Things didn’t look good for Tennessee Titans tight end, Delanie Walker after leaving the field on Sunday afternoon with trainers holding his right hand. But in his Monday afternoon presser, head coach Ken Whisenhunt said that after further review, the hand is not broken, and Walker will be questionable for week two in Cleveland.
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Before hurting his hand in a third quarter drive, Walker had three catches in Sunday’s 42-14 win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for 43 yards and a touchdown.
“I’m optimistic. There’s a chance he’ll play this week. We’ll see how it progresses during the week,” Whisenhunt said of Walker on Monday. “That was good news…because on the field, I thought it was broken. And it’s not, so that’s good. There is a chance he’ll play this week, and if he doesn’t, then at least we’ll get him back relatively quickly compared to what we thought it would be.”
During the disaster that was the 2-14 2014 season, Delanie Walker was the one bright spot in Music City who performed week in and week out despite the record. He had 63 catches for 890 yards and led all Titans receivers.
Although Whisenhunt said Walker will be missed if he can’t play against the Browns next Sunday, he reminded us that the Titans kept five tight ends when they made the 53-man roster cuts and that Chase Coffman runs a lot of Delanie Walker’s plays and they will be ok.
“I would say we would have to be in good shape. We have five tight ends on our roster,’’ Whisenhunt said. “But it’s good that we do have that option. I think that some of things that Delanie does well, Chase can fill that role if we need him to, which is good.”
Coffman was inactive on Sunday, but Whisenhunt said he’s in line to replace Walker if he can’t go. Coffman led the Titans in catches (12) and receiving yards (189) during the preseason.
Early in training camp, it was thought that Marcus Mariota had developed a good feeling with Walker and may be dependent on him as the season got started, but the rookie threw four touchdown passes to four different people in the opener on Sunday.
In fact, Mariota hit six different receivers during the opener, including two passes to running back, Bishop Sankey. One for a touchdowns.
Next: Marcus Mariota leads impressive debut for Titans