Tennessee Titans fans were looking forward to the return of starting placekicker Ryan Succop after he started the 2019 season on the PUP list, but the team’s problems at the position continued even after his return.
Succop was recovering from an offseason knee surgery, and was forced to miss the first eight games of the year after going 1-of-6 on field goal attempts.
He had more than his fair share of problems upon his return, and was placed on Injured Reserve in Week 16.
The Titans went through a number of players at the position during the games Succop was absent, between names like Cody Parkey, Cairo Santos and Ryan Santoso — none of which were able to consistently get the job done — before arriving at Greg Joseph.
Joseph has had a small chance to show what he’s capable of, and Succop has looked just as replaceable as anyone else the Titans have brought in recently.
He was good on a 30-yard field goal attempt in the 35-24 AFC Championship Game loss to the Kansas City Chiefs last month, and nailed all nine of his extra point attempts.
Releasing Succop is a reasonable choice to make at this point.
His 2020 salary would be $4.1 million, and with Tennessee totaling $2.1 million in dead cap money if they choose to release him.
This leaves the team with $2 million in cap savings.
The Titans have a lot of options as to what they can do at the position ahead of the 2020 NFL Draft, but if one thing is for certain, it’s that it absolutely must be addressed moving forward.
Titans kickers made just 44.4 percent of their attempts — the lowest mark in the NFL by a large margin in 2019.
