Harbaugh: Westbrook will find new home
Published: March 23rd, 2010 | Tags: 2010 Free Agency, 2010 NFL Annual Meeting, Brian Westbrook, John Harbaugh
It seems appropriate to wonder whether we’ll ever see Brian Westbrook on an NFL field again.
Westbrook, 30, has squashed the retirement topic since his release from the Eagles last month, noting at the time that “three or four” teams called immediately after the announcement. Those calls haven’t translated into interest on the free-agent market, though, as Les Bowen pointed out in The Inquirer last week — Westbrook had yet to make a visit to a team.
One coach who believes Westbrook will be back — although, not on his team — is John Harbaugh of the Ravens.
“I think Brian will definitely end up somewhere, I’m sure,” Harbaugh told Paul Domowitch Tuesday at the NFL Annual Meeting. “He’s too good. And he’s too good a guy. We’d be interested in Brian, but with our running back situation, we’re so strong there. But believe me, my first thought (when he was released by the Eagles) was, was there any way we can bring him in here to be on our team. But he just doesn’t fit us right now.”
Where, exactly, Westbrook does fit is cause for speculation. With Kevin Faulk (New England), Larry Johnson (Washington), Thomas Jones (K.C.), Chester Taylor (Chicago) and LaDainian Tomlinson (New York Jets) off the market, and still no visits for Westbrook, it’s clearly a statement by teams as to the level of concern over his combination of age and injury history. Maybe it will take until after the draft, but it will be interesting to see if a market develops for Westbrook.