Film Friday: Eating Crow on Nick Westbrook-Ikhine

NWI is quietly having a solid season so far. Let's dig into his game against the Bengals.

I like to read the tea leaves sometimes. I like to connect dots. What can I say? Part of the fun of human existence itself is examining how things fall together. The problem with that is that sometimes, you don’t always read the tea leaves correctly. Y’know…as if maybe you don’t have all of the information all of the time. I’m fine with that as long as we phrase our dot-connecting accordingly…as nothing more than reckless speculation on our part and not cold hard reporting based on fact. I’m also big on accountability. That’s how you build trust with people doing what I do. I want you guys to know that if I say something or write it, I mean it. And, if I get it wrong, I’ll own up to it. That’s why I’m here on this fine Film Friday to openly accept the fact that I read the tea leaves wrong on Nick Westbrook-Ikhine.

I was in the (albeit small) camp of people that thought there was a remote possibility that NWI wouldn’t even make this team this season. Again…reading the tea leaves. They let him walk in free agency before bringing him back when no other teams came calling. Maybe they appreciated him as an overachiever who worked hard, but didn’t think he was cut out to be one of this team’s top receiving options. Maybe they only signed him back so that they’d have a reliable option in case the DeAndre Hopkins plan didn’t work out. They drafted Colton Dowell. They signed Chris Moore. With every move, it was like NWI was being pushed down the depth chart. I took it to mean “he’s not safe here!” In reality, with the benefit of hindsight, I think Mike Vrabel’s apparent affection for NWI was honest. And, I have reason to believe that the Titans let NWI walk because they knew no one would give him a better deal. In an offseason when the Titans weren’t exactly on a spending spree, that makes sense.