2013 Cap hit for all Other – $0.822m (0.7% of team spend) Players under contract: Brett Kern (6,6”, 365) – 26 years old 2013 Cap Number - $1.353m ($0.821m salary + $0.532m SB pro-rata) 2014 Cap Number - $1.469m ($0.937m salary + $0.532m SB pro-rata) 2015 Cap Number - UFA Expired Contracts Rob Bironas Quinn Johnson Colin Mooney 3 burning questions 1. Has Bironas played his last game as a Titan? Quite possibly, although don’t be surprised if we use the Franchise Tag to keep him. Bironas’ cap hit in 2012 was almost $3.7m. If we don’t use the franchise tag on Cook, then using it on Bironas will mean he is likely to cost us around $2.7m for 2013. The success of rookie kickers this year (Legatron, Walsh, Forbath etc) may encourage other teams to go down that path. However at 34 years of age, I would be somewhat surprised if the Titans offered Bironas another big money long-term deal. 2. Are Mooney or Quinn likely to be back? This really depends on the offense we end up running next season, and also in some respects on what happens with Cook. If Cook comes back, we are less likely to chase a big name FB in my view as we would rely on more 2 and 3 TE sets with our depth at TE. Neither of these guys has a walk up start and I think our starting FB will be a training camp battle between a number of guys making vet minimum. 3. Is Kern in any danger? Absolutely zero. His punting average this year (in both net and gross terms) was the best of his career and he has gone 4 years as a Titan without having a punt returned for a TD, so he is getting good hangtime as well. Hopefully he doesn’t have to punt anywhere near as much next season, but he is the least of our concerns. Free Agency: A few options at kicker if we decide to part ways with Bironas. However the list also reads like an admittance line-up for a retirement home. Mike Nugent Phil Dawson Jason Hanson Shayne Graham Nick Folk Nate Kaeding Steve Hauschka At Fullback there are some good options, depending on what role they have in the offense. Lousaka Polite Corey McIntyre Brian Leonard James Casey (H-Back) Greg Jones Jerome Felton Lex Hilliard Potential Draft Targets: We aren’t the Jaguars, so I don’t expect to see us pick a kicker or Fullback in the first few rounds. Some guys that may be on our late-round radar. Kicker Caleb Sturgis, Florida Dustin Hopkins, Florida State Quinn Sharp, Oklahoma State Fullback Tommy Bohanon, Wake Forest Kyle Juszcyk, Harvard Summary We have previously had a lot of money (comparatively) invested in our Punter and Kicker roster spots and for the most part it has been money well spent. That said, Bironas did look shaky at times this season and is not the automatic guy he was a couple of seasons ago. He is no lock to return. Unless we get an absolutely out-of-left field OC, I see the fullback position continuing to be somewhat marginalised and not much of an investment made there. My take I’m already on record as saying I think we should franchise Cook, which means we won’t be able to tag Bironas. I think the Titans will offer him a decent contract in the 2-3 year range, but may well lose him to someone willing to pay more. Drafting a kicker late to compete in camp with one of the crusty veterans is the path I can see them going. Kern will be back and I think we will bring Mooney and Johnson back to training camp to compete for a roster spot next season.
Bironas had a tough season by his standards which might mean his on the backside of his career. He seemed hurt at points last season so it might be injury-related. The Titans could do much worse. I think a lot of this depends on how interested other teams are in Bironas. You can bet his agent has a pretty solid idea of his value already. If they can work a reasonable deal, I think they'll try to keep him.
That was obviously the in-built test to see if anyone was actually still reading these. Well done. You passed!!
