Titans’ injury update is the green light for Xavier Restrepo’s best shot yet at playing with Cam Ward in Week 12

It’s time for X to get the call.

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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The Tennessee Titans take on the juggernaut Seattle Seahawks in Nashville in Week 12, and Cam Ward is officially down a pair of starting receivers. Friday’s injury report confirmed the writing on the wall for one rookie receiver fighting through injury, opening the door for another who has been working on the practice squad all season for his shot.

It’s something the fans have clamored for since he was signed as an undrafted free agent back in April: Xavier Restrepo might get to play with Ward on Sunday.

Xavier Restrepo should get called up to play for Titans in Week 12

Interim head coach Mike McCoy confirmed to the media after practice Friday that three players would be ruled out for Week 12, and WR Elic Ayomanor was among them.

Ayomanor has been a starter since Week 1 and suffered his first real injury of the year in the middle of Tennessee’s Week 11 loss to Houston. He ended up playing through that hamstring some to finish the game, but has been out of practice all week resting the muscle.

Coaches and training staff have wisely determined they’ll give him at least one more week to get it right, which is the correct course of action. The hope is that he’ll be an important piece on this roster for the future, and there’s no reason to risk messing up the rest of his season by playing through the pain in a game the home team Titans are 13.5 point underdogs in.

With Calvin Ridley breaking his fibula in Week 11 and heading to IR for the rest of the season, here’s where this leaves the Titans in terms of active wide receivers: Chimere Dike (who is banged up, too), Van Jefferson, Mason Kinsey, and James Proche. They need to call up at least one more for the gameday roster, and the way things went for them at WR last week, I wouldn’t be surprised if they call up two for posterity.

This is where Restrepo comes in. I expect him to get the gameday elevation. McCoy did his typical song and dance on Friday, unwilling to commit to anything with the media. And when I asked players in the locker room, I got insightful answers such as “I hope so,” “we’ll see,” and shoulder shrugs. But my belief is that he’ll be a standard elevation from the practice squad.

His competition is two newcomers this week in Lance McCutcheon and Kristian Wilkerson, as well as Hal Presley, who joined the practice squad a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps one of them is elevated alongside Restrepo. But once he’s on the gameday roster, then what?

How much will he actually play? Well, as the fifth receiver, I doubt it’s much. The most annoying outcome for most people (or perhaps funniest, depending on your POV) would be that he gets elevated and does absolutely nothing, answering nobody’s questions. Unfortunately, that’s the outcome we may get, I’m afraid.

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