This has undoubtedly been an interesting offseason for the Tennessee Titans. At one point prior to the new league year, Tennessee was over the expected salary cap by nearly $23 million.
This unfortunate reality led to several cap casualties this offseason, most of which were high-priced veterans that weren’t living up to the contract they had been given.
However, the Titans also lost a couple of players on the open market after the team failed to reach a new contract agreement with them before they hit the open market.
A lot of people felt that linebacker David Long was Tennessee’s biggest loss in free agency, but Brad Spielberger of Pro Football Focus went a different route in his latest article discussing each team’s biggest loss.
Spielberger ultimately went with the Titans’ former third-round pick and the Chicago Bears’ newest guard, Nate Davis, stating the following as his reasoning.
The Titans’ offensive line was a major weakness throughout the 2022 season once left tackle Taylor Lewan went down with an injury, but Davis was a rare bright spot, earning a career-high 66.8 pass-block grade. Davis’ 79.3 run-blocking grade on outside zone rushes over the past three seasons ranked seventh among guards, making him the staple of the Titans’ rushing attack.
Linebacker David Long was another candidate here, but Tennessee is clearly overhauling its roster and may need to prioritize spending on the offensive side of the ball for the next quarterback.
The loss of Davis will certainly be felt in some capacity, but in my personal opinion, I would much rather give a reasonable contract to a high-upside player like Daniel Brunskill over giving Davis $10 million annually.
Davis is a solid player and whatnot, but he never struck me as the type of guy that should be making eight figures per year. Chicago clearly felt otherwise, so we’ll simply have to wait and see how these decisions play out for everyone involved.
