Sunday is going to be a nightmare for the Tennessee Titans as they travel to face one of the hottest teams in the NFL with the most injured roster in NFL history.
However, there should be some optimism that things will get better after that game, especially at the receiver position.
Despite multiple injuries in a losing effort against the Houston Texans, A.J. Brown wasn’t placed on I.R. this week. There should be optimism that he will be back on the field sooner rather than later, even if that means missing this week.
Listening to Mike Vrabel after Julio Jones tweaked his hamstring (again), the initial thought was that a trip to I.R. wasn’t likely, but soon after he was moved to the list and he is going to get an additional week of rest with the bye week.
Just reading between the lines, that seems like the Titans wanted to give Julio Jones a month to recover from his injury and they wanted to make sure that neither they nor Julio pushed for a timetable that was any sooner than a month because they wanted him to actually get healthy.
More receiver help coming for the Tennessee Titans?
The Tennessee Titans’ next game after the trip to New England will be in Week 14 when they host the Jacksonville Jaguars.
There is a chance that the Titans could have both A.J. Brown and Julio Jones back for that game, and they could both be healthier than they have been at any point this season. Someone else they could have, is their rookie receiver, Racey McMath.
According to Jim Wyatt and his mailbag, McMath is getting healthy enough to start practicing soon:
"“As for McMath, he remains on Injured Reserve. I get the sense his Return to Play could start relatively soon, but he’s been doing his rehab inside. Hopefully we’ll see him at some point after the bye week. The Titans could use any help they could get at the receiver position at this point.”"
McMath had a lot of buzz in the preseason and he ended up playing more than 50% of the snaps on special teams and about 20% of the offensive snaps through the first four weeks of the season.
His size and physicality make him an ideal blocker, but he also ran a 4.39 40-yard dash and the Titans are desperate for a deep threat in this offense.
The Tennessee Titans injury situation is pretty bleak right now, but getting those three players back would instantly boost the Titans receiver grade from a “D-” to at least a “B+” and with Derrick Henry out they desperately need someone to make a play on offense.