Chris Simms’ latest take on Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota is enough to make you sick.
As if NBC Sports’ Chris Simms hasn’t hated on Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota enough, he found away to pile on even more with his latest phony take.
Simms joined the growing list of analysts who think backup quarterback Ryan Tannehill gives the Titans a better chance to win than Mariota by saying the former Miami Dolphins signal-caller is a better quarterback.
Here’s Simms’ putrid opinion.
Tannenhill a better thrower. And a better passer. And every bit as good of an athlete
— Chris Simms (@CSimmsQB) August 10, 2019
This isn’t even close to a factual statement, but I guess we should expect nothing less from Skip Bayless light.
After one preseason game in which Tannehill looked sharp against backups on the Philadelphia Eagles defense, Simms, along with others, are now of the belief that Tannehill is a better quarterback than Mariota. By the way, Mariota played in just one series in the same game.
We’ll stick to Simms for now, who ranked Mariota as his No. 29 quarterback in the NFL during the offseason. While there were some head-scratching quarterbacks ranked ahead of Mariota on that list, you know who wasn’t?
Ryan Tannehill. He was No. 33.
The complete rankings of @CSimmsQB’s Top 40 quarterbacks are here! pic.twitter.com/xls4r2igLE
— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) June 27, 2019
It’s clear Simms doesn’t really believe this and is only looking for attention or else he would have ranked Tannehill ahead of Mariota in what was an embarrassingly bad list.
But let’s humor ourselves for a second, shall we?
Comparing Marcus Mariota and Ryan Tannehill’s numbers
In terms of completion percentage, Mariota’s career mark is 63.2 percent, as opposed to Tannehill’s 62.8 percent. As far as career-high marks are concerned, Mariota’s best was 68.9 percent in 2018, while Tannehill posted a career-best 67.1 percent in 2016.
To help show the totality of their numbers as quarterbacks, we can take a look at passer rating. Mariota wins again, with a career QB rating 2.4 points higher than Tannehill’s. Mariota’s career-high in that category is a 95.6, which is 2.1 points higher than Tannehill’s single-season best.
Mariota’s deep ball also beats Tannehill’s, and Tannehill has averaged 12.5 interceptions per season to Mariota’s 10.5. Mariota is also far and away a better athlete, as he’s rushed for 60 more yards in 32 less games, and sports a better rushing yards average (5.8 to 4.9)
Again, where exactly does this opinion come from that Tannehill is clearly better than Mariota at all of these things? At best it’s close, but Mariota definitely gets the nod.
As I’ve said before, this is not to disparage Tannehill in any way. I think he’s a great option for the Titans to have behind Mariota for 2019, however all this certainty on the “Tannehill is better than Mariota” bandwagon just doesn’t add up.
It’s simply an attempt to grab attention because it isn’t based on any real facts.
And to think, these people get paid good money for this kind of analysis. Just tell me where to apply.