Jason Wolf

USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee

The Titans have $38.7 million under the salary cap, the fourth-largest stockpile of available cash in the NFL behind only the Browns, 49ers and Jaguars, according to the database at overthecap.com.

They rolled over $24 million in unused cap space from last season, one of the largest figures in the league.

But they didn’t pursue inside linebacker Dont’a Hightower when the Patriots star and Marshall County graduate tested free agency earlier this month, despite representing an upgrade at a position of need and being a local fan favorite. They were outbid by the Jaguars for the services of former Texans cornerback A.J. Bouye, the top player at another glaring position of need to hit the open market. And they failed to trade for former Saints wide receiver Brandin Cooks, while all of the top free agent wideouts signed elsewhere.

Tennessee instead retained a handful of its own low-cost players and signed seven free agents from outside the organization, making the biggest splash with former Patriots cornerback Logan Ryan, who received less than half as much guaranteed money as Bouye.

What’s going on?

Former Titans general manager Floyd Reese and former longtime NFL agent Joel Corry, a Nashville native and salary cap expert, discuss the Titans’ approach to roster building through free agency and the draft:

Why aren’t the Titans spending more money?

Corry: I think it’s probably two-fold. One, you’ve got to look at where the GM came from. He spent most of his time in New England. So that’s not a team that is going to go out and pay indiscriminate money to players, for the most part, notwithstanding Stephon Gilmore. So Jon Robinson exercising a little fiscal restraint probably makes sense, given the background. He wasn’t going to go overboard for Hightower. They do have a need at inside linebacker, but at the same time you look at the cabinets, so you’re doing your planning down the road, as well. They’re going to need money for (left tackle) Taylor Lewan, who is now eligible for a contract extension.

Reese: The real question is, is there somebody out there worth spending the big dollars on? And if there’s not, I always used to say, ‘If you take a $2 million player and pay him $4 million, he’s still a $2 million player.’ So what you have to do, and I think one of the things that Jon really does well, is he knows the value of these guys, and because he knows it, he’s willing to go out and make an attempt and try to lure them in with whatever it is he’s trying to sell, and believe me in Tennessee and with the Titans, even though we’re not exactly where we want to be yet, there’s still an awful lot to sell. So that is a big element. But it’s not just bidding on these guys.

So in keeping that cushion of salary cap space, they’re thinking about extensions for Lewan and obviously, a year from now, Marcus Mariota. But at the same time, expensive veterans’ contracts expire and the cap rises each year, so wouldn’t there be money available for those guys anyway, in theory?

Corry: Yeah, but you can carry over unused cap room from year to year, so it allows you much more flexibility. It’s not use it or lose it. Plus Tennessee right now doesn’t have any high-priced players. They have nobody … making $10 million per year, which is unusual. Robinson had a certain price point for Hightower, and it doesn’t make sense (to give him what he received from the Patriots, $33.5 million over four years with $17 million guaranteed).

Hightower is considered one of the top blitzing inside linebackers in the league, but the Titans have had trouble covering guys over the middle. So would he have represented that big of an upgrade?

Reese: I’m not sure he would, to be honest. And I love Dont’a. He’s a great, great player. But the position is not a lot different from guards, you know? If you can get the best guard in the NFL, then pay him whatever you think he’s worth. And we did that with Bruce Matthews. But generally speaking, if he’s not the best guard, then, you know, you can probably get a pretty good guard for a lot less than whatever it is he wants.

MORE TITANS

We saw the Titans extend Wesley Woodyard through 2019, a deal worth up to $12.75 million, with $2 million guaranteed. Peanuts, comparatively.

Reese: Yeah, I mean … is he going to the Pro Bowl? Probably not. Is he an All-Pro? Probably not. Is he the real kind of solid player that I think JRob and (coach Mike) Mularkey are trying to build with? I think he probably is. And so your choices are you can take Dont’a, and Dont’a would have done all of that. Dont’a is really special. But you’re going to pay him $17 million, and you can get this other guy for $2 million. Even though Dont’a is probably a better player, how many more games is an inside linebacker going to win for you? And I coached linebackers. So I love linebackers. But the truth is, an inside linebacker, if he’s not Ray Lewis, if he’s not Brian Urlacher, if he’s not the absolute Hall of Fame kind of guy, is probably not going to win a lot of games for you.

Why not outbid the Jaguars for Bouye?

Corry: Well they got Logan, who is cheaper, but the thing is, usually if you’re going to get a player in the first couple of days of free agency, the first 72 hours, you’re paying retail. That’s a seller’s market, not a buyer’s market. Once that first wave ends, which we’re now in the second wave, it starts to flip and it becomes more of a buyer’s market. And as players don’t get the money they expected, some of them start to panic, readjust their expectations and you can get very good values that way.

Reese: Here’s the deal with a guy like that. Now he’s (started 11 games last season). You’re going to pay him ($26 million guaranteed)? Has he made some plays? Yes. Does he look like he could be a really good player? Yes. Is there a chance he could be a Pro Bowl player? Yes. Is there a chance that after two years he might not be anything that you expected? Yes.

With Logan, he’s going to come in here. Is he going to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer? Probably not. Is he going to be a bust? Absolutely not. Is he going to be a real, real solid guy, great in the locker room, understands winning, has been there and done that and will be nothing but a great example for millions less? What would you do?

And Robinson knew him well.

Reese: Absolutely. That’s why I’m saying there’s absolutely no chance he will fail. He is going to be a player. Now is he going to the Hall of Fame? I can’t tell you that. Now is he going to be our best corner? I think I can say yes.

Corry: Last year Robinson was more aggressive in going out and getting DeMarco Murray through trade.

But that was still pretty low-risk, right? They got him just for swapping fourth-round picks.

Corry: That was basically the forerunner to the (Brock) Osweiler salary dump for NFL purposes, because it’s a swap of fourth-round picks. Anything that had Chip Kelly’s name on it Howie Roseman wanted to ship out of Philly, and found a taker. So it was a minor version of what Cleveland did with Osweiler. You didn’t have the same type of cost, but it’s in the same family and also unusual for an NFL team to do. But that move worked out.

Getting Rishard Matthews as a receiver panned out for them. They haven’t really gone overboard with free agents the past couple years. They’ve gotten good values. For Tennessee, Logan Ryan was a splash signing, because they typically have not gone out and spent at that level in free agency. Granted, other teams spent a whole lot more for individual players at that position and other positions. But he’s not going out there and trying to build the team with the highest-priced free agent at each position, even though he had cap room if he wanted to make a couple of splash signings, he could have.

Robinson has said many times how much he values draft capital, all those extra picks and the ability to move up and down. Do you see him valuing cap space in the same type of way? As just another asset or tool?

Reese: Yeah. I do. And Jon is smart enough to know that just spending money is not the answer. I would guarantee you this. I would guarantee that if there were six guys out there that were everything that we were looking for, Jon would have spent whatever there was to get them. But if they’re not there, just spending the money is not the answer. And especially where this club is.

Corry: Here’s one thing about free agency — it can be fool’s gold. Jacksonville spent more money over the last three years in free agency to have 11 wins. And they’ve had a top-five pick since 2012. So obviously it’s not working for them. It didn’t deter them from spending this year. The Giants going out and buying a defense and getting to the playoffs last year is more the exception than the rule. Typically you 'win' free agency, you’re not winning on the football field in the following season.

But the Jags are right up there with Titans as teams with the most cap space. Is it surprising to see a team spend that much, and yet consistently have money to spend?

Corry: Well they wouldn’t have the money to spend if they’d been hitting on the players they get in free agency, because once the guarantees are over after two years they’re cutting those players. So they’ve created cap room by getting rid of guys like Jared Odrick, trading Julius Thomas, Toby Gerhart didn’t pan out, Davon House this year. It’s just a litany of guys that have not worked out in free agency for them. But if they had actually panned out, that’d be cap room on their payroll that’s being used, so they wouldn’t have the same cap room available to spend.

Reese: People always want to say, 'Geez, you’ve got so much money.' And you know what? If you go into free agency and there are five, six, seven great guys that are Pro Bowl players that are great in the locker room, all that kind of stuff, and you can buy them? Great. Do it. But the truth is in free agency anymore, if a guy’s out there there’s generally a reason.

You’re talking about not just on-field production, but intangibles, correct?

Reese: When people talk about free agents, they talk about practice habits. How is he in the locker room? Is he a disruption during a game? … Once this locker room gets established — and the thing New England can do that very few teams in the league can do, is New England can take a chance on a guy that may be, not a bad guy, but there may be questions. And they can take a chance on him because the locker room is so strong, that when they go into the locker room and they look around and they see DeMarco and they see Marcus and they see (Brian) Orakpo and they see how those guys act, then they understand immediately that, 'Hey, this is the way we do it here, and this is the way I’ve got to do it.’

You have that strong culture is what you’re talking about.

Reese: Yes. And if that culture doesn’t exist, then all of a sudden they become ‘the guy.’ The guy that you just paid $20 million a year comes in, well everybody in the locker room looks at that contract and they go, ‘This must be the man. This has got to be the answer for us.’ Well, if he’s not what you want in the locker room, if he’s not a practice player, if he’s not a good guy, if he’s not all those things, then where does your locker room go?

And so chemistry has to factor in. It’s not just about making the financials work, or even the X's and O's.

Reese: Right. Everybody in that locker room knows Logan’s contract, knows what it is. And so the first time they see him, the first time they’re around him, they’re saying, ‘OK, Jon Robinson thinks enough of this guy to pay him all that money. Now what kind of guy is he?’ Well all of a sudden you realize this guy is perfect. This guy does everything that you want. Well, everybody looks at that and goes, ‘Hey, OK, that’s the way we do it around here. You’ve got to be like that.’

By the same token, if that guy comes in there as off-the-wall and won’t practice and he’s griping about everything and made at the coaches, well that also establishes your locker room. I’ll say this now, in two years, in my belief, that Titans locker room will be so strong and so tight, that you can bring a guy, you can maybe take a risk on a guy like that and bring him in. Because he’s going to walk in and he’s going to see, ‘Jeez, there’s an All-Pro left tackle, there’s an All-Pro right tackle, there’s a Pro Bowl defensive end, there’s a Pro Bowl corner, there’s a Pro Bowl quarterback and on and on and on, and this is the way they act, then OK, that’s the way we do it here.’

Corry: The soundest way to build a football team is for you to build through the draft, hit on your draft picks and when you hit on those guys, extend them so they never hit the open market, you get them at a better value and you have more cap flexibility, and also augment the team through free agency. Not build through free agency, but augment through free agency. That’s the soundest way to build a team. And that seems to be the way Jon Robinson’s going.

When does it make the most sense to sign Lewan and Mariota to extensions? And it’s a no-brainer to pick up Lewan’s fifth-year option before the early May deadline, especially because he was the 11th overall pick, right?

Corry: Oh, yeah, which is the best value in the draft because the top 10 picks (are paid) the transition tag number for the year. For 11 through 32 it’s the average of the third- through 25th-highest contract (of players at that position), so that’s the perfect spot, 11. So it’s going to be cheaper than it would be if he’d been one pick higher. Yeah, you pick up the fifth-year option for a good player, regardless, and then you can use that as leverage against him for the longterm deal.

And that price point is going to be cheaper than what it costs for a good left tackle, because we’ve seen the left tackle market explode, where you’ve got guys who are slightly above average at best, and I’m being generous in that categorization, getting $12-$13 million per year with $25-$26 million guaranteed. … What are you going to have to pay Lewan? And probably the sooner you do it, the better off you’re going to be because you normally get a better deal when you have a good to great player, doing it early.

Reese: Vin Marino, who is the cap guy there, I’ve known Vin for 20 years, and he is outstanding. If I know Vin right, he’s got a budget set up for the next three, five, seven years, whatever. And he’s looking at it and he’s saying, ‘We have this much money, which is good.’ But how much is a Pro Bowl left tackle going to cost you? How much is a franchise quarterback going to cost you? And you start adding all these contract up, and if you’re not very, very careful at how you budget it, all of a sudden you’re sitting in a situation where you’ve got 15 unrestricted free agents and no money. And that’s when your team gets destroyed.

That’s when you’re up against the cap and you’ve got to let really good players walk.

Reese: And you can’t replace them. That’s what we went through way back when. Now that was a different situation — we knew because we were stretching it as far as we could, and not near the amount of money we’re talking about now and not near the increases, and we had made some good draft choices. All of these good drafts that you have, imagine when (Jack) Conklin, when (Derrick) Henry, when (Kevin) Byard, when all of these guys get to a point that they’re on the fourth or fifth year, and maybe you can’t sign them. All of a sudden a $2 million contract becomes $12 million. I know this — I know Vin Marino has it all figured out, and whenever they start negotiating it, it will be at the best time, to do what is best for the club. You can’t let these things happen. You have to make them happen.

So the Titans are doing the wise thing by building through the draft, augmenting the roster with free agents and keeping a cushion of cap space, but that obviously doesn’t work unless you hit on those draft picks.

Corry: They hit on the hardest thing, the first thing you need. They’ve got a quarterback. They’ve got that piece. But another thing that surprised me was that they didn’t go out and try to get some sort of receiver in free agency. I assume that’s got to be a priority in the draft.

I imagine that’s the 18th pick. Would you go best available player with the fifth pick, then take the best wideout remaining at 18?

Corry: Yeah, that has to be it. Get presumably a deep threat.

And Robinson has maximized his opportunity to hit on picks by increasing the team’s “draft capital.”

Corry: Right, because he’s accumulated picks. You auctioned off the top pick last year because you already had the quarterback. No one can argue of what Jon Robinson’s doing. He’s building a team a fundamentally sound way.

Reach Jason Wolf atjwolf@tennessean.comand follow him on Twitter at@JasonWolfand on Instagram and Snapchat atTitansBeat.