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Titans Among the Few That Passed on Drafting a Receiver

Nearly 15 percent of all the players selected over seven rounds were wideouts

David Boclair

NASHVILLE – It was considered a wide receiver class unlike any other.

The Tennessee Titans passed.

They were one of nine teams that did not select a wide receiver during the three days of the 2020 NFL Draft. Conversely, there were nine others that took multiple players at that position, including AFC South rivals Houston and Indianapolis (two apiece). Three – Denver, Las Vegas and Philadelphia – chose three.

Of the 255 players drafted over the course of seven full rounds, 37 were wide receivers (14.5 percent). Close to half, 17, to be exact, went in the first three rounds.

“There were some receivers that we looked at later on (Saturday), but we were ecstatic with the picks that we were able to add in rounds one through three,” general manager Jon Robinson said. “… There were some good players that didn’t get drafted. We’ll see kind of how they fit into our football team if we’re going to get them here.”

One they got was Nick Westbrook (pictured), who is among Indiana’s top 10 for career receptions (sixth with 144), receiving yards (seventh with 2,226), receiving touchdowns (seventh with 16) and 100-yard receiving games (seventh with six).

Westbrook’s best season was 2016, when he finished with 54 catches for 992 yards. A knee injury caused him to miss virtually all of 2017 but he was a key performer for the past two seasons, particularly in 2019, when the Hoosiers won eight games for the first time in 26 years.

Other wide receivers who have announced or been revealed as free agent additions to the Titans are Arizona State’s Kyle Williams, Southeast Missouri’s Kristian Wilkerson and Berry College’s Mason Kinsey.

They will join a veteran group that includes starters A.J. Brown, Corey Davis and Adam Humphries as well as returning role players such as Kalif Raymond, Cody Hollister and Rashard Davis.

“I think we’ve got confidence in our receiver group, the guys that we’ve got coming back, that they can line up and make plays for us,” Robinson said.

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David Boclair
DAVID BOCLAIR

David Boclair has covered the Tennessee Titans for multiple news outlets since 1998. He is award-winning journalist who has covered a wide range of topics in Middle Tennessee as well as Dallas-Fort Worth, where he worked for three different newspapers from 1987-96. As a student journalist at Southern Methodist University he covered the NCAA's decision to impose the so-called death penalty on the school's football program.

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