Commentary: Haynesworth departure shouldn't be a surprise

I can’t fault the Tennessee Titans for not giving Albert Haynesworth a contract worth $100 million with $41 million in guarantees.

Likewise, I sure can’t fault Haynesworth for taking the money.

If you’re looking at where the Titans went wrong, perhaps they should have signed Haynesworth after the 2007 season or at least not allowed such easy incentives to be woven into the franchise tender that he played under in 2008.

While several in the Nashville media and around the country bought into the theory that Haynesworth and the Titans would eventually come to an agreement, I was skeptical from the start.

By being franchised after the 2007 season and the two sides failing to come together on a long-term deal, it kept pushing the carrot of a big payday the Titans had dangled in front of Haynesworth farther and farther away.

So, he spent the 2008 season again proving himself worthy of a big payday. And as much as he talked about wanting to stay with the Titans, it was very clear that the Titans were a frontrunner for Haynesworth only if they were willing to get close to meeting his price tag.

They weren’t. And truthfully, it has never been the organization’s style to spend extravagantly on one player, no matter how dominant he might be. It wasn't their M.O. under Floyd Reese's regime, and it has been driven home even more so since Mike Reinfeldt took the reins as Titans general manager.

That philosophy actually hasn’t bitten the Titans very hard in the past, as players like Jevon Kearse, John Thornton, Jon Runyan, Drew Bennett, Kenny Holmes, Travis LaBoy and a host of others have departed over the years with mostly mixed results. It will take a couple of years, but eventually we will learn whether today’s decision by the Titans on Haynesworth was the right one.

The Titans had two windows of opportunity to get something done with Haynesworth _ last year before the franchise tag window closed on July 15, and again during the eight weeks between the regular season and free agency.

Neither time did a deal come to fruition, and with each passing day, the likelihood that Haynesworth’s time in Tennessee was over became more and more apparent.

I had been asked on radio and TV numerous times what I felt the chances of Tennessee re-signing Haynesworth would be, and I said 50-50 at best. That was when the Titans still had exclusive negotiating rights.

I think we all could deduce what would happen when Haynesworth got to the open market. We awoke to it this morning - the news that Albert Haynesworth was now a Washington Redskin with a deal brokered in the wee hours of Friday morning.

With the way the situation played out over the past two years, the fact that Haynesworth is no longer a Titan shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

Especially not the Titans.