Defensive Back Goes Back on IR

Elijah Molden already spent the first nine weeks of the 2022 NFL season sidelined by a groin injury. Veteran John Reid has been added.

George Walker IV / Tennessean.com / USA Today Network

NASHVILLE – Elijah Molden is right back where he started.

The Tennessee Titans placed the second-year defensive back on injured reserve Wednesday because of continuing issues with a groin injury.

The ailment also forced him to spend the first nine weeks of this season on IR. The return trip means Molden will miss a minimum of four more games, and the earliest he could return to action is the final game on the schedule, at Jacksonville.

NFL rules changed this season to allow a player to return the active roster from injured reserve more than once. Each time, though he counts against the maximum of eight such moves allowed for each team.

In a related transaction, veteran defensive back John Reid was signed off the Atlanta Falcons’ practice squad and added to the active roster. Coincidentally, Reid spent the first month of the season on injured reserve with the Seattle Seahawks because of his own groin injury.

Molden, a 2021 third-round pick, started the regular season on injured reserve due to the groin injury, which kept him out of action for almost all of training camp. In the time was on the active roster (he was removed from IR on Nov. 12), he appeared in two games and logged just 82 snaps on defense with five more on special teams. He was inactive Nov. 17 at Green Bay and again this past Sunday at Philadelphia.

Thus far, Molden has five tackles and one tackle for loss.

By comparison, the University of Washington product was the most productive members of last year’s rookie class when he played in 16 of 17 games and was one of nine players on Tennessee’s defense with more than 600 snaps played.

The Falcons signed Reid (5-foot-10, 187 pounds) to their practice squad on Nov. 22, a little more than a month after the Seahawks released him. He has not appeared in a game this season but played 13 for Houston in 2020 and 11 with Seattle in 2021. A fourth-round pick by the Texans in 2020, he has been credited with 25 tackles, three passes defensed and seven special teams stops for his career.