DeAndre Hopkins claps back at media over assessment of Titans teammate

Give DeAndre Hopkins a ton of credit for sticking up for his Tennessee Titans teammate. Wide receiver Treylon Burks has not had a good first two years in the league out of Arkansas. Drafted to be the replacement for A.J. Brown, he has been anything but that. In fact, the Titans acquired the former Arizona Cardinals and Houston Texans wideout to be their new No. 1 in Hopkins. It has been difficult.

When asked by the media if people were sleeping on Burks, in the vein of him having a breakout season in year three, Hopkins took great offense to that. He said that nobody in the Titans' locker room has doubted Burks since he has been in the building. I would be remiss if I didn't say I was trying to trade Burks all offseason long. I know he has talent, but I have wondered about the Titans' viability.

I will give Burks the benefit of the doubt here. He came to the organization during a bit of a turbulent time. Jon Robinson trading away Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles completely caught Mike Vrabel by surprise. In comes a new general manager in Ran Carthon and out goes Vrabel a year later. All the while, the Titans keep drafting quarterbacks in day two who haven't proven to be much of anything.

Assuming Burks can build a rapport with Will Levis under Brian Callahan, maybe Hopkins will be right?

The biggest thing I can glean from Hopkins' comments are that Burks is well-liked in this locker room.

DeAndre Hopkins goes to bat for Tennessee Titans WR Treylon Burks

Everywhere he has been, Hopkins has been a team leader. He first came on the scene for most of us when he was starring at Clemson. He then became one of the greatest players in Texans franchise history before spending a few up-and-down years in Arizona. Tennessee may not be anything close to a playoff team this year, but I really do love the hiring of Callahan as the Titans' next head coach.

My biggest concern has everything to do with ownership. Amy Adams Strunk seems to be a bit of a meddler. She is her late father's daughter after all. Bud Adams notoriously blew up the Houston Oilers after an early playoff exit to completely shatter a city and fanbase. The team eventually moved to Nashville, but that was an ugly series of events in the league some three decades ago. Good grief...

Ultimately, this all comes down to how the combination of Callahan and Carthon feel about the player. If they think Burks can help the Titans win games, they will keep him around and hope that he turns it around. If they feel that his best days of football are behind him, they will look to move on from him, as well as any other questionable decisions Carthon's predecessor did at the helm of this operation.

All I know is Hopkins and many of his Titans teammates will be crushed if Burks were to leave them.