Kenny Britt: Routine Surgery Raises Huge Red Flags for Injury-Plagued WR

It seems that every season is going to be "the year" for Tennessee Titans wide receiver Kenny Britt. The season that the 6'3" former Rutgers star puts it all together and explodes into NFL prominence.

The problem is, every year Britt ends up losing a major part of the season to injury, leaving fans to wonder what happened and proclaim that "next year will be different".

In 2010, Britt was expected to build off the momentum he built down the stretch during his rookie season, and with 444 receiving yards and seven scores through seven games Britt was well on his way. Then the youngster pulled a hamstring, missed four games, and there went the sophomore breakout.

Last year, Britt ducked an NFL suspension for a series of off-the-field misdeeds (who said the lockout was all bad), and that bit of good fortune seemed to only add to the potential promise of a third-year explosion. Unfortunately the only thing that exploded was Britt's knee, and a Week 3 ACL/MCL tear ended Britt's season before it even got rolling.

It's that balky knee that has Britt back in the news. Respected Titans beat writer Jim Wyatt reported in The Tennessean that Britt underwent an arthroscopic procedure on the knee, which is expected to sideline the wideout for "a week or two".

Britt had experienced swelling in the knee over the past few weeks. After consulting with Dr. Burton Elrod, the team elected to go ahead with the procedure, which was no big deal according to general manager Ruston Webster.

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“It almost becomes commonplace,” Webster said of the procedure. “It is not one of those things, ‘Wow, oh no, he is having surgery.’ It is very common and if it helps his rehab process and all that, it is well worth doing. And our goal is to have him play this year. It will be helpful to him, I think, and probably accelerate his rehab.”

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I don't know about you, but when I hear things like "our goal is to have him play this year," and "probably accelerate his rehab," it allays all my concerns about Britt's availability for the 2012 season.

Well, probably, anyway.

The Tennessee Titans were undoubtedly counting on Kenny Britt to be a big part of the Titans' aerial attack along with newcomer Kendall Wright, and Britt certainly appears to have the talent to be an exceptional wide receiver in the National Football League.

Unfortunately to do so Britt has to actually be on the field catching passes. This latest procedure not only underscores just how much difficulty Britt has had doing that to this point in his career, but also raises genuine concerns about his chances for doing so in the upcoming NFL campaign.

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