The most important part of the preseason isn't learning the playbook, developing chemistry, or adjusting the depth chart, it is making sure your best players stay healthy and ready for the preseason. The Tennessee Titans might have forgotten that.
According to Jim Wyatt, there is a real chance that the Tennessee Titans decide to put Ryan Tannehill on the field tonight against the New England Patriots. Here is what Wyatt said on Friday morning about the decision,
""Titans Coach Mike Vrabel opened the door to the possibility of starting quarterback Ryan Tannehill getting a series or two in the preseason finale, and the hunch here is we'll see it happen. But for exactly how long, well, that remains to be seen. ""Jim Wyatt
Putting Ryan Tannehill on the field tonight would be one of the worst decisions that Mike Vrabel and the Tennessee Titans could make.
Zero upside for the Tennessee Titans
Make no mistake about it, Ryan Tannehill is the most important player on the Tennessee Titans roster. No matter how talented other players are, quarterback is king in the NFL and there is a reason why the Titans managed to grab the #1 seed in a season where Derrick Henry, A.J. Brown, and Julio Jones all spent time on I.R.
People who want Tannehill to play, really just want to see a better brand of football in the preseason than what they have been getting. Despite being remarkably healthy during his time in Tennessee, he dealt with serious ankle injuries last season and there isn't any reason to tempt fate again in a meaningless game.
The only possible reason for putting him out on the field during the preseason would be to let him develop chemistry with his receiving core in a "live" scenario, but that doesn't apply here.
Treylon Burks and Kyle Philips are both missing the game tonight and I would imagine that DeAndre Hopkins is going to sit this one out as well. How are you going to develop chemistry with your starting receivers when your top three receivers aren't on the field?
Even if they had all been available, what good would two series do? If this was a concern then it should have been something that they did throughout the preseason, little by little. Even if you consider joint practices as valuable as preseason games, it still doesn't explain why none of the starters played in the first preseason game.
Even if there is just a 1% chance of an injury, there is a 0% chance that two drives make this team any better. All-in-all, it just doesn't make any sense, especially when we have seen just how quickly things can go wrong over the past month of practice and preseason games.
Hopefully the Tennessee Titans come to their senses before taking this risk in an AFC South that should be competitive for 18 weeks.