Injury Issues at Inside Linebacker Resurface

NASHVILLE – Zach Cunningham stepped into the Tennessee Titans’ defense last season when injuries were a consistent problem at inside linebacker.

This season, he has picked up right where his predecessors left off.

The Titans placed Cunningham on injured reserve Saturday, which means he will miss at least the next four contests. Defensive back Josh Thompson also was placed on IR. The earliest those two players can be back in uniform is Dec. 11 against Jacksonville.

Cunningham is out with an elbow injury, which caused him to miss three games earlier in the season. He was hurt in the Week 3 victory over Las Vegas and did not play again until Oct. 30 against Houston. He reinjured the joint last Sunday and failed to finish the overtime loss against Kansas City.

To date, he has played 190 snaps on defense, three fewer than Dylan Cole who has emerged as his primary replacement. By comparison, David Long, the other starter at inside linebacker, has played 529 snaps, second overall on the defense.

Cunningham is 10th on the defense with 23 tackles, two fewer than Cole. He also has one quarterback pressure and one pass defensed.

In four games at the end of last season after he was claimed off waivers from the Houston Texans, Cunningham had 25 tackles and three tackles for loss in just 153 snaps.

He settled in after Long, Rashaan Evans, Jayon Brown and Monty Rice all missed time with injuries, and remained a starter when Evans and Brown were healthy. Long, who missed seven games, was the only Titans inside linebacker who played more than 40 percent of the defensive snaps in 2021.

Rice, a third-round pick last year, spent the first four weeks of this season on the Physically Unable to Perform list and has played just five snaps on defense over the past four games. With Cunningham on injured reserve, he is likely to have more of an opportunity, either behind or in conjunction with Cole.

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