After weeks of speculation, the Tennessee Titans may have tipped their hand about their intentions with the first overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
According to ESPN's Turron Davenport, the Titans released outside linebacker and leading pass-rusher Harold Landry III on Friday.
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Landry, 28, has been first or second on the team in sacks in three of the last four years, and the one year he wasn't, he missed the entire campaign with a torn ACL. Cutting him saves Tennessee up to $17.5 million in salary cap space, assuming they designate it a post-June 1 move, but it also creates a pretty signficant hole in a defense that already struggled to stop opponents from scoring, ranking 30th in points allowed.
None of the players Tennessee rotated with Landry were as adept at getting to the quarterback, and it's clear they need an edge rusher.
Fortunately for them, there's one projected to be one of the first two or three players off the board in this year's draft, in Abdul Carter. Carter was an absolute menace at Penn State last season, racking up 12 sacks and two forced fumbles, and terrorizing quarterbacks all season long. He's not quite a Micah Parsons-level generational talent, but he's pretty darned close.
How the Titans will use that first pick has been the subject of immense speculation this offseason. Carter isn't the only generational talent on the board; two-way superstar Travis Hunter is also here, and his unique skill set and potential to change the game in multiple ways would be tough to pass up.
The Titans also need a quarterback; Will Levis looks more like Kyle Boller with each passing game, and with Miami's Cam Ward also floating near the top of the class as well, there's speculation that they'll make that move as well.
However, Carter has been the one most frequently linked with the pick; they hosted the defensive end on Thursday for an interview, and many speculated that general manager Mike Borgonzi was talking about Carter when he said the team wouldn't pass up a "generational talent" at the top of the draft.
Cutting Landry now is only going to add fuel to the fire raging around picking Carter, and the Titans have no one to blame for that but themselves.
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