Tennessee Titans biggest injury concerns outside or Derrick Henry

Some quietly important injury concerns may help or haunt the Tennessee Titans.

Looking at the designation switches between players on the Tennessee Titans injury report is hardly thrilling, but it is incredibly important considering how little information Mike Vrabel hands out to the media.

While everyone has been focusing on Derrick Henry for the last two weeks, he isn’t the only important player who has been jumping around the injury report.

The most obvious one to point out is Adoree Jackson whose absence has hit the team hard after Malcolm Butler was put on injured reserve.

In one of those “You don’t know what you got till its gone” moments, people were quick to criticize Adoree Jackson before the season and even during the season after a handful of bad plays on special teams and in deep coverage.

However, only now are people realizing that his ability to close on running backs and receivers and make quick tackles, is huge to the success of this defense.

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For my money, he is the second most important Titans player on that injury list and his return would be huge this week and even bigger in Week 17 against the Houston Texans who like to spread the ball around more.

Another key player who looks to be ready to return is Daren Bates who has been missed on special teams. Some guys just seem to have an X-factor about them that makes them intangibly important to the success of their unit. For Bates, his personality seems to resonate through the whole team and help a unit that has been struggling a little in December.

Finally, the one player who we aren’t going to get good news on is Adam Humphries who is out for his third straight game and still hasn’t even practiced. This is a pretty big deal considering how well he was coming a lot after the bye week.

The one silver lining to that is the Titans seem to be compensating for the lack of Adam Humphries by getting more targets to A.J. Brown and Jonnu Smith, both of which have thrived lately.

Bates and Jackson returning would be huge this week just so that the coaching staff knows what they can and can’t do next week, so while we are all looking at Derrick Henry’s name don’t be afraid to look at those three going forward.

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