We are only over two weeks away from the NFL’s trade deadline, and as teams go searching and assess what must be done as a way to make the playoffs, phone calls are being made. One team perhaps receiving more calls than the remainder of the league is the Titans.
Starting the season with a 1-6 record and lower than every week faraway from firing ex-head coach Brian Callahan, Tennessee is clearly being counted out by the remainder of the league. Despite the dearth of elite talent that has put the Titans on this position, there are players that contending NFL teams are concerned about. Most notably, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, “seemingly everyone called the Titans to see if star defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons was available ahead of the…trade deadline.”
Unfortunately for those calling, the reply was a powerful no. Simmons is off limits, and he’s not the just one. The opposite player who could be a whole non-starter in any trade deal out of Nashville, based on Dianna Russini of The Athletic, is recent No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward. Tennessee drafted Ward with intentions of constructing their team around him, and so they’re not going to offer up on him after only seven games. Despite the team’s struggles early and Ward’s lack of production, the 23-year-old quarterback has shown flashes of brilliance and a drive and dedication that has others within the constructing excited.
As for Simmons, they’ve seen their 2019 first-round pick turn into one in all the highest players at his position. He’s currently within the second yr of the four-year, $94MM extension that was tacked on to the tip of his rookie deal, but many expect that he’s headed for a raise in the approaching offseason.
Essentially, Ward and Simmons will serve because the offensive and defensive pillars around which the team plans to construct around. Except for those two, though, Russini asserts that “the Titans are open for business on every” other player. In the mean time, probably the most attractive trade targets in Tennessee seem like on the defensive side of the ball. Cornerback Roger McCreary and outdoors linebackers Arden Key and Dre’Mont Jones may very well be players on the move soon.
A second-round pick in 2022, McCreary is playing in the ultimate yr of his rookie deal. McCreary has established himself as one in all the league’s stronger nickelbacks, though he’s shown the flexibility to play on the surface, as well. Expecting that he’ll price himself out of Tennessee in free agency, the Titans could be hoping to get something for him now versus losing him for nothing within the offseason.
Key looked early in his profession to be a little bit of a bust as a third-rounder out of LSU. Racking up only three sacks in his first three years of play, Key eventually found success in his fourth season and grew in his role an increasing number of until he landed a three-year, $21MM cope with the Titans and have become a full-time starter within the second season of that deal last yr. Now within the contract’s final yr, Key’s services will likely be shopped off with the hopes that he’ll proceed his success with the contender to whom he gets traded.
Jones landed in Tennessee on a one-year, $8.5MM deal. He’s had consistently solid production at previous stops in Denver and Seattle and, to this point this season, has been price his money to this point in Nashville. Like McCreary and Key, nothing appears to be awaiting Jones within the offseason but free agency, so the Titans will hope that any person bites with a proposal price trading him for.
And what exactly would that supply seem like? While the Titans have loads of work to do in increase the roster around pillars Ward and Simmons, it will appear they like to achieve this with young players that they select. Per Russini, Tennessee isn’t searching for players in exchange for any trade assets; the team wants draft capital. The Titans are hoping to stockpile future draft picks so that they can move their rebuild plans forward with youth. We’ll see how well negotiations go over the following 16 days.