The 2022 NFL Draft takes place April 28-30 this year, emanating LIVE from Las Vegas, Nevada. As it stands, the Tennessee Titans have one first round draft pick. General manager Jon Robinson and head coach Mike Vrabel currently hold the 26th overall selection. Over the next few months, your boy “Big Natural” Stoney Keeley will be taking a look at some of the prospects who are either rumored to be tied to or who make sense for the Titans. Today, we’re lookin’ at Arkansas wide receiver Treylon Burks.
I’ve done my best to establish my opinion on where the Titans should go with their first round pick, and I’m holding steady at “play-maker,” be it wide receiver or Trey McBride, and yes, I’m willing to die on that Trey McBride hill. A week or so ago, I heard Eric Eager on Blaine and Mickey on 104.5 The Zone yesterday saying Burks might not be a good fit in Tennessee because he does a lot of the things that AJ Brown does. That’s been his player comp from a lot of analysts this draft season. But, I would ask…would two AJ Browns in this offense be a bad thing?
Burks enters the NFL off of a red hot 2021 season during which he amassed 1,104 receiving yards and 11 receiving touchdowns. He decided to forgo his senior season to enter the NFL, and given that he’s being discussed among the top wideouts in this class, I’d say that was the right call to make. Believe it or not, he’s just the fourth player in Razorbacks history to eclipse 1,000 yards in a single season. Burks was named to the SEC’s All-Freshman team in 2019, was voted 2nd-team All-SEC in 2019 and 2020, and then capped off his college career with 1st-team All-SEC honors in 2021.
He was definitely the type of player that Arkansas wanted to feed the ball to as much as they could. He was lined up all over formations – out wide, in the slot, inline, in the backfield. In addition to the Brown comparisons, it’s pretty easy to see where the Deebo Samuel comparisons come from. I think there are a few valid nitpicks in his game, but those are few and far between, in my opinion. He has great size and great physicality, but it seems that at times, press coverage and jamming him up at the line can really throw him out of rhythm a little too easily. There were some instances of his drifting against zone coverage and not really identifying the right spot to attack. But, again – these are nitpicks. There’s a lot of room for him to fine tune the nuance in his game. He is a bit of a raw prospect, but man oh man, is he talented.
The more you watch of him, the more of his athleticism and physicality show up. It’s impressive, and to be honest, the AJ Brown comparisons look spot-on to me. Burks wins a lot of battles with his pure talent – he’s slippery in the open field and knows how to find gaps in coverage and accelerate right through them. He has a lot of incredible circus catches on his tape. It is easy to see why some think he could be a top 15 pick.
I don’t know that he’ll be there at #26 for the Titans to pick, but if he is, he’d be a home run pick. He’s definitely a different type of receiver from Chris Olave, who I said looked exactly like what this Titans offense was lacking. But, with Burks’ versatility, he still brings a different dynamic to the offense, and would absolutely give defenses another guy to worry about.
Further Reading: 2022 NFL Draft: Is Treylon Burks the next Deebo Samuel? ‘I try to mimic my game after him’ | Also, I know I use a lot of this dude’s videos, but I do my best to find free YouTube content that aligns with my opinion of a prospect, and my man here has hit on a few that I like. I’m not secretly a New York Jets fan – just a coincidence. *shrugs*
2022 TITANS FIRST ROUND OPTIONS
- Jahan Dotson
- Zion Johnson
- Tyler Linderbaum
- Roger McCreary
- Trey McBride
- Chris Olave
- Trevor Penning
- Desmond Ridder
- Jalen Tolbert
- Jalen Wydermyer
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Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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