Tennessee Titans: Bud Dupree signs off on Rashad Weaver

At this point of the Tennessee Titans and NFL season, it’s easy to fall in love with anyone that wants to talk about `depth charts, 53-man roster projections, and power rankings. With two preseason games remaining for every NFL team at the time of this story being published, the pace is about to quicken.

You’re also going to hear a lot about individual players as this is their time to shine. The NFL Network presents the Top 100 Players every year, and that’s always an interesting ranking because we get an inside look at how the players and stars rank each other.

They’re the guys that line up across from one another, so their perspective is always valuable and unique. That’s also why, even though the Rashad Weaver bandwagon is on fire right now, the words spoken about him by a veteran teammate really give us some perspective about how well he’s progressing.

Tennessee Titans star Bud Dupree signs off on Rashad Weaver.

One of the huge wins that the Tennessee Titans have seen during training camp was the return to action by two guys that this team is expecting a lot from during the 2021 NFL season, rookie Caleb Farley and one of Tennessee’s prized acquisitions, Bud Dupree.

We had questions about whether they’d be available for the start of the regular season. Both were cleared for action and back on the training camp practice field before the first preseason game kicked off. Now, we’re asking ourselves a different question. Might we see them play in a preseason game? Who would have thought that we’d be asking that?

One person we knew we’d see in a preseason game or two was rookie outside linebacker Rashad Weaver. He looked like a defensive MVP versus the Atlanta Falcons. Can he continue his upswing? It sure looks like he’s made a fan out of one of his teammates, the aforementioned Bud Dupree.

Don’t put him on the NFL Network’s Top 100 Players ranking yet, but if you’re wondering how a fellow NFL star views him, Dupree answered that for us. Here’s some of what the big guy said about the rookie during a recent chat with the media.

"He’s working hard, he’s trying to be the best he can, he’s still learning each and every day, he’s improving… He’s one of those guys that just keeps working hard. The coaches challenge him all the time… It’s in his brain to answer the challenge, so he’s going to continue to get better and continue to develop."

We’ll take that for now! In 34 games at the collegiate level with the Pittsburgh Panthers, Weaver notched 109 total tackles, 17 sacks, five forced fumbles, and nine pass breakups. All of the tools that helped him tally those numbers were on full display in the Tennessee Titans’ first game versus the Atlanta Falcons. We won’t have to wait long to see what he does for an encore versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.