Brett Kern won’t be one of the Tennessee Titans who gets cut to provide some salary cap relief this offseason.
The three-time Pro Bowl punter has agreed to take a pay cut, though. Kern and the Titans agreed to a reworked contract for the 2022 season, under which he will earn $2.2 million in total compensation, according to an ESPN report.
He was scheduled to make $3.2 million (all in base salary) and count $3.75 million against the cap in the final season of the three-year, $12.55 million extension he signed in 2019. That extension covered the 2020-2022 seasons and included team options for 2021 and 2022, which were exercised at the end of the first year of the pact (source: OverTheCap.com).
Kern, 36, has been with the Titans longer than any other player on the current roster. Claimed off waivers from Denver midway through 2009, he has appeared in 197 games (the most by any player during the Titans era) and has set franchise records for career punting yards, gross punting average, net punting average and punts inside the 20. He has produced six of the franchise’s top eight gross punting averages.
After playing 199 consecutive games for Denver and Tennessee to start his career, he missed three contests each of the last two season. Kern, who doubles as Tennessee’s holder, was injured in 2020 when he attempted to throw a pass after a bad snap on a field goal attempt. In 2021, he missed two games with a groin injury and one because he was on the Reserve – COVID-19 list.
Kern made the Pro Bowl three straight years beginning in 2018 and capped that run when he also was named first-team All-Pro for the first time.
With the start of the NFL’s new contract year approaching, the Titans already have released guard Rodger Saffold, backup tackle Kendall Lamm and running back Darrynton Evans. They found a way to keep Kern, though.
More must-reads: