Rodger Saffold took a moment during Super Bowl LVI to express his love for the game, complete with a “tears of joy” emoji.
Many interpreted his brief tweet Sunday evening to mean that he planned to leave the game after 12 seasons. That prompted the Tennessee Titans left guard to issue a subsequent tweet a short time later in which he clarified his intentions.
“Lord I’m not retiring,” Saffold wrote, “sheesh.”
That cleared things up – to a degree. None of that is to say, however, that Saffold’s future is fully in focus.
At 33 years old (he will be 34 before the start of training camp), he was the senior member of a Titans’ offensive line in need of a youth movement. Saffold, left tackle Taylor Lewan, center Ben Jones and right tackle David Quessenberry were all in their 30s last season.
Plus, Saffold failed to finish a number of contests because of a nagging shoulder injury, which he said might require offseason surgery.
Then there is the fact that his 2022 salary cap number is set to be $12.9 million. The team can save $10.5 million if he is released, which means he is very much a candidate to be cut.
If that was all there was to it, franchise officials easily could move on from him.
Yet Saffold played 15 regular-season games in 2021. It was the sixth straight season he made at least that many appearances and made him one of eight Titans who missed two contests or fewer.
Plus, he played well. A little more than a week ago, he took part in the Pro Bowl for the first time. He was an alternate who was added to the AFC roster when Indianapolis’ Quenton Nelson withdrew because of an injury.
In other words, it is not easy to believe the offense will be better without him.
Saffold has spent the past three seasons with the Titans after nine years with the Rams, the team that took him in the second round of the 2010 NFL Draft. He has appeared in 160 games with 157 starts in the regular season and another nine in the playoffs, including an appearance in Super Bowl LIII in his final season with the Rams.
That will not be the extent of his career. At least that much is certain.
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