One Tight End Returns on One-Year Deal

NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Titans have solved at least part of their tight end equation for the 2022 season.

The team has agreed to terms with tight end Geoff Swaim on a one-year deal, per a source.

All three of the Titans’ top tight ends from last season – Swaim, MyCole Pruitt and Anthony Firkser – were scheduled to become unrestricted free agents Wednesday afternoon. Players whose contracts expire at the end of the 2021 league year were free to begin negotiating with other teams on Monday.

But the Titans will bring back at least one of the veterans. Swaim recorded career highs of 31 catches and three touchdowns last season. The 6-foot-4, 260-pounder totaled 210 receiving yards, averaging 6.8 yards per reception.

The 28-year-old also received praise from coaches for his work as a run blocker. Pro Football Focus gave Swaim a 53.6 grade on his 460 run-blocking snaps last season, and a 56.6 grade on his 95 pass-blocking snaps.

Tennessee still has holes to fill at tight end, and Swaim is not likely to be the team’s top pass-catching threat at the position. He’s only topped 25 catches in two seasons – last year and 2018 in Dallas (26 receptions, 242 yards, one touchdown).

The good news for the Titans is that tight end is considered one of the deeper positions in both free agency and the draft this year.

Some of the others on the free-agent market include Cincinnati’s C.J. Uzomah, Seattle’s Gerald Everett, Tampa Bay’s O.J. Howard, Green Bay’s Robert Tonyan, the Giants’ Evan Engram and Jacksonville’s Mo Alie-Cox.

A handful of the many draft-eligible tight ends the Titans had talked to at the NFL scouting combine earlier this month were Colorado State’s Trey McBride, UCLA’s Greg Dulcich, Ohio State’s Jeremy Ruckert, Washington’s Cade Otton and Virginia’s Jelani Woods.

Whoever ends up on the roster, the Titans will need more production from their tight ends this season. Swaim, Firkser and Pruitt combined for 79 catches for 646 yards (8.2 yards per reception) and eight touchdowns last season. In 2020, Jonnu Smith caught 41 passes for 448 yards and eight touchdowns on his own.

Firkser saw his production slip -- from 39 catches for 287 yards in 2020 to 34 catches for 291 yards last year. Pruitt posted 14 catches for 145 yards and three touchdowns last year, but suffered a severe ankle injury in the Titans’ win over Miami in January. He underwent surgery, but it’s unclear what type of rehabilitation schedule he’ll have.

Swaim, meanwhile, will prepare for his eighth NFL season, his third with the Titans. He was originally a seventh-round pick of the Cowboys in 2015. He also spent one season (2019) with the Jacksonville Jaguars.