INDIANAPOLIS — The Tennessee Titans have several big-name players headed toward free agency next month, with Ryan Tannehill, Derrick Henry and Jack Conklin at the top of the list.
Speaking Tuesday from the NFL Scouting Combine, Titans general manager Jon Robinson was mum on his plans in attempting to keep their key parts, including the potential use of the franchise and transition tags.
“We’ve got several guys free agent-wise whose contracts are up,” Robinson said. “I’ve spoken to all those guys. We’re working through that now. We have daily discussions internally on how we’ll handle the roster. We’ve started some preliminary discussions with some guys. We’ll continue to work through that.”
Robinson noted that Henry is a key piece they’d like to bring back.
“Derrick had a great year for us,” the GM said. “He led the league in rushing. He built off the second half of the 2018 season that he had. He cares about his teammates, he works hard, he’s great in the community. We’re going to work through that one and do everything we can to keep him around.”
Henry earned 303 carries with 1,540 rushing yards and 16 TDs in the regular season, with an additional 83 carries for 446 yards and five scores in three playoff games. Robinson didn’t sound worried about the near-400 carry workload being an issue for the behemoth running back.
“Whoever is carrying the ball, if they’re making yards and helping us win football games, you keep feeding them,” he said. “So we’ll see how we’re going to build the roster, whether it’s that position or another position to complement the players that we’ve got.”
Tannehill seems a prime candidate for the franchise tag after guiding the Titans to the AFC Championship Game. Robinson, however, wouldn’t let on his plans to keep the QB in Tennessee.
“We’ll see how it goes,” Robinson said. “He’s under contract here for the next few weeks. He did a great job for us. We’ll start those talks and kind of see where those go, just like all the players.”
With the NFL and NFLPA agreeing to push the tag deadline to March 12, the Titans have a few more weeks to determine how their offseason will shape up, and how different Tennessee’s roster will look in 2020.