Will Ryan Tannehill get benched? A Speculative Timeline for the Titans QB Room
By Jackson West
Week 1 has officially come and gone for the Tennessee Titans, and fans are quite disappointed with the result.
Poised to compete for another division title, the Tennessee Titans roster is riddled with talent: especially on defense. While no one expected Ryan Tannehill to be an elite talent at QB for the Titans in 2023, I don’t think most people expected him to hold the team back as much as he did on Sunday afternoon.
Tannehill has long been a polarizing figure for Tennessee Titans fandom. However, even Ryan Tannehill believers like myself are losing faith in the signal caller after the Titans’ opening game against the Saints. Most can agree that something has to change if the quarterback play continues like this.
When would benching Ryan Tannehill become a possibility for the Titans
It is possible that Tannehill drastically improves his play over the next few weeks, which would alleviate some of the concern here, but how long would he remain the starter if his poor play continued?
Although it is somewhat hard to predict, it is interesting to compare this season to Marcus Mariota’s final games as a Titan at the beginning of the 2019 season, before Tannehill ultimately took over.
Mariota started the season 2-3 before being benched midway through a week 6 shutout, with a TD-INT ratio of 7-2. Lack of overall efficiency, rather than turnovers, proved to be the last straw for Mariota, who mustered a measly 11 points per game in his final 5 starts for the team.
With a similar level of frustration building around the Titans’ current quarterback situation, fans have to wonder how long it will take for Vrabel and co. to pull the plug on the whole operation.
If Tannehill’s poor play continues, I find it very unlikely he will last as long as Mariota did, simply due to the turnover issues and the fact that both Malik Willis and Will Levis are intriguing options with much more promise for the future of the franchise.
With an 8 game losing streak on their heels, Vrabel has to be feeling some sort of pressure. However, there is a lot of football left to be played, and it will be interesting to see how the offense responds next week against a struggling Chargers defense.