The New England Patriots hired Mike Vrabel to be their new head coach this offseason, which could open the door to some of Vrabel’s former players joining the Patriots in free agency.
Vrabel coached the Tennessee Titans for six seasons between 2018 and 2023 and experienced considerable success there, leading the Titans to three trips to the playoffs, a pair of AFC South division titles and an AFC Championship Game appearance.
It’s only natural that some players who played for Vrabel in Tennessee may want to jump ship and reunite with him in New England, and Chad Graff of The Athletic has identified a pretty interesting candidate: Titans wide receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine.
“And then there aren’t many impact free agents from the Titans (Vrabel’s old team) this year, but two options with Vrabel ties from Tennessee are wide receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and guard Dillon Radunz,” Graff wrote.
Westbrook-Ikhine is coming off what was kind of a breakout season for him, as he caught 32 passes for 497 yards and nine touchdowns.
At 6-foot-2 and around 215 pounds, Westbrook-Ikhine is a fairly big-bodied receiver that makes for a good red-zone target, hence the fact that he reached the end zone quite a bit in 2024.
The 27-year-old went undrafted, but landed with Tennessee in 2020 and ultimately developed into a solid auxiliary weapon with the Titans.
While Westbrook-Ikhine has yet to even touch 500 yards in a single season, he showed obvious potential this past year, particularly during the back half of the campaign when emerged as one of the Titans’ biggest threats in the aerial attack.
The Pats need all sorts of help at wide receiver, so Westbrook-Ikhine certainly could not be their sole answer, but he would definitely represent a nice ancillary option for Drake Maye.