Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill
Do Titans fans want a quarterback who is good enough in the regular season to lead the team into a disappointing postseason? If so, Tannehill is the guy to do it. The problem with Tannehill is he is a lot like his former team, the Dolphins, were for many years. Miami was just good enough to not be bad but not good enough to be truly successful. Tannehill can lead Tennessee only so far and at most that seems like something short of the Super Bowl.
That is a big part of the problem with Tannehill. He isn’t bad, but Tennessee has recently been this close to being a great team and they were probably an elite quarterback away from reaching that. Tennessee had a great running back and a good defense, and maybe an elite quarterback could have pushed them to the next level.
Tannehill, however, if you believe the money, should be the fifth-best quarterback in the NFL in 2023. He’s paid as if he is. Tannehill is just a smidge better than the Vikings’ Kirk Cousins – a cap hit of $36.6 million for Tannehill versus $36.25 million for Cousins – but both quarterbacks have the same issue: They are decent but never going to get their team to a Super Bowl.
If Tennessee sheds Tannehill this offseason and saves nearly $18 million, they could try to bring in someone like Derek Carr. Carr’s value is probably suppressed because of how the Raiders treated him at the end of 2022. Is Carr better than Tannehill? Oh yeah, and it’s not close. Will Carr get the Titans to a Super Bowl? Maybe not but Tennessee has a lot better shot of getting there with a quarterback like Carr than they do Tannehill.