The Tennessee Titans were the first team to part ways with their head coach.
Brian Callahan couldn’t make it past Week 6, and his only win of the season came after an all-time great blunder by the Arizona Cardinals.
Considering that, it would only be fair to assume that the Titans would be open for business.
They have multiple valuable veterans who could gauge plenty of interest in the trade market, starting with star DT Jeffery Simmons.
Unfortunately for the rest of the league, he’s off the table.
According to NFL Network’s insider Ian Rapoport, the Titans don’t intend to part ways with their defensive superstars:
“While there will be plenty of fallout for Tennessee in the coming months, the immediate fallout across the NFL was this: Seemingly everyone called the Titans to see if star defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons was available ahead of the league’s Nov. 4 trade deadline. Sources explained that multiple teams called to gauge the availability of Simmons, one of the top players at his position in the league, in the hours and days after Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk made the decision to fire Callahan. Those interested were told clearly that Simmons is not available, sources say,” Rapoport wrote.
Of course, this makes sense, considering that Simmons is, objectively, a top-five – and maybe even top-three – player in his position.
Nevertheless, it’s not like the Titans are anything even remotely close to contention.
This team hasn’t found much success in the NFL Draft, and Cam Ward is likely going to need more time.
First, they need to find the right guy to develop their young star quarterback, but this is a team sport, and they need many more pieces around him.
That’s to say that they’re just risking holding onto Simmons through the backend of his prime and still not being good enough to compete for a playoff berth.
Perhaps it would be better for them to capitalize on his steep trade value while they still can, but they clearly don’t seem to feel the same way.
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