The Tennessee Titans could potentially get a boost to their receiving corps. this week with rookie wideout Treylon Burks being eligible to come off injured reserve.
In a recent mailbag, Jim Wyatt of Titans Online said he expected Burks to return this week, although that has yet to be confirmed yet.
The receiver the Titans are looking [to] give them a boost in the second half of the season is Treylon Burks, the team’s first-round draft pick. He’s eligible to come back on November 13 against the Broncos and I’m expecting that to happen.
First, Burks has to be designated to return from IR, which opens his 21-day window to be activated. But, as we saw with Elijah Molden last week, just because a player is designated to return doesn’t mean he’ll be activated the same week.
When asked about his rookie receiver on Monday, head coach Mike Vrabel basically said the team is in wait-and-see mode with Burks, who is dealing with turf toe.
“We’ll see how he is feeling,” Vrabel said. “He has worked extremely hard to stay in shape and condition, take care of his body, lift… I think this is the best he has been from the standpoint of handling a distraction… Whenever he is ready, I’m excited for him to get back out there.
“We’ll see where that is this week because he has been in here, he has been on time and he has done everything that we asked him to do. We’ll just have to see where he is at physically.”
If there’s one thing Burks will bring back with him, it’s the ability to create separation. Burks is the only Titans wide receiver to be above the league average in that category in every game he has played in and finished.
More: Robert Woods has only topped that average one time this season, while NWI has yet to eclipse that average at all.
In fact, they both have more games where they’ve had less than 2 yards of separation than they’ve had games in which they topped the league average.
— Shaun Calderon (@ShaunMichaels31) October 28, 2022
While that’s all well and good, let’s not pretend that Burks is going to be some savior here.
Granted, he’s a definite plus for this putrid passing attack that can use all the help it can get, but it’s not like he was lighting the world on fire before his injury, something we wouldn’t begin to blame on him.
He also can’t block for the offensive line, can’t get open for his fellow receivers, and, perhaps most unfortunately, he can’t call the plays for offensive coordinator Todd Downing.
