What's this? Finally some great news for Tennessee Titans with Jeffery Simmons deal | Estes

Well, hey there, what’s this? Some truly magnificent news for a change?

Star defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons got his contract extension. He’s happy. He's staying.

And you were due, Tennessee Titans fans.

Since late November, it’s been pretty bleak, huh? The Titans suddenly lost a bunch of games, fired their GM, blew an unthinkable cushion in the standings, missed the playoffs and then started chipping away at the roster, cost-cutting over a lack of salary-cap space, leading to plenty of rumors about more to come, more popular, well-paid players perhaps headed elsewhere.

The Titans have been crying poor, y’all, and doing it with an already depleted roster. That combination is what a rebuild tends to look like, and a rebuild is no fun. Lot of losses in a rebuild.

But now, finally, something to tell you it may not be as bad as all that.

Those weary, weakened, down-on-their-luck Titans turned their pockets inside out, looked in the couch cushions, scrapped together every last dollar and found a way to keep one of the two best players on the team without (yet) trading the other one in Derrick Henry.

Simmons is reportedly getting a four-year deal from the Titans that’s worth about $94 million with $66 million of it guaranteed, per ESPN’s Turron Davenport, who broke the news Friday.

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Among NFL defensive linemen, only Aaron Donald makes more per season.

Sounds about right. Donald is the only NFL D-lineman I’d put ahead of Simmons, and I’m not sure for how much longer I’ll say that. The 25-year-old Simmons is well on his way. He has shown a Donald-esque quality at times, terrorizing offenses at what has become one of the game's most significant and high-demand positions.

He has also been a prominent leader off the field for the Titans, too. He’s that dude in every way, that player that no self-respecting franchise can let walk.

In pro sports, there’s often a gray area after big-money extensions, celebration mixed with a foreboding sense that the team conceded too much and may regret it down the road.

Not here. Not with those rare, invaluable players like Simmons.

No gray area. Just an overdue smile and sense of ease for the Titans and their fans.

Truth be told, there’s probably no dollar amount that would have been too much for fans itching to get this deal done before it dragged into an area no one wanted it to go – into the land of hurt feelings and social-media jabs and threatened holdouts and requested trades. Precisely where (former) Titans receiver A.J. Brown, a member of the same 2019 draft class, had arrived this time last year.

The Titans’ circumstances with Brown and Simmons were never all that similar, but you couldn’t help but start to connect dots anyway, especially after Simmons was quoted in The Athletic in November as saying the Titans had told him “We don’t know if we’re going to be able to offer you what you think you are worth.”

Months later, former GM Jon Robinson is no longer with the Titans. And while there were a lot of potential reasons behind his abrupt in-season firing, I’ll continue to say that ominous quote from Simmons doesn’t get enough mention as one of them.

While it made sense for the Titans to delay an extension, why would you ever phrase it like that with Simmons?

It was an awful look for the team.

It wasn’t just what Simmons thought he was worth. It’s what everyone thinks he’s worth. His teammates, surely. Players on other teams, too. Everyone with at least a passing interest in the Titans has little doubt that Simmons earned such a payday. Everyone except, apparently, the Robinson-era Titans.

The “collaboration” Titans of new GM Ran Carthon and coach Mike Vrabel still have much to prove and a ton of questions unanswered about what’s next for a franchise that lacks a clear path in 2023 and beyond.

But as of Friday, they’ve at least done better than that quote from Simmons in The Athletic.

Simmons was the one young superstar the Titans could least afford to lose after dealing away Brown. No matter what happens now, whether the Titans head backward toward a rebuild or try to hold the show together with basically the same cast of leading characters, Simmons will be part of it. And not just a part of it, but leading the way, likely as the face of the franchise for years to come.

In this weird offseason in which nothing seems certain, Titans fans at least can at least relax and know that.

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Finally some great news for Tennessee Titans with Jeffery Simmons deal