Tennessee Titans: Anthony Firkser a breakout candidate in 2021

The Tennessee Titans have a star-studded offense, and tight end Anthony Firkser has a chance to really etch his place among some great players in 2021.

The Tennessee Titans made one of the most aggressive moves of any team in the 2021 offseason to go and get former Atlanta Falcons great Julio Jones to upgrade the wide receiver position.

The move to get Jones and pair him up with AJ Brown at wide receiver gave the Titans an enviable group of offensive skill players with Derrick Henry at running back and Ryan Tannehill orchestrating everything at the quarterback position.

One position that took a pretty significant hit in the 2021 offseason for Tennessee, however, was the tight end spot.

The team’s leading receiver at tight end in 2020 was Jonnu Smith, who also had eight touchdowns on the season. Smith was let go in free agency and signed almost immediately when the negotiating window opened up with the New England Patriots.

Along with losing Smith, the Titans lost another key contributor at tight end in MyCole Pruitt who signed with the San Francisco 49ers as a free agent.

With no substantial moves made at the position in the 2021 free agency period or 2021 NFL Draft, the Tennessee Titans are putting their confidence in an unlikely breakout candidate.

That player is none other than former Harvard star Anthony Firkser, an undrafted free agent coming out in the class of 2017.

Firkser has one touchdown in each of the last three seasons for the Titans and had a career-high 39 receptions for 287 yards and 26 first downs last season.

Although it wasn’t a Pro Bowl-caliber season, by any stretch, Firkser really did good work for the Titans last season and has been doing excellent work for them over the last three seasons, frankly.

With a star-studded cast around him, the former Crimson playmaker will have a chance to really eat up a lot of one-on-one opportunities and prove his worth as a secondary option in the passing game.

Although the pecking order at receiver will be clear, if Firkser is on the field at the same time as guys like Jones and Brown, he’s going to get some favorable matchups and he’s going to need to prove early and often that Tannehill can trust him in those situations.

He and Tannehill already have some pretty solid chemistry even though Firkser was not the team’s TE1. He should have a significantly expanded role in 2021 from the 348 snaps he played a season ago and, as a result, could be the top breakout player on the offensive side of the ball for the Tennessee Titans.