With the Tennessee Titans using their franchise tag on safety Michael Griffin, cornerback Cortland Finnegan is preparing to become a free agent on March 13 -- and he expects to be joining a new team.
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Finnegan said Monday that he was interested in returning to the Titans at the right price, but the team never offered him a contract.
"The Titans told us they were not going to offer us a deal this year, so that is pretty black and white to me," Finnegan said, according to The Tennessean. "They didn't franchise me and they could have and they told us they weren't going to offer us a deal. So this is all on the Titans, there is nothing that we could decline and say 'no' to. It just baffles me that we never got anything from them. I don't know what I did to turn them off on me. I felt I did everything I could do. But everyone moves on, it is a business."
Terry Watson, Finnegan's agent, met with Titans representatives at the NFL Scouting Combine in February, but the two sides remained far apart in their discussions, according to The Tennessean. He turned down a four-year, $28 million contract from the Titans last August, the newspaper reported, and this offseason was looking for a contract "that makes him one of the top-paid cornerbacks in the NFL."
On Monday, Finnegan began saying his farewells to the Titans and their fans.
"It is bittersweet," Finnegan said. "For six years I played in the Titans organization. I am grateful and humbled that the Titans took a chance on me and the way they matured me over the years. But I understand it is a business. My ultimate goal was to retire (in Tennessee), but I can't control that. They wanted to move on, honestly. I don't know why, and I don't know what else a guy could do career-wise and in the community."