The Tennessee Titans announced Tuesday they signed guard/center Rob Turner, formerly of the St. Louis Rams.

Turner, who turns 29 in August, entered the NFL in 2007 as an undrafted free agent with the New York Jets. He played in 57 games with the Jets from 2007 through 2011 before joining the Rams last offseason. He started at center for the Rams when big money free agent acquisition Scott Wells was recovering from injury and played left guard the rest of the time. He was credited with two starts for the Jets, but that's a little misleading; one of them came at fullback and the other as a sixth offensive lineman. That means all 16 of his real career starts came for St. Louis last season, and he's started just as many games at right guard in the NFL than I have.

In the statement released with his signing, GM Ruston Webster indicated he would either fill a starting role or serve as the interior swing backup. If he is starting, my guess/hope is that it would be at center for Fernando Velasco rather than at the vacant right guard spot. I believe Velasco is the favorite to be the starting center, though, and Turner's most likely role is as the swing backup. I do not really want to see him starting at right guard, but he could be a fallback plan if whatever the Titans do to get a starter at right guard (hint: draft one) does not result in someone ready to play Week 1.

At the minimum, Turner should be a better interior backup than Kevin Matthews and has upside beyond that. So long as the Titans did not overpay him, I like the move from what little I know of Turner. I'll have more on him, and the Titans' other new acquisitions, in due course.

The Tennessee Titans played the old switcheroo with their backup quarterback on Monday, first releasing Matt Hasselbeck and then signing Ryan Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick's deal is reportedly for two years, terms undisclosed.

Hasselbeck was entering the final year of the three-year deal he signed to join the Titans as a free agent in 2011. Due $5.5 million and clearly the backup to Jake Locker, for better or worse, Hasselbeck's salary was clearly excessive, something he didn't even dispute. The only question was whether the Titans and he would come to terms on a proper contract restructure. Today's release shows that they could not. I indicated I thought his return was very likely in the quarterback positional analysis, due to his excellent relationship with Jake Locker, but it was not to be. Notwithstanding the current deep limitations in his game (outside the 3- and 5-step quick game, he's not very effective at all), he was the Titans' most effective quarterback in 2012. That's not saying much, but as a veteran content to be a backup, he'll be missed. Best of luck to Matt in his next destination, which appears to be Indianapolis.

The Titans moved to fill the gap quickly with Fitzpatrick. Reports of their interest in him first came out Sunday night, as the NFL meets in Arizona, where Fitzpatrick makes his offseason home. He becomes the third former Buffalo Bill to join the Titans this offseason, joining George Wilson and Andy Levitre. He served as the triggerman for Chan Gailey's offense the past three seasons, starting 45 of 46 games since being named the starter. With Gailey's firing this offseason, being a bad fit for Doug Marrone's offense and Buffalo's winds made Fitzpatrick's salary excessive and led to his release.

Ruston Webster's 2012 free agent strategy paid off today, as the NFL announced the Titans were awarded three compensatory picks, in the third, sixth, and seventh rounds. The Titans lost Cortland Finnegan, Jason Jones, and William Hayes. Ballpark, they got the third for Finnegan, the sixth for Jones, and the seventh for Hayes, while not signing any qualifying free agents. As players who were cut by their former team instead of free agents, Kamerion Wimbley and Steve Hutchinson were not counted in the compensatory picks formula. They also waited long enough to sign Kyle DeVan so he did not count in the formula either.

With the award of the compensatory picks, the Titans now hold the following picks in the draft:

1st round, 10th overall (own)
2nd round, 40th overall (own)
3rd round, 70st overall (own)
3rd round, 97th overall (compensatory)
4th round, 107th overall (own)
5th round, 142th overall (own)
6th round, 202nd overall (compensatory)
7th round, 216th overall (own)
7th round, 248th overall (compensatory)

As a reminder, I'll be updating this previous post to reflect any and all draft pick transactions, not this one.

Ballparking things, and subject to change with further changes in which picks the Titans have, I expect the Titans to end up with a rookie pool amount of about $6.5 million to sign their draft picks. Note that that $6.5 million figure is not how much cap space the Titans will need to sign their draft picks; that's a more complicated question, but figure around $3 million.

With their additions this offseason, do not expect the Titans to receive any compensatory picks in 2014.

When the Titans signed Shonn Greene this week, the key number that was bandied about as to why the signing was a great move was Shonn Greene was incredibly successful in 2012 on converting third-and-short into first downs. It's true, he was. Eleven times Shonn Greene ran the ball on third down and three or less, and 11 times that resulted in a first down. It's also true that the Titans struggled at times in 2012 to run the ball in short yardage. Like Shonn Greene, the Titans converted 11 first downs on designed runs on third down and three or less, though it took them 16 attempts to get there rather than Greene's 11. Ergo, instant upgrade, right?

If only the story was quite that simple... let's compare how two players did in third and short.

Those numbers look pretty close to me. Player A comes out slightly better in percentage terms. Over pretty modest sample sizes like that one less conversion for Player A or one more conversion for Player B basically eliminates the difference between the two of them.

The Titans continued doing business on Thursday, re-signing return man Darius Reynaud to a one-year deal. Jim Wyatt indicated Reynaud will make roughly $1 million.

Reynaud did a pretty good job on punt and kick returns in 2012, leading the league in Football Outsiders' punt return value metric. I covered his effect on field position in some detail, so I won't rehash that. He played a very modest role on offense under Chris Palmer as a running back/slot receiver, but once Dowell Loggains took over almost never saw the field (9 snaps in 5 games). Approximately all of his value to the 2013 Titans would be as a return man.

I'm not convinced Reynaud will be a member of the 2013 Titans, though. While he had a fine year as a return man, it was not so great that he is clearly superior to any other option. The likely financial implications of any cut would not be too hard to handle. I believe the Titans, like most teams, would prefer that their return man do something of value beside return kicks. Marc Mariani would at least be a fourth or fifth receiver, which unlike Reynaud gives him some added value. Reynaud is probably the favorite to win any return man competition in training camp, but I expect there to be a competition.

In other Titans news, wide receiver Brandon Gibson is still scheduled for a visit after not yet signing elsewhere. Defensive end Matt Shaughnessy, who would be a nice fit on early downs and has some pass rush ability, is now also on the schedule. I would be fine with either player at the right price.

A day after signing three players on the first day of the new league year, the Titans showed they were even more determined to make a splash in free agency by inking three more players, defensive tackle Sammie Lee Hill, running back Shonn Greene, and linebacker Moise Fokou.

As I noted in yesterday's post, Sammie Lee Hill is a guy I need to get smarter on. The Titans had declared this offseason they were interested in adding bulk, and listed at 6'4", 329 pounds, he's definitely their biggest defensive lineman by a wide margin. I suspect his primary role is to be a nose tackle on early downs and a good run-stuffer. He started 12 games as a rookie, but as the Lions have added bodies to the defensive line has six starts over the past three years. Expect that total to rise with no Ndamukong Suh in front of him. He played about 40% of the snaps for the Lions last year, and in a modest sample size posted the best run stop rate of any Lions defensive lineman. I noted in Enemy Intelligence before this year's game that he was "better than you think." His deal is reported to be for $11.4 million over three years, with $4 million guaranteed, or your standard early free agency overpayment by about 30%.

Shonn Greene was another player that I discussed briefly in yesterday's post and showed up in Enemy Intelligence this year. Before that game, I noted that early in 2012 I thought Greene was the worst starting running back in the NFL, which pretty much matched his 2010 and 2011 form after a nice playoff run as a rookie. The second half of 2012, he played better though. Even the better version of Greene isn't much to write home about. He's a between the tackles runner without much burst or speed, though he showed some very small signs of elusiveness.

The Tennessee Titans made a big splash on the opening day of free agency, signing guard Andy Levitre, formerly of the Buffalo Bills, and tight end Delanie Walker, formerly of the San Francisco 49ers, to multi-year contracts. They also re-signed fullback Quinn Johnson.

In my analysis of the free agent guard class, I identified Levitre as "the clear best option." Apparently the Titans concurred with my assessment and moved aggressively to lock him down. The price to get him was pretty steep, a reported $46.8 million over six years, including a $10.5 million signing bonus and total payout of $19.5 million over the first two seasons. If you believe in paying a lot for a guard and weren't a power-blocking team, Levitre had a lot going for him. He's done an excellent job in pass protection, is just 26, turning 27 in May, and has started every game his first four seasons in the league. He was the best available player at a position of extreme need. I noted in my guards preview that he would almost certainly get more money than I would pay him, and he did.

Walker was one of the players I profiled in my look at the free agent tight end class. I didn't put together the same sort of hierarchy there, as which player the Titans would target depended a lot on what role they wanted the player the acquired to fill. Walker is not a traditional in-line tight end; he's listed at 6'0", too short for that position. Instead, he's a joker with experience playing almost everywhere, as a fullback, an H-back, lined up in the slot, and flexed out wide. The 49ers thought enough of his athleticism they even had him try returning kickoffs.