Treylon Burks’ damage spoiled a enjoyable fan follow for Tennessee Titans

The saddest half is the catch wasn’t even a completion. Receiver Treylon Burks may have simply tapped the brakes and let an errant cross fall harmlessly out of bounds.

But he didn’t. He went all out for the followers in Nissan Stadium. He dived for the soccer.

And you recognize what? He caught it, sprawling onto the white paint of the guests’ sideline. It was an incomplete cross. But it additionally would’ve made a heck of spotlight from this sweltering July 26 fan follow for the Tennessee Titans if it wasn’t for what occurred when Burks stood up.

He was grabbing at an space close to his collarbone. His proper arm sank by his aspect, unmoving. He was clearly in ache. He quickly took a grim-faced stroll again to the crew’s locker room.

Thus the headline of a spirited afternoon for the Titans with their followers, sadly, wasn’t a brand new one.

It wasn’t the good throws in 7-on-7 by rookie quarterback Cam Ward or the sumptuous grabs by receiver Calvin Ridley or a 66-yard (!) discipline aim by Joey Slye with room to spare) or how the protection stepped it up in 11-on-11 drills to even out the afternoon.

It was – once more – about Burks’ incapacity to remain wholesome.

NFL Network broadcast reside from this Nissan Stadium follow. It and different retailers would quickly cross alongside studies that Burks had damaged his collarbone. That’s a severe damage. It may linger nicely into this season.

Burks is on the ultimate yr of his rookie contract as a 2022 first-round decide. Another long-term damage, the newest of a number of for Burks in Nashville, may be the top of his disappointing profession with the Titans.

Former University of Tennessee receiver Ramel Keyton is being signed to interchange Burks, NFL Network reported quickly after information obtained out in regards to the extent of the damage.

All this, it’s a downer. Personally.

I’d simply written about Burks the opposite day. I’d spoken to him about his new child daughter Wren, about how her beginning final fall had modified him. And about how he was having enjoyable taking part in soccer, which should you’d been round Burks in earlier years, you’d know that is been a battle for him.

When you’re drafted to interchange A.J. Brown as a part of a commerce that’ll probably be remembered as some of the lopsided in NFL historical past (to not point out the beginning of the Titans’ ongoing decline), you’re going to finish up putting unhealthy strain on your self to satisfy expectations that have been by no means all that honest.

Yes, Burks has expertise. But it’s his physique. It simply hasn’t been cooperative.

Entering that first NFL season, he struggled to remain in form. In the summer season of 2023, he was having a powerful preseason earlier than hurting his knee throughout joint practices in Minnesota. He misplaced a lot of the 2024 season to a torn ACL one week after his daughter was born.

And now, there’s this with a collarbone.

Logistically, it isn’t an enormous loss for the Titans. By now, everybody – the crew’s brass included – knew higher than to anticipate constant manufacturing out of Burks in 2025 till really seeing it. He’s replaceable. Heck, he won’t have made the 53-man roster out of preseason.

But symbolically, Burks’ damage performed all these acquainted low notes, reminding Titans followers of matters they’d moderately neglect: The A.J. commerce, former GM Jon Robinson’s first-round draft misses, this franchise’s ever-present lack of receivers and its current incapacity to develop younger expertise.

And, hey, why is it the Titans nonetheless appear extra snakebit with accidents than different groups?

The vibes at Nissan Stadium on July 26, in any other case, have been optimistic. Fans loved seeing their subsequent hope, Ward, sling passes after which roam corners of the sector to present autographs. Ridley had an awesome afternoon, bobbing up after catches and taking part in to the followers by theatrically pointing for first downs.

Players spoke afterwards a few new perception and a need to enhance on the distress of 2024.

“We want the city to know that we want to be good,” Ridley stated. “… It’s very personal. We hear everything, see everything. We’ve got that taste in our mouth from last year. Nobody wants to suck. Definitely not us, and definitely not me.”

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I do not know why a pleasant, optimistic day cannot simply keep a pleasant, optimistic day when it is the Titans.

And why, in the end, the boogeyman goes to leap up out of the bushes while you least anticipate it, holding his collarbone and calling for medical consideration.

Reach Tennessean sports activities columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and hang around with him on Bluesky @gentryestes.bsky.social