Former NFL wide receiver Derrick Mason, who spent eight seasons with the Tennessee Titans, didn’t hold back on Monday when discussing current Titans wide receiver Justin Hunter.
Mason, who was in studio on 94.9 The Game in Nashville, pretty much wrote off Hunter, saying that Titans wide receiver coach Shawn Jefferson has “done everything he can with him”.
Dee Mason on Justin Hunter... "Coach Jefferson has done everything he can with him, i rather have Shawn's son (Van) over him.. @949Game2
— Rick Merritt (@R1ckterScale) April 6, 2015
As you can see in Rick Merritt’s (host on 94.9) tweet above, Mason added insult to injury by saying he’d take Van Jefferson, an incoming freshman at Ole Miss, over Hunter.
While I think that Hunter has definitely failed to live up to expectations, I don’t think it’s fair to compare him to a player that hasn’t proved anything yet.
Let’s not forget that Hunter caught 73 passes for 1,083 yards and nine touchdowns as a junior at Tennessee. Sure, he had some issues with drops while he was in Knoxville, and those issues have continued into the NFL, but that’s something that can still be corrected.
Hunter, who will be 24 when the 2015 NFL season begins, has displayed flashes of how good he can be during his first two seasons in the NFL.
I don’t think anyone should be so quick to write off Justin Hunter, especially not Derrick Mason.
Perhaps Mason, an eventual Pro-Bowl wide receiver with eight 1,000 yard seasons, forgot how his first few years in the NFL went.
In Mason’s first two years in the league, he caught 39 passes for 519 yards and three touchdowns. In fact, it wasn’t until his fourth year in the league that he had his breakout season, catching 63 passes for 895 yards.
Hunter’s numbers in his first two years in the league? 46 catches for 852 yards and seven touchdowns.
You do the math.
The Titans didn’t give up on Derrick Mason then and they shouldn’t give up on Justin Hunter now.