After being widely criticized for saying it isn’t his job to mentor Malik Willis, Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill has gained some notable supporters recently.
Former Titans and current New England Patriots tight end Jonnu Smith came to his defense, and now Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is doing the same.
Tomlin says that while it would be nice for Tannehill to mentor Willis, he says it’s “not necessary” for the veteran signal-caller to do so, while also noting that Tannehill is “not employed to do that.”
“You know, it’s good when it occurs, but it’s certainly not necessary,” Tomlin said, via Sports Illustrated’s Noah Strackbein. “That’s why we have offensive coordinators, quarterback coaches, assistant quarterback coaches, people who are employed and their sole focus is the development of players.”
“Certainly, there’s growth and development opportunities and learning opportunities among players, but it is definitely not their function,” added Tomlin. “Their function is to have themselves ready to go and be good teammates, and I think that’s probably what you speak to just in terms of providing common human decency and courtesy to someone if you can help them along the way. I’m sure Ryan is open to that, but I think he was just stating the obvious, that he was not employed to do that. He’s employed to play quarterback.”
We couldn’t agree more with everything Tomlin said.
Yes, it would have been nice for Tannehill to say he’d mentor Willis outright, but it’s simply not his responsibility to do so. That said, any thought that his comment means he won’t be helping Willis out at all is ridiculous, as Tannehill has always proven to be a good teammate.
This entire situation has been way overblown, but it’s 2022 so we expect no different.
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