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New Deal Pays Veteran Backup a Starter's Salary

Three-year pact positions Dennis Kelly to replace Jack Conklin at right tackle

David Boclair

Dennis Kelly won’t be changing teams.

The veteran tackle might, however, be switching roles.

After four seasons as a valuable and versatile backup offensive lineman, the 30-year-old will be paid like a starter. And it just so happens there is an opening along the Tennessee Titans’ offensive line.

The Titans announced Monday that they have re-signed Kelly, and ESPN.com reported the deal is for three years and $21 million with $8.75 million guaranteed. His last contract with the Titans paid him $3.93 million over three years. He earned $1.35 million in base salary.

In fact, his career earnings to date, according to OverTheCap.com, are $6,978,880. His new deal averages $7 million per season.

The decision on Kelly came shortly after reports that Jack Conklin, Tennessee’s starting right tackle for the past four seasons, agreed to terms on a free agent pact with the Cleveland Browns. The money suggests that Kelly is in line to replace him.

A seven-year veteran, Kelly started 10 games as a rookie with the Philadelphia Eagles but no more than six in any season since. Since the Titans acquired him in a trade for wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham during training camp in 2016, he has made 16 starts, seven of them as an extra tight end.

He filled in at left tackle for the first four games of 2019 while Taylor Lewan served a suspension for violation of the NFL’s performance enhancing substances policy. In 2018, he started five games at right tackle when Conklin was sidelined with a knee injury.

He scored his first career touchdown when caught a 1-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Tannehill against the Jacksonville Jaguars last November. He repeated the feat with a 1-yard touchdown catch early in the second quarter of the AFC Championship, which gave the Titans a 17-7 lead on the Kansas City Chiefs.

A fifth-round pick by Philadelphia in 2012, he was a four-year starter at left tackle at Purdue.

He becomes the third member of the 2019 Titans who is set to return in 2020. Tannehill re-signed on Sunday. Running back Derrick Henry’s rights were retained when the franchise tendered him with the non-exclusive franchise tag Monday morning.

Free agents can sign with new teams beginning Wednesday afternoon.

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David Boclair
DAVID BOCLAIR

David Boclair has covered the Tennessee Titans for multiple news outlets since 1998. He is award-winning journalist who has covered a wide range of topics in Middle Tennessee as well as Dallas-Fort Worth, where he worked for three different newspapers from 1987-96. As a student journalist at Southern Methodist University he covered the NCAA's decision to impose the so-called death penalty on the school's football program.

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