More than two years later, the Titans have made defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons whole.

Per a source with knowledge of the deal, Tennessee’s recent contract with Simmons paid him retroactively for the 17th game that wasn’t reflected in the “old money” calculation for his 2023 deal.

His fifth year option had been calculated to not include the 17th game, shorting him by $632,529. The net result was to reduce the intended new-money average from $23.5 million to $23.342 million.

The missing money was added to the deal by the Titans, we’re told, as an extra signing bonus, fixing the mistake that left that $632,529 out of his contract previously. This was not a contract extension, just an acknowledgement by the Titans that paying Simmons the $632,529 that had been omitted was the fair thing to do.

The gratuity is unprecedented, even though multiple players (Quinnen Williams, Josh Allen, Dexter Lawrence, e.g.) did extensions that didn’t include a 17th-game check in the calculation, thereby shrinking the intended new-money average.

Frankly, their agents had missed it. Simmons hired Athletes First before doing his current deal, and they prioritized rectifying the prior agent’s oversight.

It will be interesting to see whether other players who were inadvertently shorted the 17th check get the money they should have already gotten from their teams. Based on the new Simmons deal, any player whose 17th-game check wasn’t factored into the “old money” for his total deal based on a specific amount of “new money” has a case to make to recoup the cash, thanks to the precedent set by the Titans, Simmons, and his new agency.