Tennessee football: 5 strengths with Vols revamped staff heading into 2019

4. Turning out NFL talent

The three new staff members for Tennessee football combined with the two new position switches creates a ton of NFL talent churned out by Vols coaches at the positions they coached. We can start specifically with Tee Martin.

Throughout his coaching experience, Martin has turned out 11 NFL Draft picks, but six have been at receiver. The most notable ones were JuJu Smith Schuster, Nelson Agholor and Randall Cobb from his days with the Kentucky Wildcats.

Meanwhile, as a secondary coach, Derrick Ansley produced four NFL Draft picks from the Alabama Crimson Tide. He also developed Justin Coleman in his one year with the Vols, who was undrafted but became a very good NFL player.

David Johnson has moved over to running backs this year, and he coached Leonard Fournette in high school. Chris Weinke moved to quarterbacks, and while he hasn’t turned out NFL talent yet from the college game, he did coach Nick Foles, Case Keenum and Jared Goff for two years with the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams.

Finally, there’s Jim Chaney. This guy has loaded the NFL with talent throughout his experience. His crown jewel is obviously Drew Brees, whom he coached with the Purdue Boilermakers. But even with the Vols, he coached future NFL talent in guys like Ja’Wuan James, Cordarrelle Patterson, Mychal Rivera, Denarius Moore, Zach Fulton, Justin Hunter and even Tyler Bray, who’s had a steady career as a backup in the pros.

And that doesn’t even include all the loaded NFL talent Chaney coached at Georgia. Simply put, the Vols add a staff of guys who have tons of experience turning players into pro stars. And that counts for something.