Ryan Tannehill, QB
When you talk about cornerstones, you have to mention the quarterback. In fact, if you don’t have a QB as one of your cornerstone pieces then your season is basically toast.
You can dance around the idea or try to talk your way out of it, but we saw Ryan Tannehill start in 13 games last season and he ended as the most efficient QB in the NFL who was even recognized by the Wall Street Journal of all places.
I can’t stress this enough, the Titans played for three seasons with Derrick Henry and Taylor Lewan who I have recognized as great players. However, until Ryan Tannehill took over, the Titans had one of the worst offenses in the NFL.
Suddenly, Tannehill takes over the helm and now the offense is producing at a historic level against great defenses and he did it for 13 games! That is basically a season worth of tape right there, and people still want to write him off.
Even if he regresses, he isn’t going to regress into a backup quarterback, he will just be a top-12 QB instead of a top-5 QB.
Also, a key detail to remember in all of this is that Ryan Tannehill is not going to be asked to carry this team. Now that the team has secured Henry, the offense isn’t going to be on the back of any one player.
Is there a box of defenders with less than 8 people? Great, run the ball behind Taylor Lewan and the rest of the OL until they overcompensate.
Have they overcompensated yet? Even better, run play action and get Tannehill in space or in a pocket with protection and let him throw it to one of the Titans great receiving threats.
Speaking of receiving threats…