Titans internal grade for WR Treylon Burks does not match the fanbase
NASHVILLE – Tennessee Titans wide receiver Treylon Burks has been an easy target for criticism from Titans fans. The 24-year-old wide out has just one catch for two yards through two weeks…not the production you'd hope for from a former first-round pick in his third NFL season. But it's probably time for Titans fans to […]
NASHVILLE – Tennessee Titans wide receiver Treylon Burks has been an easy target for criticism from Titans fans. The 24-year-old wide out has just one catch for two yards through two weeks…not the production you'd hope for from a former first-round pick in his third NFL season.
But it's probably time for Titans fans to reevaluate their expectations for Burks. Just because Burks is not the 1,000+ yard pass catcher Tennessee was hoping for when they drafted him does not mean he is without value.
As a matter of fact, the Titans have a much more positive outlook on Burks' value than the people outside the organization. But as wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert explained to me earlier this week, that's because Burks' job in Tennessee's offense is not to catch passes. Burks' job is to help other players to catch passes.
"I think Treylon is out there and at the end of the day, if you look at his grades, he's one of the highest graded guys out there. He's doing his job," Tolbert told me. "Opportunities haven't really come his way a lot in terms of the ball, but in terms of doing his job every play, his grade is pretty much one of the top grades in the wide receiver group."
The "grades" Tolbert is referring to are the internal grades given to players by the Titans' coaching staff after reviewing game tape. The staff watches every snap and assigns a plus or minus value to every player based on assignment, alignment, and execution.
Translation: Treylon Burks is doing everything that's asked of him, and he's doing it well.
The Titans love the speed of Burks. They like using him to stretch the field, take the top off the coverage, and open things up for Ridley, Hopkins, and Boyd underneath. That's something the coaching staff has seen show up on the tape through two weeks. There's value in that, even if it doesn't pop on a box score to fans.
"We have one ball and it's hard to get the ball to everybody," Tolbert said, referring to players like Ridley, Hopkins, Boyd, and both running backs as guys who need to get targets. "[Treylon] keeps working., He doesn't say anything about it. As a matter of fact, he worked with the offense today and then jumped in with the scout team to get scout team reps because he didn't get the ball a whole lot."
Treylon Burks has not lived up to the hype of the 18th overall pick in the NFL Draft. But Treylon Burks has also been a productive player in Brian Callahan's offense in ways that go beyond the box score. Both of those things can be true.
Am I saying that Titans fans shouldn't be disappointed with how things have turned out for Burks in the NFL? Absolutely not. It was a straight up bad draft pick by Jon Robinson.
But judging Burks' week-to-week performance and value based on the expectations of him in 2022 is foolish. That's not reality. That's not the player that he is and we know that now. The sooner the Titans fanbase can accept that, the sooner they can appreciate Burks for what he brings to the table in the here and now.
Tennessee's coaching staff has done an excellent job of separating Burks from his draft status. They don't force a square peg into a round hole just because Jon Robinson traded A.J. Brown for him once upon a time. They grade and think of Burks very highly, but recognize that he is still the fourth option in the offense.
If you remove the context of where Burks was drafted (by a different front office), he's not a player who deserves constant criticism. I know that's a hard thing to do, and in the grand scheme of things, impossible. But as far as week-to-week analysis goes, Burks should be judged by how he does in his role, not the role many once dreamed of him filling.
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