Breon Borders Placed on Injured Reserve

The starting cornerback can't play again until at least the final regular season contest.

David Boclair | Dec 12, 2020

NASHVILLE – Breon Borders has gone from one of the best stories of the Tennessee Titans’ season to a familiar tale.

The Titans placed the cornerback on injured reserve Saturday, which means he cannot return to action before the regular season finale, Jan. 3 at Houston. The move comes a day after Borders, who has started each of the last five games, was ruled out for Sunday’s contest at Jacksonville due to a hip injury.

He becomes the fourth cornerback to spend time on injured reserve. Plus, rookie Chris Jackson recently returned to the active roster after two weeks on the COVID-19 list.

The only Titans player at that position to appear in every game this season is Malcolm Butler.

On a positive note, one cornerback, Kareem Orr, was activated from injured reserve Saturday and will be available for the game against the Jaguars. Orr, who has appeared in three games this year, spent the last three weeks on IR with a groin injury.

Also, Saturday, safety Kenny Vaccaro was added to the injury report and listed as questionable for Sunday due to an illness.

Adoreé Jackson spent nine weeks on IR and has yet to make his 2020 debut (he too has been ruled out for Sunday). Rookie Kristian Fulton, the second-round pick out of LSU, has spent the last eight weeks there. Veteran backup Tye Smith spent three weeks on IR last month because of a shoulder injury.

Borders, a fourth-year pro out of Duke, was not even on an NFL roster at the start of the season. The Titans signed him to their practice squad on Sept. 21. After one gameday addition, after which he immediately reverted to the practice squad, he was signed to the active roster on Nov. 7 and has started opposite Butler ever since.

Already, he is 10th on Tennessee’s defense with 27 tackles. He also has six passes defensed, one tackle for loss and registered his first career interception two weeks ago at Indianapolis.

“He comes ready to work each and every day trying to improve,” coach Mike Vrabel said recently.

For now, his job is to get healthy.

Published Dec 12, 2020

DAVID BOCLAIR

David Boclair has covered the Tennessee Titans for multiple news outlets since 1998. He is award-winning journalist who has covered a wide range of topics in Middle Tennessee as well as Dallas-Fort Worth, where he worked for three different newspapers from 1987-96. As a student journalist at Southern Methodist University he covered the NCAA's decision to impose the so-called death penalty on the school's football program.