Tennessee Titans 2021 fourth-round pick and outside linebacker Rashad Weaver saw his rookie campaign end early due to a broken right fibula suffered in the Week 3 win over the Indianapolis Colts.
Before that, Weaver flashed during the preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons, but didn’t do much over the first three weeks of the season.
Weaver was inactive in Week 1, and then played just 12 defensive and 20 special teams snaps in the two games that followed, finishing with two tackles before succumbing to injury.
As far as his injury rehab progress goes, Titans general manager Jon Robinson recently gave an update, while also offering praise for the Pittsburgh product.
“His progress has been great, and he’s working hard,” Robinson said of Weaver, via Jim Wyatt of Titans Online. “Rashad is maybe one of the hardest workers out of that rookie class. He is off the scooter, he is out of the boot, and he is walking around. I have seen him in the facility. He has been extremely diligent with getting himself back. I know he loves football. Football is important to him. So, it has been fun to kind of watch him grow and really bust his can to try and help the team.”
Head coach Mike Vrabel chimed in, saying Weaver was “getting better” and his progression was “encouraging” before the injury.
“He was playing hard (before the injury), and he was getting better,” Vrabel said. “He just kept charging. There was a level of improvement, and there was a level of effort that I thought was encouraging.”
Robinson revealed that Weaver, who he says needs to add strength, has added size to his frame this offseason. He also went into detail about what Weaver brings to the table as a pass-rusher.
“He’s different,” Robinson said. “People want to try and compare him to Harold (Landry) or Bud (Dupree) or Denico (Autry), and he is different. He is a longer end, he is kind of slippery, almost Gumby-like the way he rushes because he has good bend. He is not a super-fast player, but he has good quickness, and he does a really good job of getting skinny on blocks, not giving the offensive linemen a big target surface-area wise to try to hit.
“He needs to continue to gain strength, and it looks like he’s added some size and some muscle, just watching him walk around the facility. It will be important for him to try and expand his bag of tricks this offseason.”
Weaver will likely spend a good amount of time on special teams in 2022. He’ll also provide depth behind Bud Dupree and Harold Landry, and could see snaps along the defensive line as well.
Wherever he ends up playing, Weaver is a wild card going into his second season, but from what Vrabel and Robinson have said, there’s even more reasons for optimism for the 24-year-old.
