Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill’s passer rating in play action was absolutely jaw-dropping.
Quarterback Ryan Tannehill had a career year during his 2019 campaign. He was walking into a situation that many thought he could not succeed in, which was a 2-4 Tennessee Titans team that desperately needed an upgrade at the quarterback position.
Not only did Tannehill meet his expectations, he exceeded them. He was able to play right into the system that highlighted a run-heavy offense.
Tannehill finished the season with a passer rating of 140.6 while running play action, which led all quarterbacks in the NFL. This is extremely impressive and should make Titans fans everywhere excited and hopeful for the future.
Tannehill also led the league in overall passer rating at 117.5 and finished the season 3rd in completion percentage at over 70 percent. He finished top three in throwing the least amount of “turnover-worthy balls”, according to Pro Football Focus, and was even their highest-graded quarterback.
This shows a high IQ quarterback who is not going to throw the ball into an area of high risk, which is good considering the Titans are not necessarily a pass-first team. They rely on the run, but a guy like Tannehill makes it harder for defenses to prepare for a Titans offense that is now able to do so much more than just hand the ball off to running back Derrick Henry.
Tannehill’s ability to sell the run on play-action calls is essential to being able to air the ball out downfield. The threat Henry poses makes defenses crowd the line of scrimmage, leaving one-on-one matchups for receivers like rookie wideout A.J. Brown — and Tannehill has proven he can exploit those matchups.
Tannehill is a free agent this summer and the Titans should look to pursue him strongly in an attempt to bring back — and hopefully add on to — the same team that just went to the AFC Championship Game.