Tennessee football: 10 Vols with injury concerns for 2019

Trevon Flowers is likely to be a starter at a more significant position than Baylen Buchanan. However, Buchanan is more supplanted in his starting position, and he has missed more time overall due to injury during his time with Tennessee football.

The overwhelming favorite to start at nickel, Buchanan  missed half of 2017 due to various injuries, in particular an ankle injury. That alone likely would not have kept him on the list, but then he missed a large portion of spring ball due to injury.

In fact, Buchanan was unable to play in the spring game because of an injury. Entering his senior season as the only proven guy who can play nickel, that’s a major concern for Jeremy Pruitt. Buchanan is a very smart player who can also play physical. His athleticism is not the best, but he makes up for it with those two factors.

As a result, he’s a bigger injury concern player for the Vols than Flowers, even if Flowers did miss more of 2018 and is likely to start at a position where he takes more reps. Pruitt needs Buchanan’s senior leadership in the secondary this year to help it take that next step in his 3-4 scheme. And he does run a risk of missing some time.