Josh Heupel provides important injury update on Tennessee Vols' wide receivers with less than 2 weeks to go until season-opener

One of the big topics surrounding the Tennessee Vols this summer has been the program's lack of wide receiver depth.

Tennessee lost a couple of veteran receivers to the transfer portal following the 2024 season. The Vols brought in one transfer (Amari Jefferson from Alabama) and several talented true freshmen (Travis Smith, Radarious Jackson, Joakim Dodson) to join Chris Brazzell, Mike Matthews, and Braylon Staley in the wide receiver room.

The concern over the Vols' wide receiver depth has increased during fall camp thanks to Brazzell, Matthews, and Staley each missing some time due to injury (Brazzell has missed the most time).

On Tuesday, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel provided an encouraging injury update on that trio.

“Mike has been with us for a long time," said Heupel. "There were a couple days where we limited him. Chris has been with us here the last few days, and Braylon was with us this last day, as well.”

Those are supposed to be Tennessee's three starting wide receivers, so it's certainly a good sign that they're seemingly back in action at practice -- especially with the season-opener against Syracuse less than two weeks away.

Heupel also provided a positive update on Jefferson, who was limited during spring practice due to a hip injury he dealt with when he was at Alabama.

"Amari, coming off of the hip surgery, as he onboarded here, was limited throughout the course of the workout, off-season, and winter part of it," said Heupel. "Got an opportunity in spring ball to kind of grow on the back half of it a little bit on the football side of it. Did a great job during the course of the summer, dramatically changing his body. He’s a guy that’s made some plays out there on the practice field in the stadium during our scrimmages as well. Expect him to continue to grow throughout the course of the fall here.”

Tennessee and Syracuse are set to kick off on August 30 at 12:00 PM ET.