Tennessee football: Ranking all former Vols in 2019 NFL Playoffs

Tennessee football has nine players who could contribute in this year’s NFL Playoffs. Here is how those Volunteers stack up this postseason.

The NFL Playoffs are back, and although Tennessee football did not make a bowl game, there are plenty of former Vols who will be trying to deliver a Super Bowl trophy to their franchise. Who’s going to continue the long-standing tradition of Vols in the Super Bowl?

Last year, a former Vol made a huge splash, as Derek Barnett had the game-winning fumble recovery to help the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. He’s one of three former Vols who has won a ring and whose teams are in the playoffs this year.

Unfortunately for Barnett, he’s not actually playing in this year’s postseason due to an injury. We have to leave him out along with Alex Ellis, who’s been on injured reserve, and Kahlil McKenzie, who hasn’t played at all this year.

Still, there are nine other former Tennessee football players in this year’s playoffs. And they are spread out across seven teams. So the majority of playoff teams have a former Vol playing for them, including all four teams who got first-round byes, making it a greater than 50 percent chance that one of them takes home a ring.

As we get set to rank the former Vols in this year’s NFL Playoffs, we’re ranking by talent and by who’s most likely to contribute. You’ll notice that there are a couple of guys who could become major contributors should their teams make a run.

So with basketball in full swing and no postseason for Rocky Top, let’s take a look at the one point of pride Tennessee football is still able to have. This is our ranking of the nine key former Vols playing in this year’s NFL postseason.