Think for a second about the top three tight ends in the NFL. Rob Gronkowski and Travis Kelce surely come to mind. But who’s the third? Well, it’s the Titans’ Delanie Walker.
Walker’s 676 receiving yards put him behind only Gronkowski and Kelce at the position. But nobody really talks about Walker much, and Walker said after the Titans’ Week 13 win over the Texans that he sees it as disrespect.
"I'm very disrespected in the league," Walker said via ESPN.com's Cameron Wolfe. "Commentators, announcers don't talk about me. I get double and triple coverage. I'm still making plays. Nobody talks about that.”
Walker is the Titans’ leading receiver, with 50 more yards this season than Rishard Matthews. And he’s doing it in a season when Marcus Mariota has posted a quarterback rating of 80.4, the lowest of his three-year career.
Plus, Walker makes plays like this one, from Week 12. He’s got three Colts defenders in his vicinity, and Indy has a safety coming in to help over the top. Walker runs a flawless route and comes up with the 37-yard catch.
Walker’s a big part of the reason the Titans are 8-4. But he doesn’t seem to care if people sleep on him.
“That drives me. Don't talk about me. That makes me hungry,” Walker said. “They talk about Gronk, Kelce, but not me. I do it every week. They don't talk about Delanie Walker."
But Walker also thinks it might change if the Titans keep winning.
“But the Titans are going to get talked about this year,” Walker said, via Joe Rexrode of The Tennessean. “I’m out there every week, triple and double coverage, making plays, and no one ever talks about it. ESPN, NFL Network. That’s a different story.”
Tennessee has some winnable matchups left on the schedule with games against the Cardinals and the 49ers over the next two weeks. But both games are on the road. They’ve got the 9-3 Rams at home in Week 16. Tennessee will close out the season against the Jaguars, who the Titans stomped 37-16 in Week 2.
The Titans have been winning despite being pretty underwhelming on both sides of the ball. But Walker has been a star, and he deserves to be recognized for it.