Once the Tennessee Titans inserted Ryan Tannehill into the starting job in place of Marcus Mariota last season, the team’s offense did a complete 180 and became one of the more explosive and dominant units in the NFL.
One of the reasons that was the case was because of the team’s incredible success in the red zone. In 2019, the Titans finished first in the league in percentage of red zone trips that resulted in a touchdown (77.36).
And it was the play of Tannehill in goal-to-go situations that played a huge role in that. The Titans’ signal-caller posted the highest Pro Football Focus grade in that area by far.
These QBs didn't leave many points on the board in 2020 pic.twitter.com/uXL86l5QXU
— PFF (@PFF) July 2, 2020
At this point, Tannehill should just be the face of PFF. After all, he seems to be at or near the top of every metric the network looks at from last season.
Tannehill, who also won the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year and made a Pro Bowl, led the NFL in passer rating, yards per attempt and yards per completion, while also finishing third in completion percentage.
The fact that he didn’t have to do much in the postseason is the last thing many people remember, but that simply shouldn’t overshadow just how incredibly good he was during the regular season.
Without his regular season performance, the Titans wouldn’t have been able to turn around a 2-4 start to make the playoffs in the first place.
If Tannehill can have another season like he did in 2019 — or something close to it — he’ll be worth every penny of the four-year, $118 million extension he received earlier in the offseason.
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