Travis Henry likely to be cut on Saturday

No they can't. They will have just given him a $8.3M guaranteed bonus.

That wouldn't change the fact that he'd get suspended and we'd still lose cap room on the bonus even if Bud gets it back.

He wasn't convicted of that, he pleaded to a lesser charge.

They can't just cut him. They will have paid him a huge guaranteed bonus.

Yes, though I'd say he earned the job based on his college career (thus the high draft status).

Fred Taylor is going to get $5M this year, that compared to Henry potentially getting $9M, plus the questions about Drew being too small to be a feature back. Jamal Lewis was a great RB and Musa Smith was never expectede to be a feature back. Priest Holmes was the top RB in the league, and the reason they drafted Johnson was Holmes' threat to retire.

None of those situations are the same as Henry and White here.

Welcome to the salary cap era. You don't spend big bucks on replaceable players, especially when their replacements are already on hand...

 

Perhaps you have misunderstood the word "panic"...

 

Simply put, you don't give a guy $8.3M guaranteed if you expect you might cut him a year later. That would be moronic. Either he's worth it or he isn't. And to the Titans, he isn't because they have LenDale White waiting to take over the job.

If they don't feel Henry is worth the investment, then they can use the $8.3M on other players. They can put it to good use on Roos or Bell, for example. Or on some more valuable free agent. The money isn't going to waste just because it isn't going to Henry.

As for White earning the job, he has earned it as much as other "unproven" early draft picks do. By rule, they get the job handed to them eventually, and that's what has happened here. You rarely draft a guy in the first 2 rounds and then never give him the starting job. They planned this as soon as they drafted LenDale...

Fred Taylor's deal is basically a series of 1 year contracts where they can either cut him or keep him and pay him $5M (or more) that year. Henry's remaining contract wasn't set up that way. If Jax is confident that Drew can be the feature back a year from now or that Taylor is done, they will cut Taylor and not pay him past the $5M he'll make this season.

Holmes wanted more money and threatened both to hold out and to retire. Then they drafted Johnson that same offseason.

I missed where you mentioned Rudi Johnson, but again it's a different scenario. While they did have Perry as a backup, he played just 2 games as a rookie when Johnson ran for 1450 yards and became a RFA. Additionally, Rudi was 3 years younger then than Henry is now, plus he has never been suspended for drugs.