All the factors had lined up for a Tony Pollard trade. With a trade not happening, the Titans’ future plans for Pollard come into question.

At 1-7, the Titans aren’t contenders. Pollard is in the final year of his contract. While a compensatory draft pick becomes possible in 2028 (depending on Tennessee’s 2027 free-agent acquisitions and losses), the Titans could have gotten a draft pick in 2027 if they’d traded him.

What could they have gotten? As we hear it, they turned down a fourth-round pick and a player. (The Packers and the Broncos were the two teams linked to Pollard.)

So what’s the plan for Pollard? Maybe they want to keep Pollard beyond 2026. He’s in the last season of a three-year, $21.75 million deal. He’s making $7.25 million this year.

And Pollard is on track for his fifth straight 1,000-yard season. He’s not even in the top 20 highest-paid running backs by annual average. The franchise tag at the position for 2027 is expected to be in the range of $15 million.

Pollard will be 30 in April. That makes it harder to put a proper number on his next contract. But if the Titans weren’t willing to take the best offer they could get for him, it suggests that they have a plan premised on potentially signing him to a new contract.

The decision to keep Pollard could be as simple as the Titans not being confident in their alternatives. Pollard has 147 touches in eight games. His backup, Tajae Spears, has 33 in six games. Rookie Nick Singleton has seven in four games. Julius Chestnut has no touches in eight games.

The answer could be that simple. The Titans had insufficient confidence in their other options if Pollard was traded. Which would have complicated the ongoing effort to develop quarterback Cam Ward.

Regardless, the Titans had a chance to get something now (we don’t know the name of the player that was offered; it could have been a running back) and a 2027 draft pick by trading Pollard. They decided not to.

Pollard will now keep going, and quite possibly finish with more than 1,000 yards again. Which could result in Pollard leaving in 2027 — possibly with the Titans not getting a compensatory draft pick in 2028.