Are the Titans losing faith in signing Dont’a Hightower?

(Sighs and hits “Publish” knowing full well that all of this could be out of date by the time you all read this)

Hello and welcome back to Dont’a Hightower Watch 2017™, where it’s always BYOB and everyone’s welcome as long as you don’t start a fight or put anything weird on the playlist.

Friday came and went without much of any news about whether Dont’a Hightower had made his choice between heading south to join the on-the-rise Tennessee Titans, join the perennial free agency champion Miami Dolphins, or re-sign with the New England Patriots. There was, however, a little clue or two we got from the Nashville sports media on Friday afternoon that New England folks may - actually, forget that - WILL find intriguing.

Allow me to explain. Our story begins with ESPN’s Paul Kuharsky, who covers the Titans for ESPN.com (think of him as Tennessee’s Mike Reiss), and also co-hosts a show on 104.5 The Zone in Nashville called The Mid-Day 180. PK is also on the board of selectors for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

...Which makes biting hook, line, and sinker on a fake Adam Schefter Twitter account on the air this afternoon pretty rough.

Eeeeeek. It literally does happen to the best of us.

Ok, so that, while funny, is just the lead-up to the main part of the story. Remember that Kuharsky is not only ESPN’s lead Titans writer, he’s also on the air every day on the official radio station of the Titans. Point being, he’s in the know.

So a few hours later, he drops this on those poor Titans fans that all were getting excited about a linebacker corps of Brian Orakpo, Derrick Morgan, and Dont’a Hightower (which, who wouldn’t be stoked about that?):

Remember that the Patriots decided that letting Hightower hit the open market, while inherently risky, was the best way to let him figure out what kind of offer he could get, and then New England would use that as a basis to make their offer. The ties between Dont’a and the Titans are obvious - he’s from Tennessee, Titans GM Jon Robinson worked in the Patriots scouting department for well over a decade, Tennessee has a boatload of cap space to burn, and cornerback Logan Ryan just signed a $30 million dollar deal to play there, and those are just the easy ones - but still, the guy who’s most plugged-in to the Titans in Nashville media isn’t feeling good about Tennessee’s chances.

Make sure to keep it locked on the Pats Pulpit Free Agent Tracker so we can keep you all in the know about all deals and steals of free agency 2017!