The Tennessee Titans and Washington Redskins are both rather banged up heading into a crucial Week 16 showdown in Nashville.
Every NFL season, teams head into the final few weeks of the season banged up at nearly every position. Some teams get more lucky with relatively few injuries, while others don’t have fate on their side. While the Titans fall more in the middle, the Redskins have been totally decimated by injuries this season. Heading into this week’s matchup, both teams are missing important players, and could be missing even more by kickoff.
Tennessee Titans
OUT
OLB Brian Orakpo, OLB Sharif Finch, TE Cole Wick
The Titans’ depth at outside linebacker is really going to be tested in this game. Harold Landry will step into a near full-time role, Kamalei Correa will get additional snaps and Derrick Morgan will have to play one of his better games of the season. As our own Will Lomas has noted, this is also an opportunity for the Titans to give ILB Rashaan Evans reps at EDGE.
Questionable
WR Tajae Sharpe
Sharpe is on the wrong side of questionable after he missed every single practice during the week. He’s been dealing with an ankle injury for much of the past month and it’s affected his production. He’s a true game-time call for this one.
No injury designation
S Kenny Vaccaro, DT Jurrell Casey, LB Wesley Woodyard
Vaccaro passed the concussion protocol and is good to go. Casey and Woodyard will fight through knee and back injuries, respectively.
Washington Redskins
OUT
TE Jordan Reed, QB Colt McCoy, TE Vernon Davis, WR Maurice Harris, OT Ty Nsheke
The Redskins are down to their fourth-string QB in Josh Johnson and third-string TE in Jeremy Sprinkle. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a team be so snakebitten by injuries in one season. Somehow, they are 7-7 and still in legitimate contention for the NFC East crown and for the final NFC Wild Card position.
Questionable
WR Josh Doctson, LB Ryan Anderson, OL Tony Bergstrom, DL Matt Ioannidis
Doctson is dealing with a back injury. If he is out, the Redskins — along with the already ruled out Harris — will have approximately zero pass-catching weapons outside of an inefficient Jamison Crowder and Chris Thompson.
No injury designation
QB Josh Johnson, RB Adrian Peterson
Johnson and Peterson both had their reps managed this week, but the Redskins’ starting backfield will be ready to go on Saturday afternoon.