Lost in the mix: Zaviar Gooden

While Lavar Edwards is constantly forgotten about, one player who even more people forget about is Zaviar Gooden. Honestly, there is good reason to forget about Gooden. He was supposed to be a developmental rookie that came in and slowly worked his way onto the field. Well, that all seemed great until he kept suffering minor injuries throughout his rookie campaign.

So the question now is where does Gooden fit on this new Titans roster?

There are a couple of things I think that Gooden can bring to the Titans that will intrigue the staff. Firstly, he is one of the fasted players on the team regardless of position. Whenever I see speed and size combos like his, I immediately think that their floor is as a good special teams player. So with that said I think a full year of being healthy could lead to him becoming a very intriguing special teams ace.

The second thing that I think will attract the coaches' attentions is that he and Zach Brown could be interesting sub-package players. Sure we all know that Wesley Woodyard has already been tabbed as the top candidate for the nickel linebacker, but is there a chance that Ray Horton could throw in some wrinkles? He has said that he likes to mix things up based on what offense he will face, and there are several teams trying to add new hybrid tight ends to their teams. Could Zaviar Gooden be an option to limit that mismatch?

At the end of the day, I think Gooden has the same issues that Jake Locker has. If they can be on the field then their athletic ability should give them an advantage. However, since they are so used to relying on their athleticism, they have a higher chance of getting hurt. In both cases, the Titans have already possibly added their future replacement to the roster, and an injury could be career threatening.