Tennessee Titans strategy of adding oft-injured players isn’t working
Perhaps every NFL team should learn from the Tennessee Titans. One year after failing with what might be the biggest first-round bust in franchise history, Isaiah Wilson (and we’re talking about the Houston Oilers and Titans combined histories), Jon Robinson’s most recent gamble doesn’t seem to be paying off either.
Let’s take you back to April. The Titans held the 22nd-overall selection in the most recent NFL Draft, and Tennessee’s brass had an idea.
Why not take an injury-prone wide receiver turned cornerback that hasn’t played a full season of football since he was in high school. You see where this is headed right?
Believe it or not, Tennessee Titans rookie Caleb Farley is hurt again.
If you get some time, look over the Titans roster when you have a moment. It’s one of the most impressive that you’ll ever see on paper. Seriously this team is loaded. The problem is, at some point, you’d hope they could get everybody on the field at once.
Maybe they should re-think one of their strategies of roster building. Not only did Tennessee invest the aforementioned 22nd-overall draft choice of the most recent draft into Caleb Farley. They added Bud Dupree via free agency and Julio Jones during the offseason thanks to a trade.
Farley sat out of the 2020 college football season due to COVID-19 concerns, but he’s developed a reputation of being injury-prone. He suffered an ACL injury that forced him to miss the 2017 NCAA football season, and he had a corrective procedure done on his back that preceded the most recent draft.
Dupree was given a five-year, $82.5 million deal in March despite the fact that he missed five games in 2021 with a torn ACL of his own. There’s no reason to get into Julio’s injury history. It’s pointless.
This does need to be said though. So far, Julio has missed two games with injury. Prior to Week 6, Dupree hadn’t been seen on the field since the second week of the season. Caleb Farley, if you haven’t heard, was helped to the sideline during the second quarter of Tennessee’s battle with the Buffalo Bills.
Oh, and there’s more bad news. Taylor Lewan was carted off of the field, and Cameron Batson got hurt. A silver lining was seen in Tennessee’s dark cloud towards the end of the second quarter of Week 6’s game though. Lewan was moving around okay. Unfortunately, at the time of this story being written and published, he was being evaluated for a concussion.
The injury bug didn’t just bite the Tennessee Titans. There appears to be an epidemic in their locker room.