Titans’ free agency strikeout opened door for Calvin Ridley and Cam Ward to have a redo in year two
The duo will be back in Nashville in 2026.
Tennessee Titans GM Mike Borgonzi was extremely active at the beginning of NFL free agency week, bringing in a handful of new starters to set up Robert Saleh and Cam Ward for success.
But once they had patched a handful of key holes, the big question then became what they would do with CB L’Jarius Sneed and WR Calvin Ridley. The bonus money that was due this weekend for being on the roster in the new league year was the deadline, forcing a decision on this sooner than later. And now, right before the buzzer, we have an answer on both.
Titans decide on Calvin Ridley, L’Jarius Sneed for 2026
It was reported on Friday that the Titans were cutting L’Jarius Sneed, saving themselves $11.4 million against the cap. Since the moment he was injured, ending his season for the second time in two years, this felt like an inevitability. But as the deadline for more guaranteed money grew closer, there was uncertainty as to why the Titans hadn’t moved on from him yet.
Paul Kuharsky reported that Sneed passed his physical this week, which was the leading theory as to why the Titans were waiting. The financial implications of cutting him before he was healthy enough to pass a physical made it reasonable to want to wait until the last minute to ensure he passed it, even if that meant forcing Sneed himself to wait longer to hit the open market.
It’s a move that is certainly inconvenient for the player, but Titans fans feel no love lost after how little he contributed to the team the past two seasons.
Now on Saturday, Tom Pellisero has reported that the Titans have restructured Calvin Ridley’s contract to keep him on the roster in 2026. He will receive his $2 million bonus, and the Titans will pair him with new addition Wan’Dale Robinson for Cam Ward to target this fall.
How free agency potentially shaped the decision to restructure Ridley
As we got deeper into the off-season, I had grown more and more skeptical the Titans were going to be able to keep Ridley on the roster and still feel good about where they were financially. But that was based on the assumption that they would be handing out a significant contract for a starting center.
There was clearly a level of interest in Tyler Linderbaum, Connor McGovern, and other center options in the veteran market from the Titans. But once Linderbaum blew out the all-time record for a center contract in Las Vegas, and McGovern returned to Buffalo on a strong deal of his own, it became clear that Tennessee was being priced out of the market.
My understanding of their plan heading into free agency was that they intended to set Cam Ward up with a veteran center in 2026. And I think that plan has now changed to involve a competition with 2025 day three rookie Jackson Slater penciled in as the starter if he can win the job this summer. Perhaps a mid-round draft pick to shore up this position is in the cards now.
What does that have to do with Ridley? Well, the more mock offseasons I’ve run, crunching the numbers, it led me to believe the Titans would have very little cap space to roll over into 2027 if they kept Ridley on his existing deal. There was a team “out” this off-season from his contract that would have made it a 2yr/$47.7 million deal, leaving just $13 million of dead cap on the Titans’ books. If they had left his contract alone, his cap hit the next two years was going to be north of $26 million annually.
That was not tenable if they spent on starting center the way I thought they may have, and clearly it wasn’t an option even now that they haven’t. The details of this restructure will be interesting. Typically, a simple restructure just involves moving money around, putting your cash in the pocket of the player today to help the team’s cap situation in return.
But given Ridley‘s age and recent injury history, it’s fair to wonder if the actual value of his deal was changed in a way that made his return more comfortable for the Titans. Either way, they’ve set themselves up with a receiver they can trust in the slot and on the boundary, giving themselves flexibility heading into April‘s draft.
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