The NFL offseason has arrived, mercilessly.
General managers may begin applying the franchise tag to players with expiring contracts on Tuesday, February 20, with the deadline extended to March 5th.
The legal tampering period for free agency is March 11–March 13.
The Tennessee Titans will face a peculiar deadline on Monday, February 19.
If the Titans do not extend the contracts of Ryan Tannehill, Derrick Henry, Azeez Al-Shaair, and Sean Murphy-Bunting by the end of the day Monday (4 p.m. E.T.), each player’s vacant year will be accelerated into 2024.
According to OvertheCap, the financial penalties for failing to extend each player are as follows:
Tannehill $9.2 million
Henry $4.7 million
Al-Shaair $2.5 million
Murphy-Bunting $1.6 million
The kinks worked out in these contracts helped the Titans reduce their cap charges in 2023, transferring money into this offseason, when the Titans were expected to have much more salary space.
There’s little to no chance Tannehill and Henry will sign extensions before Tuesday.
Tannehill is expected to sign with another team this offseason.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have been linked to Tannehill because of his evident relationship with their new offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith.
Henry has already expressed a desire to explore free agency.
To re-sign Henry so early in the offseason, the Titans would have to make him an exceptionally generous offer.
General manager Ran Carthon has the financial freedom to absorb Henry’s $4.7 million penalty.
The conversation about Al-Shaair and Murphy-Bunting is substantially more fascinating.
The Titans may have an interest in re-signing both players, notably Al-Shaair.
If the objective is to keep Al-Shaair and Murphy-Bunting, there is a financial incentive to finish the extensions this weekend or early Monday afternoon before the deadline.
The penalties imposed on Al-Shaair ($2.5 million) and Murphy-Bunting ($1.6 million) are somewhat reasonable.
If Carthon believes he needs more time to negotiate prospective extensions, Monday’s deadline is unlikely to persuade him to pay Al-Shaair and/or Murphy-Bunting above market value.
The approaching deadline may assist to jumpstart negotiations, and the Titans may be able to reach an agreement by this weekend.
