Not only did the Tennessee Titans re-sign OLB Harold Landry on Tuesday, they also did it in a way that gives them some cap flexibility ahead of 2022 free agency.

Landry's 2022 cap hit on his new deal (five years, $87.5 million total) is set to be just over $5 million, per a Tweet from Paul Kuharsky.

Harold Landry's 2022 cap number will be slightly more than $5 million.

The tag would have been $18.702 million.

So they come out about $13.7 M ahead on the books for this year. Big.#Titans

— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) March 9, 2022

That's significantly less than both the cap hit of over $18 million Landry would have inflicted on the Titans under the franchise tag and the average annual value of Landry's new contract.

While the lower hit will give the Titans a great deal of extra breathing room in free agency, it probably won't change their overall approach very much.

It's highly unlikely that the Titans see Landry's small 2022 number as a license to be more aggressive when the free-agency negotiation period opens on Monday.

They're not going to, all of a sudden, run out and sign some high-dollar player they previously thought they wouldn't be able to afford.

If anything, the Titans will use the extra space to re-sign one (or more) of their own.

For example, the 2022 savings on Landry could allow them to keep Ben Jones around for another year. It could also prompt them to extend a role player like Dane Cruikshank, who's replaceable but did a nice job covering tight ends in 2021.

Keeping Landry around without a big year-one cap burden will keep the Titans from having to scramble to find money next week. It may also allow them to keep a player they previously intended on releasing to free up some funds.

But it's not going to change their approach to free agency which, in all likelihood, will be much steadier and less aggressive than the Titans' 2021 approach.

Cover image: Andrew Nelles/USA Today