Tennessee CB Jermod McCoy (Ryan Sylvia | RTI)

The top NFL draft prospect on Tennessee football this season is cornerback Jermod McCoy. The returning junior has been placed in a multitude of first-round mock drafts this offseason and is considered a preseason All-American by multiple outlets.

However, McCoy is battling through an ACL injury that has held him out for the majority of the offseason. While he made his practice debut in a somewhat limited manner on Friday, there’s still work to be done to get ready for the upcoming year.

It’s this injury that placed McCoy on ESPN’s list of NFL draft prospects under the most pressure this season.

“A true blue-chip cornerback prospect, McCoy wouldn’t be on this list were it not for a torn ACL in January,” Matt Miller wrote in the ESPN article. “When asked at SEC media days about McCoy, Tennessee coach Josh Heupel did not have an update on his availability.

“McCoy is exactly what you want in a first-round corner with his quickness, timing and ball skills. The 6-foot, 193-pound junior has picked off six passes in his first two seasons combined. He allowed a QBR of 15.7 last season, which would have been the fifth best of any cornerback in the 2025 draft.

“I think we would have seen him go first [among cornerbacks] last year,” said an AFC North scout, who did not include two-way player Travis Hunter in his corner rankings.

“If McCoy can get back onto the field in 2025 and show that same level of play, his odds to be CB1 in the 2026 class are strong.”

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Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel gave the latest on McCoy’s injury rehab on the day before fall camp got underway. He said there was no timetable for a full return at that point.

“No timetable on him,” Heupel said. “There are benchmark things that he’s got to accomplish within our training room to move on to the next phase of it. He’s handled it really well from the very beginning. Just his mindset and how he’s approached every single day. He’s done a really good job throughout the course of the summer. Periodically, you see his drills, movement, explosive-type drills that he’s doing, change based on his rehab protocol. He’s handled it extremely well. As we go through training camp, there’ll be a progression. How his body responds to some of those things will kind of dictate the time period of when he’s available for us.”

Tennessee will open the season against Syracuse on August 30 in Atlanta. This gives McCoy less than a month to gear up if he intends to be ready for the opener.

Whether McCoy is or isn’t available to start the season, Rickey Gibson III will man one of the corner positions. On the other side, it’ll likely be Colton Hood, a Colorado transfer from this spring.

When healthy, McCoy is projected to start at cornerback opposite of Gibson. In his first year with UT, McCoy managed 44 tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss. He came up with four interceptions, as well, including a one-handed snag against Ryan Williams of Alabama and a circus catch in the end zone at Vanderbilt.

McCoy started his career at Oregon State after being ranked as a three-star recruit out of high school. He played his prep ball in Whitehouse, Texas, before making the move to play for the Beavers.

With Oregon State, he played in 12 games and started in five as a true freshman. He led the team with nine passes defended and came down with a pair of interceptions.