Tennessee Titans: Ryan Tannehill named most valuable addition of 2019

Pro Football Focus says Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill was the most valuable addition for any team at any position in 2019.

Tennessee Titans general manager Jon Robinson hit a home run when he added quarterback Ryan Tannehill via trade with the Miami Dolphins in 2019.

Tannehill was originally acquired as an insurance policy for fellow signal-caller Marcus Mariota, who was on the final year of his rookie deal entering the season and had yet to secure his spot as the team’s starter for the long haul.

After a rough 2-4 start that saw Mariota struggle for multiple reasons, Tannehill took the reins of the offense in Week 6 and was officially named the starter in Week 7.

From there, Tannehill led the Titans to a 7-3 record and helped take the offense to levels of production through the air and on the scoreboard that the franchise had not seen in quite some time. As a result, the Titans made the playoffs at 9-7.

According to Steve Palazzolo of Pro Football Focus, Tannehill’s sensational play was enough to rank him as the most valuable addition that any team in the NFL had made in 2019 after compiling a WAR of 2.08.

"Tannehill is the obvious choice for most valuable quarterback, as he put together the best season of his career on his way to the No. 3 overall grade in the league including the playoffs. Tannehill was incredibly accurate, ranking third in accuracy percentage on throws of five-plus yards and leading the way with the highest percentage of “perfect” throws. It all culminated in one of the best statistical seasons in recent memory, and Tannehill’s emergence was the catalyst for Tennessee’s trek to the AFC Championship."

If you take out the postseason, Tannehill earned the highest PFF grade among all quarterbacks in the NFL in 2019.

Adding to that, Tannehill’s passer rating when throwing from play action — which was a huge reason for his success — was an obscene 140.6, the best in the league. In total, the Texas A&M product’s passer rating of 117.5 was better than any other quarterback.

As PFF pointed out, Tannehill’s accuracy was off the charts by their own metric, and he finished third in overall with a completion percentage of 70.3.

Tannehill is a free agent in 2020 and the Titans will have to decide how to bring him back, whether that be with one of the two tags at their disposal or with a long-term deal.

The difficult part is figuring out the value of a quarterback with just 10 regular season games of high-level play under his belt. Per Spotrac, Tannehill’s market value is a contract of four years and $122.2 million ($30.5 million annually), but I doubt he gets that much.

On the optimistic side of Tannehill keeping up this level of play, the Titans’ offense and its run-heavy approach en route to feeding off of play action makes any signal-caller’s job easier, and it’s why I believe Tannehill can re-create what he did in 2019 — that is, as long as the team re-signs running back Derrick Henry, who was key to what Tannehill was able to accomplish.