Murchison, the former East Bladen standout, makes Titans’ 53-man roster

Larrell Murchison, product of East Bladen High School in Elizabethtown, has made the 53-man roster of the Tennessee Titans for the second consecutive year.

NFL teams finished the preseason schedule over the weekend and by Tuesday at 4 p.m. had to trim rosters to the league limit. There were scores of notable cuts, as there always is, perhaps no name bigger than Cam Newton, who won the MVP award for the league in 2015 playing for the Super Bowl runner-up Carolina Panthers.

Murchison, who played collegiately at Louisburg and N.C. State, is a 24-year-old defensive tackle. On the Titans unofficial depth chart, as of Aug. 23, Murchison is a backup to Jeffery Simmons.

According to Spotrac, which tracks NFL player and team pay, he signed a four-year contract for $3.5 million and this year will earn $780,000 in base salary. Terms at signing included a $277,744 signing bonus, and $277,744 in guaranteed money.

And in the NFL job world, guarantees are limited.

Contract and draft status — Murchison was taken in the fifth round in April 2020 — do not equate to job security. Tennessee cut wide receiver Dez Fitzpatrick, a fourth-round pick at No. 109 for whom the team traded up 15 spots by giving away their fifth- and seventh-round selections in the draft. He dropped a lot of passes in preseason.

Carolina, in another example, cut quarterback Will Grier — a third-round pick the year before Murchison was selected. The Raiders’ cuts included receiver John Brown, who signed a one-year deal with a guaranteed $3.24 million but fell behind teammates Henry Ruggs III, Bryan Edwards and Zay Jones on the depth chart. Cincinnati cut two players who started in Week 1 a year ago, and the Jets cut a fourth-round quarterback pick from the 2020 draft.

Many players, of course, will regain employment with other teams even before the opening games next weekend. One obvious example is Detroit, which set a 53-man roster without a kicker.

Teair Tart, who came to Elizabethtown for Murchison’s Community Fun Day this summer, is listed as a starting nose tackle for the Titans. Two other friends of Murchison who came here July 10 made their teams’ initial 53: Alim McNeill with the Lions and D.J. Wonnum with the Vikings.

Kobe Smith, another who came, was released by Tampa Bay — a team incredibly deep on the defensive line.

James Smith-Williams, who was scheduled to come but couldn’t because of illness, made the Washington Football Team roster.

The Titans have nine players on the reserve/COVID-19 list, including quarterback Ryan Tannehill and outside linebacker Harold Landry III. Seven are on the reserve/injured list.

COVID-19 and vaccination status, according to several published reports, factored into some teams’ decisions. Newton, for example, misunderstood protocols for going to an out-of-town doctor, is not vaccinated, and had to be out of training camp for five days. Former Alabama national champion Mac Jones takes the former Auburn national champion’s quarterback job, and he took far more preseason game snaps than did Newton.

New Jacksonville coach Urban Meyer openly talked about vaccination status playing a role in decision-making.

Murchison and the Titans host Arizona on Sept. 12 at 1 p.m. in a game shown on television by CBS affiliates.