Armchair Quarterback: Titans feel pain of years of success
What the Titans made this week weren’t cuts, they were gashes.
In all my years of watching salary cap football, I’ve never seen a team hit the mass “delete” button like the Titans did to get under the cap this year. Sure, there are times when a big-time player has to be released due to a heavy contract, but to see star after star let go in one massive sweep is unprecedented.
The list reads like an all-star team (although the Titans were completely snubbed by the All-star balloters this year). Cut were Kevin Carter, Derrick Mason, Fred (Jumpy) Miller, and Samari Rolle. Also cut was fullback Robert Holcombe and tight end Shad Meier, who were both contributors. And, on the good side, oft-injured kicker Joe Nedney was let go along with receiver Eddie Berlin, who couldn’t catch a cold, let alone hold on to a football.
Carter had the most hefty contract, with a cap number of over $13 million. Miller and Rolle both held contracts of over $9. Mason’s cap number was less at $6 million, but he was due to make $4.7 million in the coming year.
So what happened? Well, the Titans mortgaged their future to sell the seats in the short run. They’ve always been close to the cap, but due to the putting off of contract hits, they all came accounts payable this year. Plus they are feeling the backlash from the carryover cap hit of Eddie George and the retirement of Frank Wycheck.
The best way I can illustrate what has happened to the Titans when it comes to their fight with the salary cap is to compare it to a big night on the town. You get out and you’re having fun, painting the town red sucking down suds like there’s no tomorrow. So long as the fun continues, everything is great. However, payment comes due the following morning when you awake to find your eyes swelled together with a hangover.
In cap ball you can have a good team for a couple of years by structuring contracts, if the players consent, where the cap hit does not come due for a while. However, when you structure too many contracts down the road, well, you’ve got over 50 contracts to worry about so eventually it will catch up to you.
While at first glance, the Titans aren’t a star-filled team, they do, as you see from the ones they cut, have some high dollar players. Or perhaps I should say, they HAD some high dollar players.
I guess the hope for the Titans is that some will come back and re-structure their contracts. However, for folks like Mason — who could follow the lead of fellow free agent Mushin Muhammid who just left the Panthers to sign a fat contract with the Bears — the lure of big money will be more than tempting.
Hey folks, this is what makes the NFL more competitive. It doesn’t allow one team to store up all the players like the Yankees do in baseball. By the same token, you can pretty much forget about having a player stay in one place for an entire career. You don’t buy players, you rent them.
The only up side for Titans fans could be that given the injury-filled past season, the Titans will have some experienced players who got to play instead of the regular starters in 2004. These guys will now be forced to step up into the permanent starting roles.
And keep in mind, the Titans will have an early draft pick this year given their lame 5-11 finish, so they can actually pick an impact player to begin their new assault on the salary cap.