It appears as if the Tennessee Titans, barring an unexpected breakthrough, are at least getting ready to prepare for the possibility of life without Albert Haynesworth.
While Haynesworth has said he wants to stay in Tennessee if possible, and the Titans said as recently as last week that they will continue negotiating even after their exclusive window with him closes, the cold reality of the matter is that Haynesworth is likely gone to the highest bidder.
And that bidder almost certainly will not be Tennessee.
It is probably not a coincidence that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Washington Redskins both began opening up salary cap space in anticipation that Haynesworth might hit the open market.
Haynesworth could be in line to become the NFL's highest-paid defensive player, and some have suggested he could land a contract with enough window dressing to put the total number in the $100 million range. The Titans won't come close to that figure, but in terms of guaranteed money, it appears that Haynesworth could well surpass the $32 million in guarantees that Jared Allen got from the Minnesota Vikings.
If Haynesworth departs, as now appears to be likely, the Titans are not completely barren at the defensive tackle position. Second-year man Jason Jones would slide in alongside Tony Brown to replace Haynesworth, and the Titans would look for either a veteran player or draft pick to compete with Kevin Vickerson for the third tackle role.
Still, the Titans will most assuredly take a PR hit in some ways, if they allow the best player on one of the league's best defenses to walk away with only a 2010 compensatory pick to show for it, while holding approximately $30 million in salary cap space at the beginning of the free agency period. In addition, the Titans allowed Haynesworth to easily negotiate his way out from under the franchise tag he played under in 2008 by inserting incentive clauses that he easily made with a standout season last year.
The question of whether allowing Haynesworth to leave was the right move surely won't be known for at least a couple of years. The Titans were roundly criticized for allowing free agents like Jevon Kearse and Kenny Holmes leave in the past to leave, but rarely has it bitten them hard.
