As the Titans go, so does Haynesworth

Albert Haynesworth believes if he can lead the Tennessee Titans to their desired destination, he can also reach his as well.

At 5-0, the Titans are in the driver’s seat in the AFC South. Though it is too early to make predictions, Tennessee is certainly beginning to take the shape of a bona fide contender.

Haynesworth, of course, is a vital part of a Titans defense that is leading the charge for Tennessee’s hopes this season, and he has a personal stake in the matter as well as the team’s interests.

Haynesworth, who was franchised in February, is playing with an incentive-laden tender offer that will allow him to explore unrestricted free agency and an accompanying big payday if he plays 60 percent of the defensive snaps or 53 percent of the snaps if the Titans win at least 10 games this year or finish in the top five in defense. He can also earn his way out from under the franchise tag by making the Pro Bowl after the season.

For now, he won’t concern himself with the big paycheck that perhaps awaits at the end of this season. He has to get there first.

“Whatever happens, it’ll happen. I can go make a lot of money, but they’ve got a lot of incentives in there, so it’s up to me not to get franchised again, not them,” Haynesworth said. “So I just go out there and play and work myself out of it. Then, hopefully, we can work out something. But if not …”

Haynesworth doesn’t want to think about the “if not” part of that right now. He and his teammates are too busy trying to make the 2008 season something to remember.

“It’s so far away, and there are so many things that can happen from there to now that you don’t really think about it,” he said. “You just go out there and play and keep closing that gap, and keep putting together good games, then there would be something to think about at the end.”

With five sacks in five games, some are already beginning to tout Haynesworth as a possible Defensive Player of the Year or perhaps even a league MVP if he and the Titans are able to sustain their early success. But Haynesworth said he is really behind the pace he set last year when he enjoyed a breakout season with 69 tackles, six sacks, 23 quarterback pressures and six tackles for loss in 13 games, and was the dominant force in the defense’s resurgence before a hamstring injury cost him three games.

Asked if he was playing better than in 2007, Haynesworth said, “No, not really. I guess you can look at it like sacks, but not overall I don’t think. You sacrifice a few tackles, I guess, to get more sacks. I’d kind of like to put them all together and be up there.”

Through five games this season, Haynesworth has 27 tackles, five sacks, six pressures and three tackles for loss for the Titans.

Titans coach Jeff Fisher said he believes Haynesworth’s best football is ahead of him in 2008 as well, especially since he was late to get started this season because of missing all the offseason work.

“He got off to a great start [last year] before the hamstring, and then the hamstring slowed him down,” Fisher said. “Not being here and not being in the offseason program, I think the best is yet to come this year.”

Haynesworth is equally excited about the prospects for the Titans’ defense as a whole. After a recent victory over the Minnesota Vikings, he acknowledged that this version of Tennessee’s defense can be special.

“We can be special,” Haynesworth said. “We’ve got the components to be a really, really good defense, if not a greatest defense this franchise has ever seen if we keep it up. We’ve got to eliminate some of these little mental mistakes and start playing perfect football, if there is such a thing. If we start doing that, we’ll get better.”

And as the defensive line goes so go the Titans.

“If we stay healthy, you should see us late into this thing,” he said.

And if the Titans make a deep playoff run and perhaps get all the way to the Super Bowl, it would then spark further speculation about Haynesworth’s future as a Titan. Fisher believes the Titans will try to do what it takes to keep Haynesworth around.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t keep him,” Fisher said. “We agreed on a deal that was best for everybody, to get him in, to compensate him and then to give him an opportunity when the season was over to look around if he met the criteria. That’s not to say that we have no interest in re-signing him.”

Said Haynesworth, “Let’s hope so. But I’ve got to be a businessman too. I’ve got to do what’s best for me.”

Asked which is better for him, not being franchised again or playing in the Super Bowl at the end of the season, Haynesworth offered a reflective answer that indicates really how much he has matured and how valuable he is to the Titans.

“If we’re in the Super Bowl, more than likely I’m going to have 60-something percent of the plays, at least,” Haynesworth said. “And if we’re in the Super Bowl, that means the defensive line plays well. So I guess it would be not being franchised and going to the Super Bowl. Pretty good answer, huh?”

An answer that would certainly have a big payoff involved.

LITTLE MORE WAIT: The Titans can activate running back Rafael Little from the non-football injury list on Monday, but won’t do so on the first week. Once they do decide to activate Little, he will have a three-week window to practice with the team before they decide to add him to the active roster or shut him down for the year on injured reserve.

“I think he’s getting close and he’s very interested in taking advantage of the three weeks on the field,” Fisher said of the rookie from Kentucky. “We’re going to be smart and evaluate him over the next week or so, and when we feel he’s ready, we’ll involve him back in practice.”

Little said he is a little anxious to get that first contact out of the way and test his knee.

“I’ve been in the training room for a long time,” Little said. “I’ll be a little bit nervous, because I don’t know how the knee is going to hold up and I now people are going to be watching me, and I’ve just got to build my confidence back up.”

Little tore his ACL during workouts before the Senior Bowl and went undrafted. The Titans signed him to a two-year deal after the draft.