Cellular migration has been routinely characterized by parameters such as migration speed, tortuosity, and persistence time. However, many of these parameters are not generally reproducible because their numerical values depend on technical parameters such as the experimental sampling interval and measurement error. Furthermore, there is no universal metric for measuring the directionality of motion toward an external bias. Using simple examples, we will derive a metric called directionality time that can be interpreted as the minimum observation time required to determine that the migratory motion is directed. We will see that directionality time decouples from technical parameters and demonstrate its usage to show how the directionality of chemotactic neutrophils is altered in an integrin specific manner by biochemical and mechanical cues. Finally, we will briefly bridge the gap between cell migration dynamics with cell mechanics by discussing the dipole moments of traction stresses exerted by migrating chemotactic neutrophils. The dipole moment orientations of chemotactically defective neutrophils from human donors with sepsis are notably different from those of neutrophils from healthy donors. These results provide new insight into the mechanics of neutrophil migration and potential treatments for sepsis.