Josh Malone embracing ‘special opportunity’ with Tennessee Titans

I’m not choosing on Mel Kiper Jr., or throwing an enormous ol’ stone from my glass home. Loads of takes I’d like to have again.

Having mentioned that, right here’s one from 2017 that ESPN’s iconic NFL Draft guru would most likely need again, too:

“I actually like Cooper Kupp however would have gone with Chris Godwin or Josh Malone earlier than him,” wrote Kiper in giving the L.A. Rams the bottom post-draft grade within the league that yr.

The Rams’ third-round number of Kupp has labored out fairly properly. He was the AP’s offensive participant of the yr in 2021. Godwin, who went 15 picks later, has additionally constructed a stellar professional profession with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

After which there’s the opposite broad receiver Kiper would have drafted forward of Kupp.

Our participant, because it have been.

Maybe it nonetheless says one thing about Gallatin’s Josh Malone that he carried such excessive expectations out of the College of Tennessee. At the same time as he hasn’t but met them within the NFL as a fourth-round decide, it exhibits the sort of upside that would nonetheless be there as the previous Station Camp star works to jumpstart his profession together with his hometown group.

The Tennessee Titans signed Malone in February, making 5 groups in lower than 5 years – not counting these final season that labored him out however didn’t signal him.

A shot with the Titans hits in another way, although, for Malone. Not solely is it the franchise he grew up supporting. It’s “nonetheless house,” he mentioned. It is near household nonetheless in Gallatin and the Nashville space.

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“It is a particular alternative,” mentioned Malone, cooling down after a Titans OTA apply final week. “The chance to return again house and play doesn’t come round day by day, particularly within the skilled ranks. I used to be blessed sufficient to go to Tennessee and get the chance to play for the home-state faculty, and now I get the chance to play for the professional group within the hometown.”

Malone arrived as a widely known receiver, however a roster longshot nonetheless. He hasn’t performed in an NFL sport since 2020, having bounced between two seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, who drafted him, to 2 extra with the New York Jets and two different apply squads.

He figures to have a legit alternative with the Titans. They want receiving depth, which is the case for them each offseason, principally. Final season, free brokers like Marcus Johnson and Chester Rogers made the roster and contributed.

Why not the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Malone?

Whereas his paltry NFL manufacturing (solely 11 passes caught in 4 seasons) is regarding, recollections of Malone’s last season with the Vols – 50 receptions for 972 yards and 11 touchdowns – nonetheless linger for instance of the potential that hasn’t but been realized within the professionals.

“It’s nerve-wracking. It’s irritating,” Malone mentioned of staying constructive whereas ready for NFL alternatives. “Nevertheless it’s all about perspective. … I simply wish to present that I can do my job and I can my job at a excessive stage. I simply wish to carve out a job.”

Over in Knoxville, the Josh Heupel period has launched a stronger model of offensive soccer, a lot that it’s simple to neglect the Josh Dobbs period at quarterback in which Malone as soon as excelled.

“We had an explosive bunch at college,” Malone mentioned. “What we have been doing up there, we have been having enjoyable. I can’t even think about what numbers we’d put up in that offense.”

Like most individuals, Malone was “impressed” by Heupel’s first season. However being again within the state, he’s additionally listening to “a complete bunch of hype” and expectations constructing again for his previous program.

He’s extra cautious. He doesn’t wish to say one thing so as to add to the hype. He mentioned he simply wished to see the Vols hold taking steps.

Such an strategy, in some methods, will be utilized to his personal soccer journey.

“Most people that know me know what I can do,” Malone mentioned. “I simply wish to proceed to maintain bettering and hold exhibiting folks I can play. That’s actually about it. Individuals’s expectations, I don’t actually take into consideration different folks’s opinions. I simply wish to management what I can management.”

Attain Tennessean sports activities columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.