Titans foreshadowing the inevitable by granting Harold Landry permission to seek a trade partner at the 2025 NFL Combine
The writing has been on the wall for the future of Harold Landry in Nashville
The Tennessee Titans’ most recent star edge rusher seems likely to be done playing in Nashville.
Adam Schefter reported Wednesday morning that the Titans were granting Harold Landry permission to seek a trade this offseason.
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This likelihood had been percolating in NFL circles for a couple weeks now, but it didn’t take insider connections to realize how this was probably going to play out. The situation just doesn’t work out on paper for Landry to stick with Tennessee going forward. There was simply no way Landry was staying with Tennessee on his current contract. He’s been the team’s leading cap casualty candidate all offseason, and this is a last-ditch effort from Tennessee before they face the prospect of outright cutting him.
Harold Landry was a good EDGE1 in his prime, and it’s why he got the 5yr/$87.5M contract the Titans gave him after impressing on his rookie deal. He was a very useful player. But those days have been over for longer than most fans realize.
He’s always been one of the most one-dimensional speed rushers in the game. That’s not a sleight, that’s just the reality of his profile. To his full credit, he was very very good at his one trick for a long time. But unfortunately, after tearing his ACL and Father Time catching up with him along the way, he’s not effective in that way anymore. The reality at this point is that Harold Landry is a rotational talent, not a starter.
So it’s not surprising in the slightest the Titans are granting him permission to see if he can find anybody willing to send them capital for him. Because really, this is a last-ditch effort to recoup anything before they see him off.
Hindsight is 20/20, and in this case it looks unfortunate that the Titans didn’t move him at the trade deadline last year when the had the chance. He had no guaranteed money left on his deal, and an EDGE hungry (or desperate) team likely would have sent something for him. How much? Hard to say. Likely less than most fans were thinking at the time, and so it almost certainly would’ve been mocked in the moment. But today, if the Titans had gotten a 5th round pick for him last fall, it would look like a good move.
Now, the math looks like this. Landry is due $17.5M this season on his current deal. That is and was never going to happen. It feels supremely unlikely a trade partner emerges for him at this point, considering how the writing is on the wall. So a pre-June 1st cut or trade saves the Titans $10.95M in cap and frees up that $17.5M in cash.
If they wait and make him a post-June 1st cut, they’ll save the full $17.5M against the cap.
Maybe the Titans last call to the league on Landry rustles up a suitor. Maybe they even sweeten the deal by eating some of his contract to land better draft capital in a trade. But assuming no team steps in to do the Titans a solid, it seems this is step 1 on the path to a Harold Landry cap casualty in the near future.
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