None of this summer's Making the Leap candidates generated more in-house squabbling than Tennessee Titans wide receiver Justin Hunter.
When Around The League scribes Chris Wesseling and Gregg Rosenthal debated Hunter's ceiling, Wesseling opined that he needed Rosenthal "to convince me that shaky hands won't be a career-long bugaboo for an otherwise promising prospect."
Tennessee's players and coaches are won over, though, with receivers aide Shawn Jefferson talking up Hunter as the one who could carry the Titans into the playoffs, while fellow wideout Michael Preston turned heads this offseason by calling Hunter a young Randy Moss -- a claim he didn't back away from Monday.
"I know how great a player Randy Moss was, and in my mind, there's no reason Justin can't be the next greatest player," Preston told Jim Wyatt of The Tennessean. "... I just want to be there to support him. I know he's going to grow, make a great leap this year, and impress the city and fans with his talent."
At first blush, it's an outrageous parallel to draw considering Moss barnstormed the NFL for 1,313 yards and a league-leading 17 touchdowns as a rookie in 1998. Wesseling came away from last year's Game Rewind footage wondering if Hunter was a closer match to Jerome Simpson, Darrius Heyward-Bey or Mohamed Massaquoi.
With Kenny Britt out of the way, Hunter owns a legitimate chance to make an impact come September. NFL Films guru Greg Cosell called him "the most intriguing" and "physically talented" wideout in last year's draft -- and his game tape is speckled with flashes of brilliance -- but comparisons to a rock-solid future Hall of Famer are wildly premature.
The latest "Around The League Podcast" bangs the table for Cordarrelle Patterson and predicts which stars will soon descend.
