When and why the Titans must extend two no-brainer players soon, which has a surprising impact on their cap space

Jeffery Simmons and Peter Skoronski need new contracts soon. The Titans have the means to make that happen, but they should move quickly.

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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The Titans spent big at the top of the free agent market, dishing out more total money in contracts than any team in the league to land a collection of new veterans. Amongst the additions are WR Wan’Dale Robinson, DL John Franklin-Myers, and CB’s Alontae Taylor and Cor’Dale Flott.

There are still depth moves to be made, and an entire draft class to be selected and paid on the rookie pay scale. But an updated picture of the Titans’ cap situation shows a surprisingly healthy spot to find yourself in, and a pair of obvious internal contracts that should be coming soon could help them out even more.

Titans Salary Cap update

I sat down to run through some Titans finances with my friend Zach Lyons, host of Cover Two with Blaine & Zach on 104.5 the Zone this week. You can listen to that entire conversation right here. He tracks the Titans’ books closely, and the updated figure of total cash spending he gave me was roughly $331 million, with around $135 million in free agent signings this year. That’s rather unusual for the Titans, who typically spend 100% of the regular cap figure, not the adjusted figure you get from things like cap rollover. In 2025 for reference, they spent in the ballpark of $281 million cash.

As it currently stands, the Titans’ effective cap space figure is a healthy $55.81 million. They’ll add some more players between now and opening day, but they’re set up to roll-over a significant chunk of change to 2027. But don’t let their remaining cap figure convince you they aren’t spending, because they are. Way more than ever! The remaining cap could be spent still, but on who? Talent and team-building constraints such as roster size make it much more reasonable to hold onto the majority of it right now.

Signing Jeffery Simmons and Peter Skoronski to extensions

Two big moves till loom over Mike Borgonzi’s head right now: extending LG Peter Skoronski and DT Jeffery Simmons. These are, for my money, the two best football players on this team. And both of them need to be extended soon, though for different reasons.

Skoronski’s rookie 1st round contract is coming to an end after 2027 if the team picks up his fifth year option for $19 million in that last season. He’s eligible for an extension already, and Borgonzi has all-but explicitly said they intend on getting it done. This is the right move, because Skoronski is exactly the type of player a good franchise should want to reward. He’s a homegrown Titan who has done things the right way and played at a very high level. These are the drafted-and-developed kinds of players you should want to reward with big boy contracts, sending a message to your locker room and to the world; we take care of our guys.

Even with two seasons left to have cost-control on Skoronski’s rookie deal, there is no time like the present if you have zero questions about whether you want to keep him around (which they shouldn’t). Savvy front offices get deals done early, not late. Jerry Jones’ Cowboys are the opposite of the model you should want your ball club to be following. These markets only go up over time. Tyler Linderbaum, though a center instead of a guard, just blew the IOL market out of the water with Vegas. These kinds of market-correcting moves happen more regularly than you might think, and the longer you wait, the more expensive your guy becomes.

Looking at the top of the guard market, there are five players at or above $20 million AAV. Tyler Smith and Trey Smith are at $24 and $23.5 million respectively, and then Chris Lindstrom, Quenton Nelson, and Robert Hunt live right around $2o million a tier below them. Taking a swing on guessing where Skoronski’s agent gets him to come in, I would put serious money on him becoming the sixth guard to cross the $20 million threshold. He’ll probably fight to live in the gap between the Smith’s and those right at $20 million, and if you ask me, that is fair market value for the soon-to-be 25 year old.

Jeffery Simmons is an extension candidate for a different reason. He is still on his 4yr/$94 million contract through 2027, but fully guaranteed money has dried up. A player of his caliber, especially off the heels of his best season yet, is warranted in wanting to renegotiate that. What makes this negotiation interesting is how wonky the interior DL market is right now.

Simmons is 29 years old, the same age as the man at the top of the money heap: Chris Jones, who Kansas City gave a contract worth $31.75 million AAV. There’s a canyon between him and the rest of the field, who comes in at $26 million with Milton Williams and $25.5 million with Zach Allen. Where will Simmons come in? The highest paid guy besides Jones? Or will he reset the market again, rising to $32 million or more? After the Defensive Player of the Year-caliber performance he put up last season, I can’t help but think he will rise to the very top.

The funny thing about a monster Simmons extension is that, if they wanted to maximize savings this year, they could add $15.16 million to their cap space by doing it. Given how much space they have, perhaps they opt not to backload the contract and eat some of it now when they have money to burn. Though that would be pretty unusual.

The bottom line is that the Titans have every reason in the world to get these guys extended as soon as possible, and should do so before the summer is here.

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