The Tennessee Titans went on one of the most improbable-looking runs to the AFC Championship Game after a dismal 2-4 start to the season.
The offense was all but stagnant with quarterback Marcus Mariota at the helm, but seemed to gain new life with Ryan Tannehill at the helm.
Tannehill recorded a career year, leading the NFL in yards per attempt (9.6), adjusted yards gained per pass attempt (10.2), yards per completion (13.6) and passer rating (117.5).
I recently caught up with former NFL quarterback and Hall of Famer, Kurt Warner, who shared his thoughts on what Tannehill’s future in Tennessee could look like.
“I think he’s found a great fit,” Warner said. “You find a guy like Derrick Henry to run the football and for them to be able to dominate running the football and you can be a complementary piece… that can help a lot of quarterbacks to become more consistent and I think that’s what we saw last year. Ryan wasn’t asked to have to carry the team.”
Obviously, Tannehill helped the Titans’ offense to find rhythm, but how much is he truly worth as an individual player to the team? We’ll find that answer out in time.
“He was a secondary fixture that was able to benefit off of the dominant running game, and that to me becomes the real question,” Warner said. “When he was in Miami, they didn’t have that, and so he was asked to do a lot more to make more plays on an every week basis than he did in Tennessee, so when you ask the question about Ryan, it really, to me, comes back to if they can continue to play the way they did last year, whether it be this upcoming year or even throughout his contract.
“The big question is if we have to ask him to throw the ball 35 or 40 times a game, and he’s got to consistently do that for us to win and especially to beat good teams, can he be that guy? Because he’s never really been that guy in his career. So, I’m fascinated like everyone else. Any time you’ve seen one of these outlier-type seasons, where you go ‘OK, he’s never been that, and then, bang, he had that kind of a year?’ You wonder ‘did something just click, and we’re gonna see that the rest of his career? Or did he just hit the lottery and everything worked out?'”
There have been a number of quarterbacks throughout NFL history who have recorded impressive seasons, only to regress or fall into a state of being average after.
Tannehill still has much to prove, no matter how many metrics he led in or how much personal success he’s found.
“Because we’ve seen that with a number of guys that win an MVP or have one of those runs to the Super Bowl where it’s just kind of out of nowhere and then they never get back to that, and I think that’s what I’m waiting on to see with Ryan. Hopefully, things click and he’s grown and he’s earned a good situation where he can be this type of quarterback for the next seven, eight, nine years and it wasn’t just kind of a one-hit wonder because of everything coming together at one time.”
Behind Tannehill, the Titans will have Logan Woodside and rookie Cole McDonald battling it out for the backup position.
Warner said he hadn’t taken an extensive deep dive into the former Hawaii Rainbow Warrior’s tape, but did have some thoughts on him.
“You see some good things,” he said. “I think the biggest thing when I watched Cole was just kind of the up-and-down inconsistency of play, and that to me is something you always watch when a guy gets to the next level. If you can’t play at a consistent level or be consistently accurate at the college level, how do you become that at the NFL level? He’s got some play-making ability, but it just didn’t show up consistently in college.”
Like many others, Warner also expressed some concern about McDonald’s elongated, flawed throwing motion.
“It’s really wacky, especially when you watch it at the combine, watching him throw, it’s all over the place,” he said. “It’s hard for me to see a guy with loose mechanics like that being able to become consistent and accurate, but I guess that stranger things have happened. I know he’s worked with Jordan Palmer, who talks highly of him and thinks he has a chance.”
As for the Titans as a whole moving forward, this is a group we’ve seen have more than their fair share of ups and downs. Do the Titans move beyond the 9-7 overall regular season record we’ve seen out of them so many times and the host of lackluster finishes that have left fans disappointed in the past?
Warner sees the Titans moving backward.
“I personally think that we’re going to see a relapse,” he said. “I just don’t know if they can dominate running the football the way they did last year, especially come playoff time and everyone knowing they’re going to run (the football) and losing a couple pieces up front.”
2019 was a fairy tale year for Tennessee, and it’s going to be no easy task to expand upon.
“I feel like so many things came together for them last year, including Ryan coming in and playing at that level and the ability to dominate the line of scrimmage week in and week out,” Warner said. “I just don’t see that happening. I saw a team last year that, to me, was a good team but not a great team… I just don’t know if they have enough talented play-makers across the board… to get back to the level that they were last year.”