McNair would like contract worked out ‘sooner than later’
If the Titans actually pay the money, McNair’s base salary and the prorated bonus would count for $26.8 million against the salary cap next year.
McNair said Thursday he is confident they can agree on a new deal and that he is open to playing for three or four more years if needed.
“At the same time, you never know what’s going to happen,” he said. “I’m always positive. I’m always going to look for the best, but prepare for the worst. That’s how I look at things.”
“But we just want to do it sooner than later,” he said.
The Titans say they want McNair back, and he is only two seasons removed from sharing the league MVP with Peyton Manning. He is a franchise-best 81-59 as a starter and needs only 227 yards passing for a career high to top the 3,387 he had in 2002.
He is one of only five NFL players to throw for 25,000 yards and run for 3,000 more, along with John Elway, Fran Tarkenton, Steve Young and Randall Cunningham. He currently has 27,141 yards passing in his career.
Coach Jeff Fisher said he has no reason to believe McNair won’t be back.
“I know he’s excited, and has been excited, about where we’re going. So I don’t think it’s a matter of Steve having to accept reality and reality being we’re going to be rebuilding for a couple years,” Fisher said.
McNair had to wait until April 8 before announcing he would return for his 11th season because he played only eight games in 2004 and needed surgery to graft bone from his right hip onto his sternum. He called 2004 a troubling season.
Now he feels fine, with only the typical bruises, which includes a strained right pectoral muscle that could keep him out of Sunday’s season finale at Jacksonville. So he doesn’t need to sit down, contemplate retirement or think about how healthy he is before turning 33 in February.
“I’m just going to continue to go out and work hard like I did last offseason to come in in the best shape of my life and let that happen,” McNair said.
Jacksonville defensive tackle Marcus Stroud said he believes McNair has plenty of good years left.
“The only difference I see with him now is that he has just got a younger cast that has to come along and develop like the other guys he had with him,” Stroud said.
One criticism of McNair this season has been routinely missing practice on Wednesday and Thursday and crucial work with an offense that has featured four rookie receivers and a rookie tight end. McNair said it is important for him to practice as much as possible.
“All the young guys, they need to see me more on the practice field, getting the chemistry, letting me go through practice and telling them where I want them to be,” he said. “You can say things seven times. They don’t get it until they run it and experience it on the field.”
McNair’s agent is Bus Cook, who also represents Brett Favre. They agreed to a six-year extension with Tennessee for $47 million in June 2001, a deal reworked often and during which the $50 million option was included and extended to 2009 to provide the Titans with much-needed salary cap relief.
The quarterback refused to speculate whether he would leave Tennessee if he doesn’t like the Titans’ offer.
“I’m just going to consider we’ll come to an agreement,” he said. “If we don’t come to an agreement, that’s when I explain to you guys.”