Veteran safety’s limbo nearing an end with Titans

General manager Floyd Reese said Monday that he will be talking with Schulters’ agent later this week and hopes to have a decision soon on the safety.

The problem is the seven-year veteran’s base salary of $2.75 million for this season. That is too pricey for a team that cut six high-priced veterans in February, yet needs to clear more room to sign all their rookies and still have enough money left to pluck a cheaper veteran off the waiver wire.

Schulters’ agent, Brian Levy, did not immediately return a message left by The Associated Press. Reese said the Titans want to keep Schulters if a cap-friendly deal could be reached.

“But we still have the salary cap,” the general manager said before the team’s annual charity golf scramble.

This is the second straight year the Titans have had their own mini soap opera over keeping a high-priced veteran. Last year, it was running back Eddie George who asked to be released after rejecting a pay cut less than two weeks before training camp opened. This year, it’s Schulters, under contract through 2007.

NFL teams who release veterans after June 1 receive salary cap relief by spreading out the cost over two seasons instead of one.

Schulters’ release has been expected even though the Titans paid him a roster bonus in March. The team asked him not to practice in May’s minicamp to avoid injury even though doctors had cleared Schulters from a Lisfranc injury in is left foot.

He has continued working out at the team’s headquarters, preparing for whatever comes his way.

Schulters wasn’t at the golf scramble at The Governor’s Club in Brentwood, but linebacker Peter Sirmon said he’d love for the outgoing, competitive safety to stay.

“I think he’s ready for this. I’ve talked to him, and he feels like we’re going to part ways with him. You’d just like him to have the opportunity to get his career going again,” Sirmon said.

Schulters was the Titans’ last major free agent signing in 2002, and he injected the defense with much-needed aggressiveness from his free safety position. He didn’t miss a start before hurting his foot in the third game of the 2004 season, an injury that knocked him out of the rest of the season.

The cap-strapped Titans are busy rebuilding through the draft and added safety Vincent Fuller to their roster with a fourth-round pick in April.

If released, the Atlanta Falcons might be the team where Schulters winds up. Atlanta coach Jim Mora was Schulters’ coordinator when both were with the San Francisco 49ers.

Sirmon said the delay for a final decision since the June 1 date isn’t helping Schulters if the Titans release him.

“Teams can’t wait on players, and it’s more difficult for a player who gets released in early July or the first of June because I know a lot of teams watch the wire and make some plans for the first week of June,” Sirmon said. “He’ll land on his feet, but I think the opportunities maybe won’t be as many.”