Tennessee football: Injuries wrecked Vols 2020 NFL Draft stock

With only two players taken in the 2020 NFL Draft, Tennessee football had one clear issue. Injuries haunted the Volunteers in this class.

Ahead of last week’s NFL Draft, projections had as many as three Tennessee football players being taken. The three being taken, however, have all dealt with injuries throughout their college career, and one of them still hasn’t even signed a deal because he can’t pass a medical check.

Daniel Bituli, who was a projected late-round draft pick by some analysts, hasn’t been able to clear his medical issue with his knee. According to Wes Rucker of GoVols247, he is expected to sign with a team once that issue is resolved within the next couple of weeks.

Remember, Bituli missed the first two games of last season due to an injury, a huge reason for Tennessee football’s 0-2 start, and then he got banged up in the Vols’ Gator Bowl win over the Indiana Hoosiers. A fully healthy Bituli may have even been projected higher than the sixth or seventh round.

That’s the most standout injury issue facing Rocky Top right now, but it goes much deeper than Bituli. Look at the Vols’ top draft pick, Darrell Taylor, who was taken in the second round by the Seattle Seahawks.

Taylor’s draft stock shot up over the past two weeks. That came despite him missing the combine due to his need to heal from surgery to repair a stress fracture. It was then revealed that he played all of 2019 with that stress fracture and still reached his eight-sacks and double-digit tackles for a loss mark.

Imagine, though, if he didn’t have that injury. His production would have been through the roof in 2019, he would have had a chance to prove his physical gifts at the combine, and he wouldn’t bring injury concerns with him into the pros. If he can be a second-rounder with all of that, you’d have to think he could be a first-rounder without it.

Then there’s Jauan Jennings, who fell to the San Francisco 49ers in the seventh round. Yes, his combine performance hurt him dramatically, and yes, he actually may have landed up in a better spot by falling since he fills a specific need by San Francisco.

However, would Jennings’ combine been as much of a drawback if he didn’t suffer a season-ending injury in 2017? Remember, after that injury, he had another one that kept him out in the spring, and that’s why he didn’t produce much in 2018. He was still recovering from injury.

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Presumably, Jennings would’ve been the No. 1 draft pick in 2017 and 2018 and then been taken last year, at least making sure Tennessee football wasn’t shut out of that draft. However, even if he did miss all of 2017, that other injury to keep him out of spring may have further hurt him.

Simply put, if not for critical injuries, the Vols may have had a first-rounder and two fourth or fifth-rounders in this draft. In fact, they may have had another one. Nigel Warrior’s stock fell to the point that he wasn’t even invited to the combine despite the fact that he never got hurt and had four interceptions this past year.

There’s a reason for that. Warrior struggled severely in the first two games this past year. Why did he struggle? Well, Bryce Thompson being out meant that as the safety, he had to overcompensate for the lack of one elite cornerback. The other issue, however, was that Bituli, who was the glue guy calling the plays for the defense, was out.

As a result, Warrior had to shoulder a larger role in stopping the run, and the play-calling for the schemes on the field wasn’t always there. That wrecked his stock early on, and he might have been able to avoid that had Bituli played.

So instead of no first-rounders and two picks, Tennessee football had a solid chance to have one first-rounder and four picks. That would have looked a lot better for the program, even if these guys work out in the pros anyway.