Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Signings SHOULD NOT Impact Draft Picks, Contract Details and Void Years

Episode Date: March 22, 2023

The Tennessee Titans have made six signings in free agency so far and brought back three players from 2022. None of those moves should have altered their draft strategy. Tyler goes through the contract details of Andre Dillard, Arden Key and more to explain why the Titans didn't make any kind of major commitment and for that reason they should draft without the signings in mind. Tyler also explains how the team used void years to manipulate contracts and keep cap hits low.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. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL 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

The Tennessee Titans free agent signing so far should have zero impact on what they do in the NFL draft. I'll explain why 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, today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast is brought to you by the FanDuel Sportsbook, the official sportsbook of the NFL. Make every moment more. Visit FanDuel.com slash LockedOn to get started today. Titans fans, we've got a lot to talk about on today's show. I believe that based on what the Titans have done in free agency so far, their signing should have zero impact on the draft strategy.

Their draft plan should be the same before free agency as it should be now. I'm going to go through all of the contract details from the Titans moves this offseason and show you why it's not just me that believes that, but I think the Titans believe that all of their signings won't have any long-term impact on the draft as well. Before we get into all of 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 long on all platforms and always for free. That's right.

Always for free on any platform, no matter what podcast platform you like, your favorite podcast platform, and of course, the Locked on Titans YouTube channel. Make sure you get subscribed and stay subscribed. Locked on Titans. It's your team every day, but we're going to start by taking a look at the biggest contract that the Titans signed so far in free agency. And I say biggest because as I start to explain the contract details, I think you'll start to understand why in my mind, the Dillard contract was not the biggest contract the Titans signed.

So we got a report from Brad Spielberger from Pro Football Focus that Andre Dillard's new deal from the Titans that was reported as a three-year $29 million deal has $10 million fully guaranteed at signing and another $3 million that comes in in 2024. So what that is telling us right there is the deal was reported as three years for $29 million. But the reality is there's $10 million of that money that's actually guaranteed when he signs the contract. Guys, this is a one-year deal worth $10 million. That's what the guaranteed money tells you. Yeah, if he's on the roster in 2024, there will be a certain day he gets another $3 million,

but the Titans can cut him before that and get out of the deal with one year, $10 million spent if Andre Dillard doesn't work out, if they find a new left tackle. And this is my point. If you like Paris Johnson Jr., if you like Peter Skowronski as a tackle, if you like Broderick Jones or you like Darnell Wright at pick number 11, you don't tell yourself, oh, well, we signed Andre Dillard, so I'm going to look for something else. Absolutely not. You still take the offensive

tackle that you like at number 11 if they're a prospect that you like. If you think they're worth the 11th pick, my point is you don't pass on a guy who is at the same position as Andre Dillard just because you have Andre Dillard. Like, that doesn't make any sense. So this is example number one of my point here. The Titans don't believe these guys are long-term solutions. These are flyers. These are Band-Aids.

These are test drives for the Titans. They didn't commit any long-term money to Andre Dillard here. Again, three years, $29 million is what was reported. This is basically a one-year deal worth $10 million when you get into the details. Another reason or the first reason why the Titans should not pass on a guy in the draft that they think is a long-term answer because of one of the signings that they've

made so far. The second contract that I want to talk about is Arden Key. And this to me is the actual biggest contract for the Titans. So let's take a look at Arden Key's salary structure here. I'm going to break it down for you guys. Basically, this was reported as a three-year deal worth $21 million, $7 million a year. But when you look at the actual contract and how it's structured, and I have it up on the screen right now for the YouTube crowd, this is a two-year deal worth $14 million. That's basically what it is. The Titans have an out after the 2024 season and look what they've done to make that reasonable. The Titans have a $1 million salary for Arden Key in the next two years. His contract may be $7 million a season, but when you look at the way

it's structured, the Titans only have $1 million in base salary. Year one, it's $1 million. Year two, it's $1.4 million. The rest of the money comes as bonus money. And what you'll see as well, if you're watching, the deal is a three-year deal, but the Titans have added on two void years, which make it look like a five-year deal. But the last two years of the deal are not real years on the contract. Again, they are void years. And the reason why the Titans do that is when you give bonus money to a player, that bonus money is spread out throughout the life of their contract. So if you give a guy a $20 million bonus and it's a four-year contract,

the bonus money is spread out $5 million, $5 million, $5 million, and $5 million throughout the four years of the contract. So it's not like all the bonus money comes in in one year. So it's spread out. So what the Titans do is they give Arden Key a $6.5 million signing bonus broken out throughout three years,

it would be higher than if you break it out through five years. So essentially, the Titans keep it simple here. Rather than giving him a little bit over $2 million per year in bonus money, they're only giving him $1.3 million. So you add in the salary that's really low, a million dollars in the first two years. You add in the bonus money that's been orchestrated to be even lower. The Titans cap hit for Arden Key in year one is 2.8 million. In year two, it's 4.2. His salary goes up from $1 million in the first two years to $6.5

million in the third year. The year that the Titans could get out of this contract and make it a two-year deal worth only $7 million in actual or $14 million, $7 million a year in cash spent. So the Titans set up this deal so they

can get out after two years and the first two years are super low on the salary cap anyways. Now, they would have about $7 million in dead cap in 2025 if they decided to cut bait with him, but by 2025, the Titans are going to have much more cap flexibility, and the cap is going to be way higher than it is right now. So again, the two biggest money deals that the Titans made this offseason, one is a one-year deal worth $10 million,

the other is a two-year deal worth $14 million. These are not long commitments and that's why if you really like an offensive tackle at pick 11, you really like an edge rusher, no matter where you're at in the draft, do not let these free agent signings, which are meant to be short-term band-aids and short-term tryouts, influence you in a way that would make you avoid a prospect that you think could really be a long-term answer. It's that simple. And the more contract details that we get into, the more obvious that it is. So we're going to talk more about the contracts that the Titans signed in just a moment. Before we get into it, I do want to let you know

that today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. The NCAA tournament is heating up. The NBA season is in the best part of the year. It's a perfect time to download FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook because new customers get a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000. That's bonus bets back. Even if your first bet doesn't win, just download the FanDuel Sportsbook app. It's safe. It's secure. It's super easy to use. And with basketball, you can bet on anything from the money line to the point spread to how many points or rebounds

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on to learn more. Make every moment more with FanDuel an official sports betting partner of the NBA. Titans fans, we are going to continue today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We're breaking down contract details, and I'm explaining why the Titans free agent moves should not change their draft strategy whatsoever.

We just talked about Andre Dillard's contract and why the original details were maybe not as clear as what the contract really is, which looks like a one-year deal worth $10 million. We talked about Arden Keyes' deal and why the Titans have structured that in a way to really make it easy for them to get out of the deal after two years if they want to. There was also some void years in Arden Keyes' contract. We're going to talk more about void years here in just a moment.

We're going to get into another wave of their signings and the contract details there. But I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. My birthday was on Wednesday and a lot of you guys reached out, told me happy birthday. Congratulations on the engagement, all that stuff throughout the week. I can't thank you all enough for all the support. If you would, make sure that you subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast

on whatever platform you do stream, including the Locked on Titans YouTube channel. Throw a thumbs up on the video right now if you're watching on YouTube. It does a lot more for the channel than you could ever realize. And if you wouldn't mind, throw a five-star review up on Apple Podcasts. It would help out the show

a lot. The show is always free. I don't ask for anything in return. So if you guys could do that for me for my birthday, I would greatly appreciate it. But moving right along, we got to talk about Sean Murphy Bunting. Now, we don't have the exact details on SMB's deal right now, but what we do know, according to Jordan Schultz, is it's a one-year deal worth up to $5 million. But what we do know, according to Jordan Schultz is it's a one year deal worth up to $5 million. So what I would imagine is one year deal worth up to $5 million. It's going to be about two to $3 million, maybe three and a half million dollars. And then there's going to be some incentives as well that could get him up to that $5 million mark. But at the end of the day, it's another example of the Titans have not given out any contracts

that would tell you they think these guys are long-term answers. These are all short-term tryouts. They're giving guys prove-it deals to see if they could be a long-term answer, but they're not committing themselves to anything right now. So that's just another example with Sean Murphy Bunting's contract information that would tell you that. Another guy that continues to drive the point home but gives us the opportunity to talk about something pretty interesting is Aziz Alshir.

Okay, so Aziz's contract has something in it that we mentioned just a second ago, but it is a little complicated. So it has a lot of void years in it. And you look at Aziz Alshir's contract details, and it is excessively strange from what you would think of or what you would see with a normal contract. It is essentially a one-year deal, but because of the void years, it looks like a five-year deal. They put four void years in the contract for Al Shear. I mean, it is pretty crazy to see, but again, the reason that they do that is they take the signing bonus money and they split it out throughout the life of the contract. So they gave Alshier $3.1 million in bonus money. Basically, they're giving him a good chunk of his money up front as a way to entice him to join the team. Okay. Yeah. You may not get a big salary and we're not going to give you a lot of years on your contract, but, but

you're going to get bonus money up front, which obviously is pretty important. So I'm taking a look at this and I'm throwing the contract up on the screen right now for you guys. So you can get a look at it. There's only one year of actual money in this deal. The Titans took that $3.1 million of bonus money and so that it wasn't a million dollars in salary plus $3 million in bonus to make the cap hit $4 million or more. They added four void years to the contract and split that signing bonus from one year all the way up between

five years. So instead of being $3 million, it now shows on the cap as $634,000. So the Titans took the bonus money instead of having it in one year, they added four void years so that the bonus money was split up between

five seasons. Next year, if the Titans part ways with Aziz, it'll be a $2.5 million dead hit, but that's essentially nothing for the Titans, who are going to have a ton of cap space next year. So, Rand Carthon and Chad Brinker are already using certain contract structures to make sure that they keep the cap hit low and give themselves not a lot of future penalties at the same time.

Aziz Alshir should not prevent the Titans from drafting a linebacker early in the draft if they really think he's a stud. That's the entire point here. Now, the last couple of deals that I want to look at, we have Brunskill here, Daniel Brunskill, and it's a one-year deal worth $2 million. It was reported as a two-year deal worth $5.5 million, but what you can see from the contract structure here is the Titans have an out after one season and they would only have $500,000 in dead cap next year

if they got rid of Brunskill. $500,000. So really, it's a one-year deal worth $2 million. And if the Titans don't like what they see, they can get out with less than a million dollars in penalty next year. You don't avoid drafting they see, they can get out with less than a million dollars in penalty next year. You don't avoid drafting an interior offensive lineman rather early, middle, or

late in the draft because you have Brunskill. Oh, well, the Titans shouldn't draft him because they have, no. Nope. None of these free agent signings should do that. I shouldn't have had to tell you that about Luke Gifford. $250,000 in dead cap next year

if the Titans want to get rid of him after one year. It's a one-year $2 million deal that was reported as a two-year $4 million deal. It's one year, it's $2 million, $250,000 in dead cap if they want to get rid of Gifford next year. That's nothing. It's nothing. So that's all of the free agent signings we have seen so far from the Titans.

And as you can tell by the details within every single contract, they are all one-year deals with the exception of Arden Key, which is a two-year deal for $14 million total. So, Rand Carthon is going for prove-it guys with Band-Aid contracts and none, none of the moves that they have made so far should affect how they view the draft in any way. Period.

Even the moves that the Titans have made to bring back certain players should not impact the draft strategy. We're going to go over those contracts like Tierra Tart, Aaron Brewer, and WI in just a moment. Before we do, I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Make your second listen the Locked on NFL Scouting podcast with the draft dudes from free agency to the draft, salary cap management, and more.

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where it's your team every day. Titans fans, we are going to cap off today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We're talking contract details, why I think it's obvious that the Titans have done nothing but prove it deals and all the moves that they have made so far should not have any impact on their draft strategy. We have talked about the top guys, Dillard, Arden Key, with Sean Murphy, Bunting, Aziz Alshier, Daniel Brunskill, Luke Gifford.

Now I want to talk about the moves that the Titans have made to bring certain players back to the team. And we're going to start with the two second round free agent tenders that the Titans gave out. One to Tierra Tart and the other to Aaron Brewer. As you can see right here, as you can see right there, and if you can't see it I'll explain both of those guys are currently on

one year deals 4.3 million dollars now they're on a second round tender so what that means is they can go out and they can negotiate a deal with a new team the Titans have a choice

to either match it and take whatever deal they set up with the other team, or they can let the player go, and if the player goes, they get a second round pick from the team that's signing them. Nobody is going to give a second round pick for Aaron Brewer and T.A.R.E. Tarp. And I'm sure the Titans know that. So what the Titans are thinking is now we have two choices.

Either get a long-term deal done with these guys or let them play on a one-year deal worth $4.3 million. Either way, the Titans have the choice to not commit any long-term money. And let's just be honest

for a second. Aaron Brewer isn't worth $4.3 million anyways. So if they get a long-term deal done with Aaron Brewer for two or three seasons, it's only going to bring that value down. Tart may be a little more expensive. I think Tart is closer to that price range as a nose tackle. So I'd like to see the Titans get a deal done with Tart. They could probably get that number even lower on the salary cap if you get a long-term deal worked out. But either way, it's not going to be any

kind of money that makes a significant impact into the future. Now, the Titans have had a lot of success with undrafted free agents on the interior defensive line over the last few years. Yes, that was John Robinson, but I just have the feeling that Rand Carthana is going to be able to do something like that as well. So I didn't see the Titans drafting an interior defensive lineman anyways, but again, back to my point, Aaron Brewer, even if you keep him on a one-year deal, even if you extend him. You don't not draft a certain interior offensive lineman because you have Aaron Brewer. You don't.

He wasn't good enough last year to make that kind of impact on the strategy. He just wasn't. He, Aaron Brewer, like Brunskill or like Dillard, should be on a one-year tryout. Hey, there's a new sheriff in town. Rancart Thon is here. Let's see what you got. So,

to me, like, if Luke Weipler is there, you get an interior offensive lineman in the mid-rounds that you really like, you don't pass on that guy because you got Aaron Brewer. It's that simple. And same thing with Nick Westbrook-Akene. Throw his deal up on the screen here for you guys.

It's one year, $1.2 million. You absolutely don't go into the draft and say, well, you know, there's a wide receiver that we like here, but, you know, we did bring NWI back, so we could probably go to a different position. No, not a chance. So that's really my overall point going through all of the contract details so you guys know what the truth is there.

None of these guys are on anything more than really a one-year deal except Arden Key. So, you go into the draft, the way that you viewed the draft before free agency and the way they view it now shouldn't really be any different whatsoever. Shouldn't be any different at all. So, keep that in the back of your mind

when we start discussing the prospects, where the Titans should go in the draft. If anybody says to me at any point in time on Twitter, on here, anywhere, the Titans shouldn't draft that player because they made this. I'm going to be against that thought process immediately.

This free agency class should have zero, zero impact on the Titans draft plans. They still need a long-term answer at every single position that we just talked about. That's going to do it for me today, though, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.