Unfortunately, in the last two years, there hasn’t been a week where you could talk about the Tennessee Titans without bringing up injuries.
Yesterday the Titans won their fourth straight game and beat the Indianapolis Colts to take a two-game lead in the AFC South. The game was never really close, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t scares along the way.
Instead of opposing touchdowns, the scariest moments in that game involved injuries to Ryan Tannehill, Jeffery Simmons, and Ben Jones. If you are making a list of the most important players on the Tennessee Titans roster, you don’t have to go very far before those three get mentioned.
While we will wait to see the severity of all of these injuries, each player ended up going back in the game so it seems like there might be some positive news.
At a certain point, football fans become desensitized to injuries, especially Tennessee Titans fans who have seen more than 100 players suit up for the team over the last two seasons. That is why it is important to see a video like the one that was circulating on Monday morning.
Ben Jones giving his all for the Tennessee Titans
Below is a video of Mike Vrabel and Ben Jones embracing in the tunnel after the center gutted out the division matchup on a banged-up leg.
The toughest dude ever. Ben Jones, absolutely spent after the game today. Mike Vrabel knows his Center played through some stuff to finish the game.
— Chris Harris (@ChrisHarrisWSMV) October 24, 2022
Great video here by our guy Zach Tucker.#Titans pic.twitter.com/WZdlIXAvu5
We have seen Vrabel celebrate with his players before, but this isn’t a celebration, it is an embrace. This is a former player looking into the eyes of a current player and seeing a man who left everything on the field, and he did so without needing to be pushed or prodded to do so.
That is the most important part.
The NFL isn’t the NBA or soccer, players don’t frequently fake injuries, but it is rare to see someone know they are hurt and immediately hop up and try to walk it off before the next play. Ben Jones does that constantly and whether he is getting rolled up or stepped on, he seems to be determined to be ready to go again in 10 seconds.
It is interesting to note what Jones is doing when you look at other linemen on the Titans’ roster. Jamarco Jones is M.I.A. and Taylor Lewan has had serious injuries that have nothing to do with pain tolerance, but someone to keep an eye on is Nate Davis.
Davis is a really good guard when he is healthy, but like Jack Conklin before him, the healthy times are getting fewer and farther between. Davis has been on the injury report for the last four games and he has missed the last two despite having a bye week in the middle.
His absence has meant that Dillon Radunz is being forced to play guard instead of potentially replacing Dennis Daley at left tackle. Last week would have been a perfect time to make that change, but unfortunately, Nate Davis missed and now the Tennessee Titans have missed their bye week window to make that change smoothly.
I don’t know whether that is fair to Nate Davis, but this is now the third season where he has missed multiple games. When Ben Jones is grinding out games and practicing fully nearly every practice, it makes the Tennessee Titans coaching staff and front office notice his absence even more.
Time will tell how the Titans view Davis, but Vrabel has gushed about the toughness of guys like Tannehill, Simmons, and Jones, and so far Davis hasn’t been able to earn a reputation as one of those guys.