NASHVILLE – The NFL offseason is upon us. It’s time to get down to business. Next week, Tennessee Titans general manager Ran Carthon and 31 other GMs will be able to apply franchise tags to players whose contracts are expiring this offseason. The process begins on Tuesday, Feb. 20, and ends on March 5.
After that, the legal tampering period for free agency will run from March 11 to March 13. If the Titans do not extend the contracts of Ryan Tannehill, Derrick Henry, Azeez Al-Shaair, and Sean Murphy-Bunting by the end of business Monday (4 p.m. CT), the void year of each player’s contract will be accelerated into 2024.
The NFL utilizes a “void years” strategy to help distribute the prorated cap hits associated with signing bonuses. For example, if a player signs a three-year contract with a $30 million signing bonus, the cap hit would be divided into three equal parts of $10 million each year. Void years are employed by adding dummy years to the end of the contract, which can be carried out for a maximum of five seasons.
It’s possible that the Titans may not offer any contract extensions before Monday’s deadline. New coach Brian Callahan is still filling out his coaching roster and, before making any contract decisions, the new staff will want to assess the players and determine how each fits into their system.
It’s highly unlikely the Titans will offer an extension to Tannehill, considering that his name didn’t come up in the introductory press conferences for Callahan or offensive coordinator Nick Holz. Tannehill’s dead money number is $9.2 million, according to overthecap.com. Dead money is a salary cap charge for a player who is no longer on the team’s roster.
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