Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Make Another Signing, Firkser Cap Figures/Cap Space Update & NFL Schedule News

Episode Date: March 31, 2021

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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, it is a Wednesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. And on today's show, we have quite a bit to talk about. The Titans have signed another player. So I'm going to tell you who that is and how big of an impact this player could potentially have.

And then we got more salary cap details. So on yesterday's show, we talked about Josh Reynolds' contract as we finally got the details there and how it affects the Titans' salary cap space. Well, on Tuesday, we finally got the details on tight end Anthony Ferkser's contract, and I will give you guys an update on what he is getting paid and how it affects the Titans' salary cap as well to give you an updated figure. Now, remember, there is still some information we're waiting on. I will break that down as well, but either way,

we're starting to get some of the details that we needed to know. And then finally, we will end today's show talking about a ton of information we got on a national general NFL level having to do with the schedule, not only for the season, but also the offseason schedule. And then also got some very, very positive news as to what NFL games could look like next year. So excited to dive into everything with you guys on a Wednesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast.

Let's get it! We got another free agent signing for the Tennessee Titans on Tuesday, so I'm going to dive into all of that information. Before we do, as I always do at the beginning of the show, I want to take a moment to remind you, I'm going to be pumping out Monday through Friday Tennessee Titans content, not only during the season, but all off season long. There's not another Titans content creator that can say that. Make sure you never miss an episode of the Locked on Titans podcast by subscribing on Apple iTunes, following on Spotify, Stitcher, the Odyssey app, wherever you get your podcast,

Google podcast, doesn't matter, you will find the Locked on Titans podcast there. Also make sure you follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans and follow the new Facebook page at Locked on Titans Pod. I am going to be starting my draft coverage next week as we finally made it into April and you're not going to want to miss any of those breakdowns. So let's dive into this new signing from the Tennessee Titans and it may not be the biggest name, it may not be the biggest impact, but as we know with a full football roster every single spot matters and that brings me to the name.

The Titans have agreed to terms with veteran safety special teamer Matthias Farley. So for some background information on Matthias, he's going to be adding some depth to the Titans safety group, which they definitely need, but also should be able to help out with a special teams unit that disappointed for the Titans last year. Matthias Farley has five years of NFL experience with the Jets mostly and the Colts. 66 games, has had 18 starts actually at safety, 158 tackles, three interceptions, led the Jets last year with eight special teams tackles as well. Now, although Farley does have those 18 starts, those three interceptions.

He is primarily a special teams player. Think about Ibrahim Campbell, who was signed by the Titans last offseason as a depth defensive back who was meant to help out the special teams unit and not really expected to contribute. But, here's one thing I do want to mention. I've been saying throughout the offseason I could see the Titans adding a veteran safety as they don't quite know what they're going to get from Dane Cruikshank. Cruikshank played one play, had an interception last year on defense,

but was out for most of the year due to injury. Now, he had some decent spots of play in the playoffs in 2019, did Dane Cruikshank, so that gives you a little bit of optimism. But from my perspective, I never really viewed Dane Cruikshank as a safety. He's a special teams player and a pretty good special teams player at that. But I think if you had to play one of Cruikshank or Farley, I'd be a little more comfortable with playing Matthias Farley at this moment in time and he gives you that special teams value so to me this is security this is insurance

in case Dane Cruikshank has more injury issues or simply just can't get right during his time with the Titans and what is you know the reality is Cruikshank's career with the Titans could be coming to an end soon if he isn't able to stay healthy this year and isn't able to produce at least on special teams so this is insurance for Dane Crookshank somebody who not only can help on special teams like an Ibrahim Campbell but also somebody who has at least had some experience actually playing safety on defense I think that's incredibly important but we are going to move into another conversation here. We don't have contract details on Matthias Farley at this time. I mean,

I don't think it's going to be anything more than a million dollars. It's not going to have a big impact on the Titans cap. Remember, this is important about cap space. Only your top 51 paid players affect your cap space. So when a guy like Matthias Farley gets in that top 51, he's also going to knock somebody else out of the top 51. So it's not like the Titans are adding, you know, $900,000, a million dollars onto their cap. They're also losing a player who's probably worth about six hundred thousand seven hundred thousand so the impact on the cap is going to be just a couple hundred thousand dollars with the Farley signing but speaking of cap numbers we got some more cap information on a contract for

Titans tight end Anthony Ferkser we are going to dive into those contract details and how that affects the Titans cap space and where they stand right now. Before we do that, I want to remind you guys about the best tasting protein bar in the galaxy and we are still in the middle of Built Bar Madness. To check out the bracket and see what the update is on which flavors are progressing through the tournament, make sure that you go to BuiltBar.com or go to Bar underscore Built on Twitter and you'll be able to vote for these matchups. Also go to BuiltBar.com, use promo code LOCKED15 and you'll get 15% off your next order. Once again, that's LOCKED15 at BuiltBar.com for 15% off your next order. And make sure that you check back on the bracket every day and see who will become

the best tasting protein bar ever. We are going to dive into the Tennessee Titans current cap situation through a conversation about the contract details for Titans tight end Anthony Ferkser. So earlier in the offseason, we found out through a report from Paul Kaharski that Anthony Ferkser would be coming back to the Tennessee Titans. He was expected to be a restricted free agent. The Titans didn't put a tender on him. I do believe it was a good faith agreement that they would get Anthony Ferkser not only a raise, but make sure that they got him back on the team. And it's been a few weeks, but we finally got the Anthony Ferkser contract details. I'm going to dive

into those. Before we do, do want to tell you guys about a podcast here on the Locked On Podcast Network that you should not be missing, and that is the Locked On Today podcast. It's all the biggest sports stories in less time, hosted by the great Peter Bukowski. It's all the biggest sports news in under 20 minutes every single day. As I always say, it's like having the sports section read to you. Make sure that you don't miss it. Follow the Locked On Today podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. But let's dive straight into the Anthony Ferkser details.

So, of course, Anthony Ferkser is going to be much more important to the Titans than he ever has been before because of the loss of Jonu Smith. Now, the thing about Ferkser is he is going to play a particular role for the Titans. Ferkser is not an every down tight end who's going to be your starter. The reality is he is a glorified slot receiver. Now, I think having Ferkser back in the fold had a lot to do with the Titans letting Adam Humphreys go. He can serve that role for the Titans offense of course the Titans want to get a real slot receiver in there but it's nice to have

Anthony Ferkser who can play that role but the reality also is that Ferkser is a tad limited in terms of blocking so you're going to need a Jeff Swaim in there and I think the Titans will look to add a tight end in the draft because you don't want to tip your hand by having Anthony Ferkser in the game letting the other defense know that you are going to be throwing the ball so Ferkser's got to improve his blocking but also the Titans need to make an addition to the group as well but Ferkser is going to be incredibly valuable for the Titans one thing that Todd Downing likes to do at offensive coordinator that he did a lot with this at his in his time in Oakland still a little under the weather, guys. Thank you so much for the support and not taking it out too hard on me the past two

days. But either way, Todd Downing isolated tight ends a ton in his offense. Now, we had a guy like Jared Cook Jr. who obviously gives you better matchup advantages than a guy like Anthony Ferkser, but it shows that Todd Downing does know how to use a pass-catching tight end, and that makes me excited about what Ferkser can do. I mean, last year he had 39 catches, 387 yards and a touchdown. I would expect that production to go up at least incrementally.

I'd like to see him get about 50 catches, see if we can break that 500-yard mark, get him a couple touchdowns in there. But Ferkser's going to play a more important role, and because of that, he did get a raise. So we finally got the details here on Anthony Ferkser's contract. 1.75 million base salary, 1.25 million bonus. That's a $3 million deal, a one-year deal for Anthony Ferkser. Makes it pretty easy to monitor the cap hit. So $3 million will be the cap hit for Anthony Ferkser. Now, how does that relate to the Titans cap space overall? Well, yesterday, yesterday we had a conversation about Josh Reynolds, or maybe you listened to that

episode this morning before this one. But either way, yesterday we got an update on Josh Reynolds that his cap hit was going to be $1.75 million. With that in mind, we've gotten the $3 million for Ferkser, the $1.75 million for Josh Reynolds. That brings the Titans' current cap space as we know it down to $9.6 million per over the cap. Now again, there are some details we don't know. We don't know what Farley's cap hit is going to be. But like I said, I only expect it to be a couple hundred thousand dollars

after the cancel-out factor of his addition to the roster. But we still don't know Janoris Jenkins, and I would expect that that's going to be a sizable chunk. We do know that the draft picks are going to command about two to three million dollars of the cap space. So you take in Janoris Jenkins, you take in that factor, the Titans may be down to about four, three million dollars in cap space right now so it'll be very interesting to see if they make any moves going forward

there is that Ryan Tannehill contract restructure sitting out there that the Titans could take advantage of but I've discussed that on other episodes so let me just rehash that here the Titans could carve out about 2020 million of additional cap space, $13 to $20 million of additional cap space. If they did a contract restructure with Ryan Tannehill, where they paid out his bonus for the year or converted salary to signing bonus, and that would lower the cap hit for the season. The Titans could do that.

But they're going to be pushing money, his bonus money, which gets spread out over the life of his contract. They're going to be pushing money into the future, which John Robinson has said this all season he doesn't want to do. Also, when you restructure contracts

and you pay signing bonuses and convert salary to signing bonuses up front, the organization has to pay out that money right away. Like that's a lot more, not right away, it's going to be paid out through the game checks, but it's a lot more money than the Titans ownership expected to pay weekly for Ryan Tannehill.

Do the Titans have that cash flow available to be able to do that? As you know, Amy Adams Strunk, I'm not going to say she's, you know, not rich. She of course is rich and wealthy. But compared to some of the other more wealthy owners in the NFL, do the Titans as an organization and Amy Adams Strunk as an owner, do they have the actual cash flow? We're not talking about salary cap space. We're not talking about future money. We're talking about literal money right now to pay these players additional money during the season.

Can the Titans do that? That's something that I call into question. Talking about literal money right now to pay these players additional money during the season. Can the Titans do that? That's something that I call into question. Amy Adams Strunk is not on the high end of richest owners in the NFL. So that means that the Titans would have more cash flow issues than other teams who are doing this more often. So when you think about that, maybe that move doesn't make a lot of sense to the Titans as an organization, even if it makes sense to all of us monitoring the team. So right now, until we hear about something like that, which at this point, there's no reason to expect that to come. The Titans are at about $9.6 million in cap space, and that's before the Janoris Jenkins deal. That's before hearing about Matthias Farley. So right now, that's before the Janoris Jenkins deal that's before hearing about Matthias Farley

so right now that's where things sit I wouldn't expect any more big splashes in free agency at this moment in time unless we do get that Ryan Tannehill restructure but I think that that Ryan Tannehill restructure only happens the Titans aren't going to do that and then go grocery shopping the Titans will only do that if they know that there is something waiting for them to use that money on. So that'll be interesting to watch going forward. But we're going to dive into a conversation about some big NFL news that we got on Tuesday. Updates to the NFL regular season schedule, updates to the NFL offseason schedule,

and also some optimistic news about what NFL games could look like next season. Before we dive into that, I want to remind you guys about BetOnline.ag, the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action. BetOnline also has you covered for award shows, TV shows, and reality TV. BetOnline has all of the latest news, scores, and odds. It's the best place to place any of your bets, and it's free to sign up. So head to their website or use your mobile device. Sign up for free today at BetOnline.ag.

Use promo code LOCKEDON, that's one word, LOCKEDON, and you'll receive a 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. All right, folks, we are going to cap off this Wednesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast, talking about some general NFL news that should have Titans fans very, very excited. Before we do that, though, do want to remind you guys about the Locked On NFL Draft podcast. Are you ready for the NFL Draft?

Join Locked On NFL Draft hosts Trevor Sikama and Benjamin Solak as they give you their latest positional rankings and analysis on the 2021 draft prospects with team-centric guest mocks right around the corner. Follow the Locked On NFL Draft podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. But let's dive into some of this pertinent NFL national news that all of us should be very, very excited to hear, number one. And maybe you guys aren't excited about this one, but me personally, I am. More football, more games to cover, never a bad thing from my perspective.

The NFL officially added the 17th game to the season. Now, according to the NFL Players Association and their negotiations with the NFL owners, the players don't want to have more than 20 games in a season. So as a consolation, what the NFL owners did was they took away one of the four preseason games, leaving only three preseason games, and then added that 17th game.

Now, no additional buy. That's something that a lot of people said that they were hoping happened with a 17th game, but that's not what we got. Now, there are obvious player safety discussions to have, but at the end of the day, guys, it's more football and it's hard for me to complain about more football. As we've discussed on this podcast, the Titans 17th game will be a home game against the New Orleans Saints in 2021. So excited for that rematch. And the Saints are not the same team that they were when the Titans played them in 2019.

So that'll be a fun game to watch and a different game than what we saw last time. So excited for that. But either way, it's here. More games, at least one more. It's not going anywhere, and I am choosing to be positive and be optimistic here and enjoy the fact that we are getting a 17th game of NFL football this season. Admittedly, though, as a stat guy, I do hate the fact that 16 game records will all be broken and it's not really it's not really a fair comparison because of the additional game so that will bother me for a while but it

won't be long before every single game season record is broken I'm glad Derrick Henry was able to get his 2,000 yard rushing season before additional game, so we don't have to hear people online say that Derrick Henry needed an extra game to get to 2,000 or anything dumb like that. So excited about that factor. Next though, the next update here has to do with the NFL's off-season schedule, not the regular season schedule. And it has to do with OTAs, Organized Team Activities. So, per the NFL today, they have informed clubs that phase one of organized team activities will begin on April the 19th for every team. So, in the past, if you got a new head coach, then they would let you, the NFL would let you start your OTAs a little bit earlier,

get people in the building, get acclimated to the new coach, his new system, his new playbook, his new routines, all that. But they're not doing that this year. So I do want to read the entirety of Tom Pelissero's tweet for you guys here, though. He said, the NFL informed clubs today that they can begin phase one of OTAs on April 19th per source. Players are still allowed to work out at the facility in small groups, as many have been. So that's an interesting tidbit.

Players have been in the facility. The NFL and the NFLPA continue to discuss virtual versus in-person meetings and on-field work soon thereafter so this doesn't mean that everything's going back to normal of course not that's that's not what this means but but it should be closer to normal than last year's offseason which the Titans had a terrible offseason last year so any return to normalcy in any way is going to be great news for the Titans who cannot afford to have an offseason like they had the last one. So will players be able to actually work out in person as a full team? Are they going to be doing virtual meetings and then have an on-field work?

Who knows right now, but either way, it's good news to see that phase one of OTAs will begin on April the 19th, and we should get more clarity before then on exactly what that will look like, but it's good news, and I'm going to continue the good news here for you. We got an update from Roger Goodell himself, the NFL commissioner, about what games could look like in 2021 for the NFL. And I want to read you guys a quote that came directly from Commissioner Roger Goodell about what games could look like next year. And Goodell had this to say, quote, we want to see every one of our fans back we expect

to have full stadiums in the coming season end quote so that right there is absolutely excellent news obviously the NFL doesn't just get to decide whether or not they have a full stadium full capacity of fans in the stands but the fact that the NFL is planning to bring fans back into stadiums, full stadiums in 2021, that is just very optimistic news. And it's news that I personally really love to hear with vaccination rates and, you know, the way things are progressing. I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but it's very exciting news. I'm ready to go to a football game.

I did go to one last year. It was terrible. Not because of protocols or anything like that, just because of the game itself in Cincinnati. But either way, just really excited to see that optimistic news. Hopefully that's not only a sign of positivity in the NFL going forward, but in the country going forward, all those different things. So I wanted to bring you guys all of those national NFL updates. That's going to do it for me today, though.

I will be back with you guys tomorrow for another edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.