Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report did an overview of the top free agents for the coming 2017 period. He described their situations in detail and then offered his belief on where the player was likely to end up. There were several he expected to stay in place like Kirk Cousins and Le’Veon Bell. However, his plan for Jeffery went down a different route.
“Jeffery has started all 16 games in just one of his five professional seasons, and the Bears also have 2015 first-round pick Kevin White on the wide receiver depth chart. They’ll make a hell of an effort to sign their top wideout to a long-term deal, but they’ll be outbid by a team with more money to spend that might see Jeffery as the final piece to a Super Bowl puzzle.
With that in mind, one particular team makes the most sense. Congratulations, Marcus Mariota!”
Indeed the Tennessee Titans are hurting for a top wide receiver to pair with their emerging young quarterback. Their passing offense ranked a distant 25th in the NFL this season with their leading pass catcher being Rishard Matthews. While he played beyond the expectations of many, he still didn’t come across as a true playmaker. Jeffery, for his faults has been a Pro Bowler when able to play a full season.
The Titans have more salary cap space than the Bears do at present. Overthecap.com projects they could have over $66 million to spend at their leisure. This would permit them to throw a top five contract at Jeffery, even if it might be overpaying given his unreliability due to injuries. Ryan Pace is not likely to throw over $14 million per year in to keep him.
Then there is the geographical factors. Nashville is considerably further south. He’s a native of South Carolina and also prefers to do his off-season workouts in Florida. Joining the Titans would put him in closer proximity to each destination, not to mention get him away from the much more active and (sometimes) hostile Chicago media.
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One thing is for sure. If this ends up happening, then wide receiver will jump up the priority list for the Bears this off-season Yes Kevin White will be back healthy and Cameron Meredith has emerged as a quality target. Still it’s hard to trust either of them will be able to provide the kind of presence and threat Jeffery has.
