ProFootballCentral.com

By PFC Titans Writer Daniel Johns
    
    The Tennessee Titans entered the off season with the most money to spend than any other team, with just around $35 million of cap room.  However, being a small market team as they are, they didn’t make any substantial big splashes on a somewhat weak free agency market.  In one of their first moves, they did go out and get a four time Pro Bowl Tight End, former Atlanta Falcon, Alge Crumpler. 

He should be a big bodied target, especially near the red zone, for Vince Young.  Keep in mind Crumpler flourished with a similar QB to Young, in that of Michael Vick.  Not to mention with the Titans hiring former Offensive Coordinator Mike Heimerdinger back, should only help Crumpler’s stock sore higher, given Dinger’s past success with his philosophy to get the Tight End’s more involved in the offense.

    Not only did the Titans bring back their former Offensive Coordinator of the early 2000, but also re-signed the first ever overall Draft pick for the Tennessee franchise way back in 1999, the The Freak Jevon Kearse.  Kearse who had his glory years in Tennesse, receiving rookie of the year honors with his 14.5 sacks, also is known for his long stint of injures.  Due largely in-part to those injuries, he was cut and signed to Philadelphia.  However, the injury bug followed him there but even at a worse rate.  Now he seems eager and over-joyed to be back wearing the Titan Blue, in hopes to revive what was once a very promising start to his career. 

    Those two arena’s the only former Titan’s to be making the trip back to Nashville.  Wide Receiver Justin McCariens, who played under OC Mike Hemierdinger while with the New York Jets the past few seasons, also makes the trip back to the team who originally drafted him.  It has been a home coming of sorts for many former Titan players and personal, in hopes to bring the team back into playoff-contention.  Their division doesn’t get any easier as well.  The AFC South is highly being looked at as the toughest division in the AFC, and maybe in the entire league if it wasn’t for the NFC East.  Three out of the four teams in the AFC South made the playoffs last year.  The Indianapolis Colts are always the favorites to win it; the Jacksonville Jaguars are seriously making a contention to overthrown the Colts run at winning the South and don’t forget about the rising Houston Texans, who with a new Coach and Quarterback are trying to make a statement that they are no longer going to be the bottom dwellers of the division.

    With that in mind, this next Free Agent addition was all the more sweeter if you’re a Titan fan.  The Colts let their mammoth Offensive Right Guard Jake Scott, from Idaho College, slip away in Free Agency, as the Titans were more than happy to make him an offer.  This move proved especially vital because a short time after the signing of Jake Scott, long time Titan and even Tennessee Oiler, Benji Olsen retired, due to back problems.  Prior to those moves, the departure of former starting Left Guard Jacob Bell to free agency, really opened up a need on the Offensive Line.  This will ultimately give other younger back-up role players the chance to start now, like Leroy Harris and Eugene Amano.  The Titans made the right move by locking up their 2nd round Draft pick from 2005 Michael Roos to a new long term contract.  That leaves their Right Tackle David Stewart so far as the only unrestricted free agent who hasn’t gotten his contract re-structured.  The long time veteran at center, Kevin Mawae returns to help anchor that veteran Offensive Line. 

    With all this action in Free Agency, arguably the most pressing issue that needs to be addressed is 2007 Pro Bowler Defensive Tackle Albert Haynesworth’s contract.  He has yet to receive a long term deal as negotiations keep stalling.  For now they slapped the Franchise Tag on him to all but guarantee that he will remain a Titan at least for this upcoming year; after that anything goes, unless they start throwing a ton of money his way.  He came off his best season of his 6 year career, which happened to be in his contract season.  He upped his sack total to 6 this year which is his career high.  Prior to this year, he has been controversial and an injury prone player.  Even with his Pro Bowl year under his belt, he missed three games in the middle of the season due to injury, in which the Titans got run all over on by opposing teams in those games.  Even though it took Haynesworth longer than some people had hoped for him to mature more into a playmaker and a person, he defiantly should and needs to be locked up with a long term deal, because as of now they don’t have anyone who even comes close to taking his

    Titans quietly had a very productive off-season in terms of adding players to fit their roles.  One of the first moves made by them this off season was the re-signing of arguably their best WR last year, Justin Gage to a new 4 year, $14 million deal.  They gave one year deals to Tight End Bo Scaife and backup Offensive Tackle Daniel Loper, both of which will provide quality depth at their respected positions; as well as a one year deal to Pro Bowl Kicker Rob Bironas.  But even with many gains, their came some tough losses.  OG Jacob Bell went to St. Louis, both pass rushers on the Defensive Line Antwan Odom and Travis LaBoy who both also happened to be coming off their best season to date have departed this off season to Cincinnati and Arizona, respectfully.  Other notable losses of role players include, CB Adam Pac Man Jones, RB Chris Brown, TE Ben Troupe, DT Randy Starks and WR’s Eric Moulds and David Givens. 

    One area that should drastically be improved at is their special teams unit.  As mentioned prior, Pac Man Jones will be a huge loss in terms of his ability and play making skills.  However, he has proven time after time that he is just too much of a liability and comes with too much baggage.  The Dallas Cowboys don’t seem to agree or believe he is worth the gamble, as much as to offer trades to Tennessee in the hopes to attain the former 6th overall pick of 2005.  The Cowboys got their wish and now own the rights to Pac Man, who wanted to go to Dallas just as bad as they wanted him.  His return abilities and playmaking speed will be missed but the Titans did go out and picked up a solid addition in former Raider CB Chris Carr.  He’s not much of a cover guy and will only be a fill-in on bottom of the depth chart in terms of playing corner, but he should come in and not only upgrade but start right away as Kick Returner and maybe even Punt Returner.  He left Oakland after only three years and has already captured their all-time franchise record for the most kick returns than any other Raider player in history.  This is all goes without even mentioning the Titans 1st round Draft pick in this years Draft, Chris Johnson that came out the fastest player in the entire draft, who could right away be a huge threat in the Special Team’s returning game, along with Carr.

    Titan fans all over desperately wanted to see caliber WR’s like Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin or Roy Williams join the squad to help out their struggling passing QB Vince Young, but it was too no avail.  Still without a legit number one wide to help improve Vince’s accuracy, they are going to heavily rely on the young bucks they have in there now.  Head Coach Jeff Fisher has told Mike Williams, a first round WR bust by Detroit, to loose weight or be cut.  He has done that and in fact is said that he has been making good strides at reviving his disappointing young career.  Could Mike Williams become the number one threat he once was in College while at USC or will he remain another first round WR bust?  Can Brandon Jones step up as the number one wide out, and be more consistent, in which this could very well be his last chance to do so.  Guys like Roydell Williams and Justin Gage have the chance to be the top targets at WR once again, barring any injuries.  There is a lot of speculation going into this season, in which the last saw Vince Young take major steps backwards in terms of taking his game to the next level.  He was a Pro Bowl Quarterback and Rookie of the Year in his rookie campaign by basically carrying the team on his back.  He may be asked to do that again, unless a lot of these young role players help out and develop accordingly.  All in all however, this seems to be a pretty solid off season for the Titans and well see how things shake up in the extremely competitive AFC South.