NFL

Treylon Burks Can Be a Home-Run Pick for the Titans

Burks checks a lot of boxes as a prospect and offers a high ceiling for fantasy football. Will he walk into big volume right away in Tennessee?

After trading away their franchise receiver in a blockbuster deal, the Tennessee Titans are hoping they just took another one.

Tennessee dealt A.J. Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night and then drafted Treylon Burks 18th overall with one of the picks they netted from the Brown trade.

At 6-foot-2 and 224 pounds, Burks definitely fits the prototype in terms of size, and his statistical profile hits the mark, as well. According to PlayerProfiler, Burks rates in at least the 90th percentile in both college target share (31.3%) and college dominator rating (45.9%). He's also in the 76th percentile in yards per catch (16.8) and the 80th percentile for speed score. He went for 1,104 yards and 11 scores in his final campaign with Arkansas.

Burks checks a lot of boxes.

Player Comparisons

numberFire's Brandon Gdula breaks down Burks' profile and gives a top comparison.

Gdula's draft database has found these 10 prior prospects to have the most similar statistical profiles to Burks’. Keep in mind that these are based not on play style or traits but age, athleticism, draft equity, experience, efficiency, and production.

Rank Treylon Burks Profile Comparisons Similarity
1 Dez Bryant 92.2%
2 Demaryius Thomas 90.2%
3 Jordy Nelson 89.4%
4 Robert Meachem 88.7%
5 Rashod Bateman 88.2%
6 Julio Jones 88.0%
7 Dwayne Bowe 87.9%
8 AJ Brown 87.9%
9 Laviska Shenault Jr. 87.5%
10 Alshon Jeffery 87.2%


Gdula's Take: Look at those comps. What a list. Burks, despite a big frame (6'2", 225), primarily played out of the slot at Arkansas. That dropped down his average depth of target a lot (to 9.9 yards), yet he still had plenty of downfield work, too. It's a great profile.

Treylon Burks' 2022 Fantasy Football Projection

Both of the Titans' top two wideouts -- Robert Woods and Burks -- will be players who weren't on the team in 2021, making this situation difficult to project. Gdula’s initial projections for Burks include 75 catches, 969 yards and 6.0 touchdowns, making him the PPR WR29 for the season.

With Brown out of the picture, there are a ton of targets up for grabs, and Burks should walk into good volume right away. He has the talent to turn said volume into big numbers

On FanDuel Sportsbook, the Titans are listed at +3000 to win the Super Bowl and +145 to take the AFC South, and they have a win total projection of 9.5 at FOX Bet.