An Encouraging Start for Burks
NASHVILLE – Halfway through the third quarter of Sunday’s game, Treylon Burks flashed across the middle of the field, snatched Ryan Tannehill’s pass out of the air and headed upfield for a 27-yard gain.
The rookie wide receiver’s explosive play not only pulled the Tennessee Titans out of a first-and-18 hole, but eventually led the team to a go-ahead touchdown.
It was a glimpse of what the Titans saw in Burks that led them to select him with the 18th overall pick in this year's draft, moments after trading away Pro Bowler A.J. Brown. In fact, it was the kind of play Brown made plenty of times in his three seasons here.
The question now: Was Burks’ opening-day performance impressive enough that we’ll soon see larger doses of him?
He made an impact while playing just 24 snaps in the loss to the Giants, catching three passes for 55 yards. In comparison, Robert Woods played 46 snaps, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine 44 and Kyle Philips 31. Woods and Westbrook-Ikhine were only targeted a combined four times, catching two passes.
“Our young guys played good,” coach Mike Vrabel said Monday. “Treylon caught the ball well. He blocked. We’ll start seeing if maybe he can make someone miss in the open field instead of trying to run them over.”
That’s a decent chunk of praise from Vrabel, considering his general hesitance to compliment rookies.
A couple of Next Gen Stats offer an even more encouraging look at Burks’ debut performance – even if it was a small sample size.
• Burks averaged 11 yards after the catch on his three receptions, tops in the NFL prior to Monday’s game.
• Burks also provided a tempting target for Tannehill, as he averaged 4.9 yards of separation on the passes thrown in his direction, second-best in Week 1 behind only San Francisco’s Deebo Samuel (5.0 yards).
• Pro Football Focus also noted that Burks’ average depth of target was 19 yards, a welcome sign for a team looking for more explosive plays this season.
The overall numbers would have looked even better had he been able to come down with a long pass at the end of the first quarter. The rookie had created separation behind the Giants’ defense, but seemed to slow just a bit with the ball in the air – and eventually became tangled up with defensive back Aaron Robinson.
“We’re going to continue to work with Treylon about continuing to run and continuing his speed down the field as he’s trying to locate the ball,” Vrabel said. “I think that came up … I just hope he continues to develop to catch the ball and find ways to help us.”
One sure way a wide receiver can earn more snaps for Vrabel is by blocking well in the run game.
Burks was used as a run blocker on 10 of his 24 snaps against the Giants, per PFF, posting a strong 76.8 grade.
Vrabel even praised Burks’ work as a blocker on kick returns, despite the fact Burks was flagged for a holding penalty that negated Trenton Cannon’s 52-yard return in the third quarter.
“I think he did some things really well,” Vrabel said of Burks. “He had some things he needs to get corrected. But when we asked him to block, he went in there and he was willing.
“(We’ve) talked about his efforts on the kickoff return and how much those coaches wanted him in that phase. Now, he got a holding penalty, but it was also against probably their best special-teams player. He stood in there and he didn’t back down. He didn’t flinch. He got set, hit him, tried to block him and just got a tug.”
