Countdown to Kickoff: 99 Days

For the 10th straight year, Jurrell Casey will wear No. 99 in a Titans season-opener, only this one will be different.

The countdown to kickoff has started.

The Tennessee Titans will open the 2020 regular season Sept. 14 at Denver. That is 99 days away.

No one who has followed the Titans in recent years can see ‘99’ and not think of Jurrell Casey. It is the jersey number the defensive lineman wore with Tennessee for the past nine seasons and it is the same number he will wear when he plays his first game for an NFL other than the Titans – against the Titans.

Casey, a five-time Pro Bowler, was traded to the Broncos on March 18 in exchange for a seventh-round draft pick.

The move was made to free up salary cap space, but it cost Tennessee one of its most prominent and popular players of recent years. It also put in place a high-profile storyline for a prime-time contest that will close out the first week of the schedule. The Titans and Broncos will meet at 9:10 p.m. (CDT) on ESPN as the second half of a Monday Night Football doubleheader.

Among players the Titans drafted from 1999 through 2019, Casey is tied for fourth in games played for the franchise with 139. His 137 starts place him third behind a pair of offensive linemen, tackle Michael Roos (148) and guard Benji Olson (139).

Casey’s five Pro Bowl selections are the most by any draft choice of the Titans era and helped him earn a spot on Pro Football Focus’ list of the 101 best players of the 2010s.

“Anytime you have a player that’s drafted to a team that’s performed at a really high level … we’ve got a ton of respect for (Casey) and his family, and everything that he did for the organization,” general manager Jon Robinson said two weeks after the deal. “We felt like it was time for us to go a different direction there. We were able to find a trade partner in Denver there.”

Casey was the 11th player in franchise history to wear the number 99, and the eighth to do so since the franchise was re-branded as the Titans. None of the other 10 wore it longer. Certainly, none wore it better.

It will be odd to see him don that number in an opponent’s colors.