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The Titans are moving on from defensive end Vic Beasley. They haven’t done it yet. And for good reason.
The delay traces to one simple reality of the NFL calendar. As of today, the first day after the trading deadline, every player released by a team must pass through waivers. Thus, instead of Beasley becoming a free agent — and in turn eligible to collect the balance of his $3.5 million base salary as termination pay — his contract will be exposed to the ability of every other team to call dibs on it.
If only one team makes a claim for the contract, the Titans will avoid the $1.85 million balance of his base salary.
That doesn’t change the fact that the contract was a huge mistake for the Titans. The one-year, $9.5 million deal included a $6 million signing bonus — some of which may have been forfeited based on Beasley’s unexcused failure to report for camp on time.
Still, the Titans got zero sacks and zero quarterback hits in seven games from Beasley, and now they hope that a one-day delay will result in a cash and cap savings of $1.85 million.
