THURSDAY, 9:03am: Bell’s deal with the Titans is for one year and is worth about $1.5MM, writes Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean. Per Wyatt, the ex-Panther could earn another $750K through playing-time incentives.
WEDNESDAY, 3:49pm: The Titans will sign offensive tackle Byron Bell, according to Paul Kuharsky of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Bell, he writes, will compete for the starting right tackle job, but he’s far from guaranteed to win it.
Bell met with the Titans earlier this month. after they lost longtime tackle Michael Roos to retirement and released Michael Oher. Of course, the Panthers signed Oher earlier this year, so the two teams have effectively swapped struggling offensive tackles.
Bell, 26, spent his first four NFL seasons with the Panthers, starting 56 of the 62 regular season contests he played for the club since 2011. In 2014, the New Mexico product was handed the reins at left tackle for the first time, and the results were not pretty. Bell graded out as the second-worst offensive tackle in football out of 84 qualified players, with a -33.4 overall rating, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required). Only Jake Matthews of the Falcons (-36.8) finished lower.