Give Credit to Ryan Tannehill and the Tennessee Titans Offense
By Will Lomas
If Ryan Tannehill's athleticism is waining or if he is losing arm strength, someone should have really told him that before he helped propel the Tennessee Titans to a win against the L.A. Chargers on Sunday.
The Tennessee Titans mercifully ended the second-longest losing streak since the franchise moved to Nashville with a win over the Chargers, and Ryan Tannehill was the driving factor.
Say whatever you want about his performance in Week 1, but Ryan Tannehill was incredible in Week 2. He finished that game 18 of 22 (81.8%) for 246 yards (10.3 YPA), and 2 total touchdowns.
Not only was he directly responsible for his passing touchdown to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and his rushing touchdown, but he also got the Tennessee Titans inside the five-yard line with an incredible bomb to Treylon Burks that went for 70 yards. Tim Kelly called two runs after that and Derrick Henry got in for a one-yard touchdown.
Ryan Tannehill wasn't "good for Tannehill" he was straight-up good, and he did that with fans booing him early in the game after he took a sack on a screen pass that never developed. There is a disconnect with this fan base between what Tannehill is and what fans think he is.
Because of his struggles against the Cincinnati Bengals in one playoff game, the fan base has turned on him and he has become the poster child for everything wrong with the Titans. Forgetting the fact that he was the quarterback for that team as they won the 1-seed in the AFC, broke the record for most playoff teams beaten in a season, and he did that with A.J. Brown, Derrick Henry, and Julio Jones all spending a lot of time on I.R.
That comes with the territory of being a quarterback, and until he wins a playoff game again, that is something that he is going to have to deal with.
However, let's not act like this team would be anywhere near as successful without him.
The grass isn't always greener Tennessee Titans fans
Despite a lack of protection and frequently taking cheap shots after the play (he was sacked 5 times and earned 2 roughing-the-passer flags on Sunday alone), Ryan Tannehill has been remarkably durable. In fact, he broke the franchise record for most consecutive games started by a Tennessee Titans QB which Steve McNair previously held.
In the five games where the Tennessee Titans haven't had Tannehill, they are 1-4 and they scored an average of 15.4 points per game.
No one is calling Tannehill an MVP candidate and no one is saying that he is an All-Pro, but if you think that this team is better off with either of the two young quarterbacks on the roster, you just don't know what you are talking about.
Don't forget, there was a LONG gap between consistent quarterback play in this franchise's history. The last time the Tennessee Titans had a winning season with Steve McNair was in 2003 and they didn't get back to a level of consistency like that until Ryan Tannehill in 2019.
Fans shouldn't be in such a rush to see if the grass is greener on the other side of the Ryan Tannehill era, because the results have been bad so far and history paints an unkind picture. Stop calling into radio shows and demanding that they bench him for someone much worse.
Instead, get excited that there is a quarterback on the Tennessee Titans roster who can be an effective game manager. You want someone who can help get the most out of young players like Treylon Burks, Chig Okonkwo, and Tyjae Spears.
Let him set the table for the next quarterback and hope that the transition of power between him and Malik Willis, Will Levis, or whoever comes next, is a smooth one.