Who Should I Start? Kyle Philips or Treylon Burks

Tuesday, February 18, 8:54 PM

The Las Vegas Raiders signed free-agent wide receiver Kyle Philips to an undisclosed deal on Tuesday. Philips, a former fifth-round selection by the Tennessee Titans in 2022 out of UCLA will head to the AFC West after spending all of the 2024 campaign on the practice squad of the Philadelphia Eagles. In 2022 and 2023, he caught only 23 of 35 targets for 259 yards and no touchdowns in 13 games played (no starts). The 25-year-old pass-catcher also saw time on special teams as a kickoff and punt returner, which will probably be his best path to a roster spot with the Raiders. Philips will be reuniting with his old head coach at UCLA in Chip Kelly, who is now the Raiders' offensive coordinator under new head coach Pete Carroll. Philips's familiarity with Kelly won't guarantee him a roster spot out of training camp, though.

Saturday, February 22, 1:23 PM

The move to trade wide receiver A.J. Brown and replace him with Treylon Burks (knee) was one of the worst personnel moves in Tennessee Titans franchise history, and one of the worst in recent NFL memory, and The Athletic's Joe Rexrode thinks the Titans need to stop waiting for Burks to be a factor. Rexrode points out that Burks' 2025 salary cap hit and dead-money number are both $4.6 million if the Titans cut him, and he thinks it's totally worth doing to move on and give Burks a fresh start. The 24-year-old former first-rounder in 2022 has played in only 27 of a possible 51 games due to injuries and also had surgery in 2024 to address damage to his ACL. When Burks has been on the field, he's done very little, catching 53 passes for 699 yards and one touchdown. There's no guarantee that Burks can turn it around with Tennessee or another organization, though, especially coming off his knee injury.