reality is?

Starting point is 00:17:15 And you look at Tony Pollard's deal here. Tony Pollard is a $4 million cap hit this year. He's getting $8 million a season, right? It's three years, $24 million. He's getting $8 million a season, right? It's three years, $24 million. That's how it was reported. Oh, but in reality, when you look at the contract, it's two years for 14 and a half million. His cap hit is 4 million this year. His cap hit next year is eight and a half million. That's 12 and a half million total. And then if the Titans cut him after two years, they have $2 million in dead cap on a $260, $270 million salary cap.

Starting point is 00:17:50 That's absolutely nothing. I mean, this is a smart deal. Both of these deals were reported as these big, massive deals. But Tony Pollard got $6 million in signing bonus. You spread that out over three years, that's only $2 million per year on the salary cap for the bonus. And then his salaries are $1.5 million this year, low. $5.9 million next year for a running back, low.

Starting point is 00:18:16 And then they can cut him the year after that. So two years, $14.5 million, $7.25 million a season for a running back if you compare that to the previous salary cap that was 240 million to the 255 million that we have now 7 million for a running back is basically 5 million for a running back before 4.5 million for a running back before and that's exactly where I wanted the Titans to be

Starting point is 00:18:40 so you look into the details of these contracts they're nowhere near as rich as they seem when they were first reported. And they're actually pretty good deals for the Tennessee Titans to look at what they have and then be able to move on if they need to. But we're going to look at Lloyd Cushenberry. We're going to look at Chidobe Awuzie's deal as well. Before we dive into it though, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Say goodbye to busted brackets because FanDuel lets you bet on every game of the tourney, whether you're betting on a big upset, you're riding with a number one seed, it's time to

Starting point is 00:19:22 go dancing on America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. That's $200 to use on point spreads, money lines. You can even pick who's going to win it all. Just visit fanduel.com slash locked on. That's L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N. And bet on college hoops until they cut down the nets. Titans fans, let's cap off today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast.

Starting point is 00:20:13 It's a financial Friday. We broke down the Titans cap space situation. We just looked at two contracts, one from Ridley, one from Pollard. Now I want to get into the other two contracts, Cushenberry and Awoozie. Before I do, thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day. Again, Friday, March 22nd is my birthday. What am I trying to say here? What I am asking for as a gift from all of you, my loyal listeners,

Starting point is 00:20:41 my fellow Tennessee Titans fanatics, is a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Even if you don't use Apple's podcast service, jump on there. Throw on a five-star review. Get subscribed on YouTube. A lot of you guys who watch my show every day aren't actually subscribed. It's my birthday. The show is free.

Starting point is 00:20:59 I am just simply asking for a little bit of loyalty in return. So, I appreciate it. Thank you all so much. Diving back into these contracts, because again, I think this is a Rancarthon masterclass. What we're seeing, I know this information is a little weighty. It's a little dry, but I thought it was a good opportunity to dive into some of this stuff.

Starting point is 00:21:17 And especially if you're watching on YouTube, looking at the contract details, I'm explaining them out loud as well, but it just gives you a good idea of how this stuff actually works and how the contracts that you hear when guys are first signed are never really what the contract is. We see that here

Starting point is 00:21:34 with Lloyd Cushenberry. Now, the Titans basically paid the price for Cushenberry, but again, they did similar things here. We heard it's a four-year, $50 million deal. No, in reality, it's a four-year $50 million deal. No, in reality, it's a two-year $30 million deal because the Titans have a cap hit for Lloyd Cushenberry

Starting point is 00:21:51 of $6.5 million this year, $14.5 million next year, and then $12.5 million the year after that. So, I mean, in reality, or the dead cap is, dead cap is $9 million. So, with 6.5, 14.5, that's 21 for the next two years on the cap. And then $9 million in dead money if they cut him after two years. It's a two-year $30 million deal for the

Starting point is 00:22:20 Tennessee Titans. And to have Lloyd Cushenberry for two years for $30 million is a great deal. And I think Cushenberry is even going to play three years and his third year cap hit is only $12.5 million. So you're talking about $6.5, $14.5, and $12.5 million on your cap for Lloyd Cushenberry. When I think he could be worth $15, $16, $17 on the salary cap, if you wanted to do it, I would have been fine with it. So you're getting top level center play. And remember the salary cap went from 242 to 255 from last year to this year. It's going to keep going up as well. Maybe not as exponentially, but we're probably looking at 260, $263 million on the salary cap within the next two to three years,

Starting point is 00:23:07 265, 270 maybe, and you're talking about Lloyd Cushenberry for six and a half, 14 and a half, and 12 and a half million. I mean, that is nothing, and again, if his 30-year season in 2027, he is still great. The Titans will just redo the deal in 2026, give him some more guaranteed money, and smooth this thing out again to get it even lower. This is a great contract from Rand Carthon. And again, you see a base salary for Lloyd Cushenberry in year one of $1.4 million. And then he gets the bonus of $5 million, basically.

Starting point is 00:23:45 Why would he take a salary so low? Because he's getting his complete signing bonus of $18.1 million. So you add the $18 million with the $1.5 million salary, he's going to get $20 million in cash this year. It's a great deal for Cushenberry. It's a great deal for the Titans. The last deal I want to look at is he said it's

Starting point is 00:24:12 Chidobe Awuze is what he said on the OTP was how you actually say his name, which is different. But Chido, Chido's deal again, got reported as three years, $36 million. You look, it's really a two-year, $24 million commitment. Cap hit of $7 million this year, $14 million next year, and then only $2.5 million in dead money in the third year. The

Starting point is 00:24:42 Titans really set this up in a way where if they had to get rid of Chito after two years, which he would be on his 31 year old season on his third year of his deal, odds are the Titans probably need to move on to a younger corner at that point, only two and a half million in dead cap. And again, the salary cap is going to be 260, 265 million by then two and.5 million in dead cap to move off. So $12 million a year for a solid cornerback? I just don't really think you can complain about that. Again, looking at all of these deals, none of them are really three-year commitments.

Starting point is 00:25:18 Maybe you look at the Calvin Ridley one because it is $10 million in that final year. Maybe Ridley is the only guy you really feel like you want to get three years out of, but everything else is set up perfectly for if it doesn't work out, the Titans can get out of it with minimum financial trouble. And, you know, on the other side of it, hopefully, you hope it does work out. And if it does work out, the Titans are going to be getting a bargain on all of these signings. So, I love what Rancarthon has done.

Starting point is 00:25:45 I know the money is a little dry, but felt like it was important to dive into this stuff and break down how it differs from what you actually hear. But that is going to do it for me today, folks, and for this week for the Locked on Titans podcast. Starting to slow down a little bit on free agency, which means it's time to turn our attention to the NFL draft. As always, I'm your host, Tyler Rowland,

Starting point is 00:26:05 and this is Locked on Titans.

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Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Ran Carthon Masterclass: Current Cap Space & Contract Structures for Top Signings

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Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Ran Carthon Masterclass: Current Cap Space & Contract Structures for Top Signings

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