Preseason Has Become Kinsey's Latest Proving Ground

A longshot to make the Tennessee Titans roster has been one of the NFL's most productive wide receivers over the last two weeks.

NASHVILLE – Mason Kinsey’s first NFL preseason has been nothing new. It’s just another opportunity for him to prove something to people.

The only difference is that through the Tennessee Titans’ first two games this summer, he has proved something to himself as well.

In victories over the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Kinsey caught more passes than any of his teammates did in those two contests combined. He had four receptions for 51 yards against the Falcons and six receptions for 56 yards and a touchdown against the Buccaneers.

That makes him one of five players across the NFL with at least 10 receptions at this point in the preseason and the only one of the five with a touchdown catch.

“It brings a little bit of confidence knowing that everything I went through last year with not having a preseason and being an undrafted rookie, and then coming into a game and make plays,” Kinsey said. “It kind of gives you a sense of, ‘I belong here, you know, and I can do this,’ which is what I have believed but I haven’t seen it come to fruition necessarily. So, it’s been great.”

Kinsey’s story is well-known by anyone who has paid attention to the Titans over the past 18 months. The 5-foot-10, 189-pound wide receiver is a product of Berry College, a Division III program not far from his home in Demorest, Ga. He became the first player from that school ever to sign an NFL contract when Tennessee added him to their 2020 offseason roster as an undrafted rookie.

In pre-draft workouts for scouts, he showed he had NFL speed. But the caliber of competition he faced in college made it difficult to evaluate him effectively.

“I think you just have to dominate whenever you go to a small school,” Kinsey said. “You have to pop out on film and just show why you don’t necessarily belong in that division or that league. So, the biggest thing for me was just trying to show consistency and show that I could dominate and play at a really high level. Then the stats just kind of spoke for themselves.”

Kinsey set Berry College records for career receptions (203), receiving yards (3,343) and receiving touchdowns (50). The last two also raised the standards for the Southern Athletic Association.

However, his pursuit of a full-time NFL job, which he said has been his primary focus since he was seven years old, took a hit when the league opted not to play preseason games last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. That meant Kinsey did not get an opportunity to show how he matched up against NFL players outside of what he did during practices.

The Titans cut him at the start of last year’s regular season and he did two stints on the New England Patriots’ practice squad. Neither of those teams – or any other – was willing to take a leap of faith and put him in a regular-season game.

That is what has made the last two weeks – and Saturday’s preseason finale against the Chicago Bears at Nissan Stadium – so important. Kinsey remains a long shot to stick with Tennessee, a team loaded with talented, veteran wide receivers. Now, at least, he has game film – NFL game film – that personnel people can watch and see that his ability to get open and make plays.

“He has grown a lot,” Tennessee’s offensive coordinator, Todd Downing, said. “Every month that he has been here, every week that he has been able to practice, he has taken a step. I am confident he will be able to continue to develop.

“He is a guy that is a competitive, hardworking, tough nose player and he doesn’t want to take no for an answer.”

Make no mistake: that is one opportunity that he has had repeatedly. Along the way, plenty of people have said ‘no’ to him or told him he was crazy or dismissed his chances to play on Sundays. His approach always has been to prove them all wrong.

“You hear about people saying certain things or you see things on Twitter or you see things everywhere,” Kinsey said. “I stayed committed. I live by the verse: Proverbs 14:23: ‘All hard work leads to profit while mere talk leads only to poverty.’ I just keep that in my head all the time.

“So, all I can do is work, and then however it plays out I can live with it.”