Tennessee Titans are very optimistic about Treylon Burks behind the scenes

Football is back and if you are a diehard college football fan, you might have missed some exciting hype on Tennessee Titans rookie receiver, Treylon Burks.

On Monday morning former Tennessee Titans (and New England Patriots) cornerback and current Good Morning Football co-host Jason McCourty, predicted that Treylon Burks was his pick for Offensive Rookie of the Year.

Few people spent as much time in Nashville as Jason McCourty who spent seven seasons with the Tennessee Titans. Just for reference, Taylor Lewan is the longest-tenured player on the roster after the release of Brett Kern and he is going into his eighth season with the Titans.

There is no doubt that McCourty still has friends inside the building, probably including guys like Kevin Byard who he played with in 2016. Also, Coach Dave McGinnis was on the Titans’ defensive staff when McCourty was on the team and now he calls games with Mike Keith.

That is positive information for the rookie but not necessarily something that changes the way we think about Treylon Burks. However, on Friday ESPN’s Dan Graziano wrote an article on potential surprises for each team.

Just how much will the Tennessee Titans use Treylon Burks as a rookie?

He says that Burks is going to be a huge focal point of the Tennessee Titans offense this year and this is what he wrote in the “What I’m hearing” portion of that article:

"“Robert Woods is slated to be the No. 1 receiver in Tennessee, but the Titans have a major role planned for Burks and have been giving him extra reps in the preseason to get him up to speed quickly after a difficult spring.”"

His big surprise prediction for Treylon Burks is that he says he wouldn’t be surprised if Burks leads all rookie receivers in receptions.

Over the last five years the rookie leaders in receptions have been:

2021: Jaylen Waddle (104)

2020: Justin Jefferson (80)

2019: Diontae Johnson (59)

2018: Calvin Ridley (64)

2017: Cooper Kupp (62)

Since the emergence of Derrick Henry, the Tennessee Titans only pass the ball around 30 times per game.  Those first two numbers seem impossible to get close to if that holds true this year, but the average of those five years is 74 receptions and that would be a massive number in this offense.

If he hits that, chances are that Titans fans will start talking about him as the best rookie receiver that the franchise has ever had.

We will start to see just how real those possibilities are this weekend, but it is amazing to think about how far we have come since people were calling him a bust because he wasn’t in the best shape in June. Thank goodness some of us didn’t lose our minds after that first bump in the road.