Mike Vrabel hints at injury situation with Jeffery Simmons, Amani Hooker

- Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons and safety Amani Hooker have both been placed on Injured Reserve and will miss the rest of the 2023 season. 

While we know that both players have been shut down, few details are known about the specific injuries they are dealing with and the severity of them. Both Hooker and Simmons were listed on the injury report with knee injuries before being put on IR.

Titans head coach Mike Vrabel provided a little more context during his Wednesday press conference when he hinted at the situations with Simmons and Hooker.

Potential Diagnosis

While discussing the team's long list of players on Injured Reserve, Vrabel mentioned the fact that the team had players with MCL injuries on IR. 

"We've got some MCLs in there and I'll try to do my best to continue to evaluate that," Vrabel said about the players on Injured Reserve. "The health of the team, that's obviously always something that's critical. But when you're talking about some MCLs or an AC sprain or whatever, things that occur during a football game, a very violent game, it’s hard to account for some of those things when guys fall into Jeff's (Simmons) knee or Amani's (Hooker) knee, just using those as an example."

Vrabel referred to multiple MCL injuries that players are currently dealing with. Simmons, Hooker, and punter Ryan Stonehouse are the only players on Injured Reserve with knee injury designations. That gives us a pretty good idea of what Simmons and Hooker might be dealing with.

But just how serious are these knee injuries? Will they impact the Titans next season?

Doesn't Sound Severe

Fortunately for the Titans, it doesn't sound like Simmons or Hooker were dealing with major knee issues that will effect them moving forward. That may have been evident from Simmons returning to the game and trying to play through his injury after it occurred, but it's nice to get reassurance from the head coach anyways.

Vrabel said on Wednesday that some of the players Tennessee put on Injured Reserve may have only been a few weeks away from returning. The Titans were forced to make decisions to free up roster spots.

"Some of these IR—we got into a situation where we had to make a decision on when maybe it would have been a couple of weeks, but if you weren't available this week, we needed the roster spot," said Vrabel.

Simmons is likely one of the players Vrabel is referring to here. Tennessee's star defensive tackle got injured in Week 13 against the Indianapolis Colts. Simmons was then unavailable for the next two games against the Miami Dolphins and Houston Texans and was placed on IR after Tennessee was eliminated from playoff contention.

It is my opinion that the Titans were hopeful that Simmons would return if they were still in the mix late in the year, but after being eliminated, decided to utilize the roster spot rather than rush him back into action. If that's the case, it's unfortunate for Simmons and the Titans fans who won't get to watch him play until next season, but good news that it's nothing too serious.