Titans Opinion: Bye Bye Blidi Wreh-Wilson
By Sean Maczko
Tuesday August 30th, marked the first official day of roster cuts around the league from 90-man rosters down to 75-man roster. However, some teams didn’t wait until Tuesday’s deadline to start trimming the fat so to speak.
The Titans were busy on Sunday by waiving 11 players including the former third round pick of the 2013 NFL Draft, Blidi Wreh-Wilson. You will not find me losing any sleep or even even having a thought of sadness about him being one of the first roster cutting casualties. I realize he is a human being and has a family to provide for but I am glad that it will not be at the expense of our beloved Tennessee Titans.
I was not a Wreh-Wilson fan from the first time I saw him playing for the Titans. Wreh Wilson, more like “Bleh-Wilson”, was the beneficiary of a depleted Titans secondary and was afforded much more playing opportunities than his talent alone could do for him. When the Titans let Alterraun Verner walk and join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers via free agency in 2014 the hope was that Wreh-Wilson could blossom into a solid corner. Hope is the key word in that previous sentence.
Wreh-Wilson is one of the many examples of “misses” the previous Titans regime made and I am very happy to see that our new regime did not hesitate to move on. We essentially wasted a third round draft pick on him but sometimes it’s just better to move on.
I hope you don’t think that I have some type of personal vendetta against him – I truly don’t. It simply comes down to football.
Let me throw some statistics at you.
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According to Pro Football Reference, Wreh-Wilson was penalized 11 times in the 2014 season which translates into 118 free yards to the opposing team. Let me say that again.. Wreh-Wilson surrendered 118 yards worth of penalties. That’s over a football field’s worth ladies and gentlemen. These penalties included 7 defensive pass interference calls and one each for taunting, defensive holding, illegal use of hands, and a face mask.
What infuriates me even more is that 5 out of those 11 even penalties were on either 3rd or 4th down. You know what that means? Moving the chains for the opposing team. Wreh-Wilson had almost as many penalties as he did in passes defended and interceptions (14 passes defended, 1 interception).
That’s unacceptable.
When a player amasses the amount of pass interference penalties that someone like Wreh-Wilson has over the last couple seasons, to me, it means that you cannot defend your opponent. It means that you don’t have the mechanics required to be a professional cornerback in the NFL.
Luckily our new regime consisting of GM Jon Robinson and HC Mike Mularkey we are finally getting back to real Titans football. As long as our new regime continues to get rid of players who hurt us and invest in the players who help us… we got something to be proud of as we inch closer to the regular season.
For more news on how the Titans could look to replace Wreh-Wilson check out Will Lomas’ article.
Until next time folks – Titan Up!