Trading Casey Proves Players' Preferences Have No Meaning

Pro Bowl defensive lineman wanted to spend his entire career, win a championship with Titans.

The Tennessee Titans’ decision to trade Jurrell Casey on Wednesday is a stark reminder that any individual goals or desires an NFL player might have are meaningless. Even if that player is someone as productive and positive as the five-time Pro Bowler and six-time team captain.

In other words: the business of the NFL always wins.

During the Titans’ playoff run that culminated with a loss in the AFC Championship, Casey talked about his desire to play his entire career for one team – and to help that team win a championship.

A third-round pick in 2011, his entire career up until now has been as a member of the Titans. Never has he come so close to being part of a championship roster as he did in 2019 and never had he had reason to be more optimistic than he was headed into 2020. Now, his dream is gone.

Sure, you probably have heard lots of guys in every sport say that they intend to be loyal to their first team and then watch them do something different.

Casey’s actions were always right in line with his words.

The last time he agreed to a contract extension with the Titans was July 2017. At that point, he had been in the league for six years and had not even sniffed a playoff appearance, let alone a title. The franchise was not far removed from four straight losing seasons (2012-15), including two consecutive in which it tied for the worst record in the NFL (2014-15).

He had just come off his third straight Pro Bowl appearance and would have been completely justified if he wanted to seek out another situation, one that looked more promising from a team standpoint for the latter portion of his career. Instead, he re-upped.

Before that he agreed to a new deal in August 2014. Then, he still had a year to go on his rookie contract and the head coach who drafted him, Mike Munchak, had been fired. He had yet to play a game for the replacement, Ken Whisenhunt, but had faith enough to commit to stick around. That turned out to be a terrible decision, by the way.

The point is, it’s not as if the Titans were the only team that would have had him. From the moment he entered the NFL he has been durable, productive, the right kind of guy in the locker room and in the community. Any of the 31 teams would have been happy to have him if he ever made himself available.

Casey’s focus, though, always was on one team and one team only.

In a perfect world, given all he has done for Tennessee, the choice to leave should have been his. The NFL is not perfect. Far from it. That is why every negotiation on a collective bargaining agreement creates conflict and consternation. Talks never are a matter of owners and players working together toward a common goal. They’re each fighting tooth and nail to protect their own ideas about how it works.

The Casey trade proves once again that the players’ individual desires ultimately mean nothing.

Which is not to say general manager Jon Robinson is particularly evil, that controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk is greedy or coach Mike Vrabel is misguided. None of them are any different than their peers. They see players as commodities to be bought, sold and – in this case – traded.

Loyalty and dedication mean nothing when weighed against age and money. Every team wants the best players it can get – the younger and cheaper the better. That’s just the way it is, and the Titans brass no doubt believes it seized an opportunity to improve the roster.

Casey is neither young (he is 30) nor cheap (he will count more than $13 million against the salary cap each of the next three years). As a result, he also is no longer one of the Tennessee Titans, which is the last thing he ever wanted or envisioned for himself.

“I always said whenever I got drafted that I wanted to make sure I – one – stay around the team and be a leader and whenever I got the opportunity, if I’m not in the Super Bowl, I didn’t want to go nowhere,” he said in January. “I wanted to stay with whatever team I was with and make sure I lead that team to be a Super Bowl contender.

“… So [when] I’m done, I’m either going to retire not going to the Super Bowl at all with the Titans or I’m going to be able to go to one.”

A third option never crossed his mind. But what he thought ultimately was irrelevant.