Wide Receiver Eric Decker Signs One-Year Deal With Tennessee Titans
According to several sources around the league, former New York Jets and Denver Broncos wide receiver Eric Decker has signed a one-year deal with the Tennessee Titans.
The move comes just five days after Decker was released by the Jets. Tennessee was the only team Decker met with following his release. The team was said to have some drawbacks concerning Decker’s health after a 2016 season that saw the 30-year-old receiver only play in three games before being placed on injured reserve in October, according to Titans head coach Mike Mularkey. Decker has had both hip and shoulder surgery this offseason.
“We brought him in, and I talked to him this morning for about 25 minutes,” said Mularkey at his Wednesday afternoon press conference. “I got a chance to meet him, I’d never met him. It’s similar to a draft (visit), when you do the top-30 visits, it’s a similar situation. You get a chance to meet them and do a physical. The whole visit was to get to know him, and make sure he is healthy.”
Decker, 30, should fit in well with the Titans, a team in desperate need of an established veteran receiver. Tight end Delanie Walker has been the top target for young quarterback Marcus Mariota in recent times.
Titans and former NY Jets WR Eric Decker reached agreement on a one-year deal, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 18, 2017
Decker (6-3, 214) should be huge in the process of helping bring a young receiver corps along slowly. The Titans used two of their top draft picks on the position in the draft this spring taking a player that many people compare to Decker in 6-foot-3 Corey Davis with the fifth overall pick, and then the athletically gifted Taywan Taylor with the 72nd pick. Veteran Rishard Matthews led the Titans in receptions and receiving yards last season and will also return in 2017.
We have agreed to terms with WR @EricDecker87 on a one-year deal. READ: https://t.co/xslBmaOQT6 #TitanUp pic.twitter.com/pyVYFHVyal
— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) June 19, 2017
Details of the deal were not known at the time of press, but Decker was cut by New York three years into a five-year, $36 million deal if that gives any idea of the type of money he will get from the Titans. When healthy, Decker caught 74 or more passes for four straight seasons between 2012 and 2015 and averaged just a bit over ten touchdowns a year in that same time frame.
Since 2012, Decker’s 43 receiving touchdowns rank fifth in the NFL and his 4,535 receiving yards rank 18th. His 33 red zone touchdown receptions are the second-highest total in the NFL over that same time period.
Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota was asked about Decker following one of the team’s minicamp practices last week.
“For me, you can’t really comment on those things because he is not a part of our team,” Mariota said. “So until he is, and all means I wish him the best. But I am happy with the guys we have now and the guys who are working. We’ll see where that goes.”
Decker’s wife, who is also a country singer from Tennessee, was among the many individuals who announced her husband’s new team via Twitter Sunday night.
[Featured Image by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images]
