Ranking the Vols offensive players who HAVE to stay healthy

Injuries are a touchy subject around these parts. Nobody ever wants to use them as an excuse, and yet when the front falls off, you can’t really have an honest conversation without acknowledging them.

Nobody ever wants to see a guy get injured and have to miss time during the season. No player is expendable. And yet it’s a fact of life in football. Guys go down. Teammates step up. Guys rehab and return.

And stuff happens in the interim.

After last season, Vols fans know better than most the dramatic impact players missing time can have on a team’s ability to play well. Just how dramatic that impact is generally depends on how many guys get hurt, which guys get hurt, and how long it takes them to get back onto the field and into playing shape.

It’s doubtful that the Vols will have as many players injured this fall as they did last year. We’re all crossing our fingers that 2016 was an outlier, and to the extent that it wasn’t, we’re hoping that the lessons learned from last season and new strength and conditioning coach Rock Gullickson make a big difference.

But it’s still football, and injuries are still going to happen. And while you never want to see any player get hurt, the team is more vulnerable at certain positions than others.

So, with apologies to the superstitious, we’ve ranked the projected offensive starters in order of which ones the team can least afford to lose. Call it the Injury Uh-Oh Index. If you must find a piece of wood to knock on you’re reading, we’ll totally understand.

7. Brett Kendrick, Drew Richmond, Trey Smith, or Coleman Thomas

The offensive line is the deepest unit on the team, offense or defense, even considering that it requires the most bodies. Coleman Thomas may not even start, and behind Kendrick, Richmond, and Smith there are a ton of strong, versatile, talented, and experienced players like junior Jack Jones, sophomores Venzell Boulware and Marcus Tatum, and a handful of freshmen the team hopes they won’t need. The status of junior Chance Hall is a bit up in the air, as he was expected to be sidelined for some time but is reportedly back on campus after getting a second opinion about his knee. If he’s available, this unit is indeed in great shape and should be strong enough to withstand some normal injury attrition.

6. Josh Smith/Tyler Byrd

We have Smith and Byrd penciled in as starters in the receiving corps along with Jajuan Jennings. The unit does have some options behind these two in senior Jeff George, sophomores Marquez Callaway and Brandon Johnson, and five or six freshmen, so if one of Smith or Byrd is injured, the team has options. Those guys are largely unproven, mind you, but they are at least options.

5. Jashon Robertson

Although the offensive line is deep, they likely depend on senior leader Jashon Robertson. He’s started 35 games in three years, all 13 as a freshman, 10 of 10 as a sophomore, and 12 of 13 last year as a junior. If he misses any time, the team has bodies to plug in to his spot, but his leadership will be difficult to replace. With a new quarterback and mostly-new running backs and receivers, the entire offense would be scrambling for leaders if Robertson were to go down.

4. Quinten Dormady/Jarrett Guarantano

The Tennessee coaches have been saying all offseason that it’s nice to have two qualified guys pushing each other to replace Josh Dobbs at the quarterback position. They’re probably also thinking but not saying that it’s nice to have two just in case one of them gets injured. But while it’s somewhat comforting to know that there’s a qualified guy ready to go if the other guy gets hurt, it would also mean that there is no additional room for error. Behind Dormady and Guaranto is Will McBride and the mysterious Seth Washington, but let’s face it, if both Dormady and Guarantano are unavailable, there are going to be a lot of mopey folks on Rocky Top.

3. Jajuan Jennings

As I said earlier, there are a lot of bodies in the wide receiving corps, and Smith and Byrd are going to be fine complements to Jennings. But just as the offensive line looks to Robertson for leadership, there is little doubt that the entire receiving corps feeds off of Jennings. He’s not just a great receiver, he’s fearless and always primed for battle. Toughness like that is contagious, and the team will miss it if it’s not on the field with them.

2. Ethan Wolf

Wolf has been a fixture at the tight end position for three seasons at Tennessee, having started 35 games in his three years on campus. His primary contributions are probably under the radar in the blocking game, but he has also figured prominently into the passing game at several key moments in his career. The problem here is that the position isn’t especially deep. Senior Jakob Johnson could sub in for Wolf if needed, as could Ethan’s brother Eli, who is a sophomore. There are also four freshmen on the roster who could play in a pinch, but any way you look at it, losing Wolf to injury would likely mean a fairly significant drop off at the tight end position. And because we generally only notice tight ends when they’re catching passes and not when they’re blocking, we may not even realize what’s happening.

1. John Kelly

There are zero senior running backs on the roster this season. The team is in good hands with junior Kelly, though, who proved his mettle last season by outrushing all other running backs with 630 yards despite being third on the depth chart. But behind him, there’s nothing but question marks. Although there are two 4-star talents behind him in sophomore Carlin Fils-aime and freshman Ty Chandler, neither one of them is proven. The same can be said about sophomore Taeler Dowdy and freshmen Trey Coleman, Tim Jordan, and Chip Omer. Basically, the running back stable is John Kelly and then a bunch of young and inexperienced guys we know almost nothing about. Team 121 is going to lean heavily on John Kelly this fall. What they’re going to need the most from him is to stay healthy.