Titans S Michael Griffin Concerned That He Could Be A Cap Casulty

Titans FS Michael Griffin told reporters that he is unsure if he’ll be back in Tennessee due to his cap figure.

“I realize I count $8 million toward the salary cap, so I have to worry about myself,” Griffin said, via The Nashville Tennessean. “At the end of the day, I am questioning my fate. You have to ask yourself, do they think you are worth that? I hope so, but this is a business.”

Coming off perhaps his best season in years, Griffin finished with a total of 106 tackles and a single interception for a Titans’ defense that ranked No.11 against the pass.

Griffin, 29, has finished the second year of a five-year, $35 million contract that included $15 million guaranteed that he signed in 2012. As Griffin already noted, he will count $8 million against the team’s salary cap in 2014 and the Titans could free up $2.5 million by releasing him. They could use some additional cap space, but fellow safety Bernard Pollard will also be a free agent, which means parting ways with Griffin would leave them in somewhat of a tough position.

“The opportunities I had, I made the best of them. I don’t know exactly how many missed tackles I had this year, but I am sure it was a lot less than I had last year. Last offseason I focused more on not diving, and more wrapping up. Just hit what I could see. I think I played a lot better,” he said. “We’ll see what happens. But if you’ve been in this league long enough you never know, and you can never get too comfortable.”

The Titans have other ways to free up cap space like releasing RB Chris Johnson, DE Kamerion Wimbley and possibly even RT David Stewart, which in turn would give them close to $13 million in cap space, according to Overthecap.com.

With this in mind, I would expect the Titans to keep Griffin in place for at least one more year.