Which return would help the Titans the most?
Everyone is hurt or dealing with COVID at this point in the season, so the Tennessee Titans aren’t going to get any sympathy for the injuries they are dealing with. However, that doesn’t mean that they don’t miss the guys they don’t have.
Obviously, we have seen some guys for the last time this season and everyone hopes that Taylor Lewan, Jayon Brown, and the rest of the players on I.R. heal up and get ready for 2021.
But there are a lot of players that have a chance to play soon, and in some cases, we may see them back as early as this week.
Staring at the injury report from Wednesday’s practice and thinking about what this team could look like in a few weeks, it got me thinking about which players does this team really misses the most.
As best as I can tell, there are five Titans who can make an impact on this roster who are either on I.R. right now, have recently come off of I.R., or who have missed time. I went through and ranked which players I think can help Tennessee the most immediately.
Let’s take a look at the Titans second most impressive rookie.
5. Kristian Fulton, CB
The second round cornerback from LSU had a lot of hype coming into the season as someone who could come in and start immediately. On tape, he had quickness that you liked, good size, the pedigree of an ascending player on a championship team, and most of all he was disruptive at the catch point.
Unfortunately, the injury to Adoree Jackson turned him from a luxury player who was going to be eased into playing time, to a guy who needed to start immediately. Even to the point where he probably rushed back from a camp injury to be ready in time to open the season.
By the time he finally started to show some progress and development, he was hurt and the Titans were scrambling for another answer at cornerback.
He can help the Titans by giving them some depth at a position that was a problem for much of the season and they might even be able to use him in their dime package that they have started to use more frequently.
4. Jadeveon Clowney, EDGE
This may seem low, but honestly why are we sure the Titans miss him at all? Look, I get it because he makes a lot of money and sometimes flashes on tape, but look at two things.
1. Production
-As a pass rusher, Clowney gets a lot of credit for being “close” but both he and Jack Crawford are tied at third on the team in QB hits with 6. Harold Landry has more than twice that number and Jeffery Simmons has double digits.
As a run defender, he is tied for fourth on the team with four TFLs, but he isn’t doing anything spectacular.
2. How the other 10 players have to play.
-When you have Clowney on your roster, he is given permission to do whatever he wants to do and the other 10 players have to pick up the slack if/when it doesn’t work. If he decides to go rogue at the last minute and go into the B-gap instead of the C-gap, he better make the play or the defense is going to give up a huge run to the outside.
What he calls versatility, I call limiting for the rest of the defense. There is a reason that the Titans have looked better on defense since he has been out.
3. Adoree Jackson, CB
This may seem like a hot take, but there isn’t really a lot to say here. Right now the Titans have the players that I believe should be their starting three cornerbacks until someone loses their job.
Malcolm Butler is 2nd in the NFL in Pro Bowl votes for a cornerback and he has looked very good despite basically being the glue that barely held that defense together for the first half of the season.
Desmond King has been really good since coming to the Titans in that midseason trade and he is a great fit as the team’s slot cornerback.
Breon Borders is the guy that everyone assumes will get benched, but he has been great since he was asked to start in the middle of the year. Why would you risk taking out someone that is doing a good job when Adoree Jackson hasn’t played in a game all year and we have no idea what he looks like after his knee injury?
Adoree Jackson will be great to have back taking reps in practice and rounding into shape, and eventually, I am sure that he will make an impact for this team. However, you can’t tell me that you are 100% sure that Jackson can come in and play as well as Borders has been playing.
2. Darrynton Evans, RB
Darrynton Evans has seen the field for a brief second this season and he actually looked like an intriguing option in this offense. However, that was just for a second as Evans immediately went back on I.R. with a hamstring injury.
It has been seven weeks (actually 50 days, but who is counting) since Titans fans have seen Evans, but if he could come back and get in some work before the playoffs it could be huge for this offense.
Right now, Derrick Henry is the Titans leading receiver at running back and he doesn’t even have 100 yards despite having one catch that actually went 53 yards.
This offense is incredibly limited in how they can use their running backs and even though Jeremy McNichols has been a solid blocking back, he just doesn’t have the burst that Evans does as a receiver or a runner.
If the Titans can get Evans going as a running back that defenses truly can’t predict, then you would add another dangerous and complex level to this Arthur Smith offense.
1. Adam Humphries, WR
People forget just how useful it is to have Adam Humphries on the field, so let me run through exactly what he has done on a per-game basis this season.
-Receptions per game: 3.7 (3rd behind Corey Davis and A.J. Brown)
-Catch percentage: 71% (3rd among Titans with double-digit targets behind Corey Davis and Anthony Firkser)
-Yards per game: 36.5 (3rd behind Davis and Brown)
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Basically, any way you slice it he is the Titans’ third-best receiver in an offense that already features two guys who will be dangerously close to breaking 1,000 yards in Davis and Brown.
Right now Ryan Tannehill is making it work with Geoff Swaim as the conversion machine, but that makes life so much more difficult than it needs to be.
At the very least it gives the Titans another player to split out that you can trust to run precise routes and create space for Derrick Henry, run pick plays or give you a quick read on blitzes. All three of those would be great tools for this offense to have even on plays where he never catches a pass.