The Tennessee Titans locked up Ryan Tannehill for the foreseeable future this offseason by signing him to a four-year extension worth $118 million, with $91 million guaranteed ($62 million guaranteed at signing).
But are the Titans going to regret that move?
Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox thinks so, as he points to the Titans giving Tannehill $91 million guaranteed as the big regret the team will have from this offseason.
Yet giving Tannehill $91 million guaranteed as part of a new four-year deal could be a regrettable decision—especially if Tannehill eventually proves incapable of leading the offense without Derrick Henry in the backfield.
Henry, who rushed for 1,540 yards and 16 touchdowns in 2019, was Tennessee’s offensive centerpiece. He was given the franchise tag, though, and could be gone after 2020. Should Tannehill struggle without him, his 2021 cap hit of $29.5 million is going to look like a very poor investment.
While giving Henry an Ezekiel Elliott-type deal might not have been the right way to go, perhaps extending him and giving Tannehill the tag and a full season to prove himself would have been.
While it was only 10 regular season games, Tannehill certainly played like one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL in 2019, as we’ve pointed out time and time again here.
It’s important to put aside what you think a guy is worth when talking about new contracts for starting quarterbacks, as those contracts will almost always be astronomical, no matter who it is.
Even with that being said, the contract Tannehill signed ranks him seventh in guaranteed money and ninth in average annual value among NFL quarterbacks, per Spotrac.
While there’s no question Tannehill’s brilliant season had a lot to do with the use of play-action because of the threat of Henry, the Alabama product himself didn’t really start taking off until Tannehill was named the starter.
In the Titans’ first six games with Marcus Mariota under center, Henry averaged just 69.3 yards per game. In the nine games he played with Tannehill as the starter, he averaged 124.8 yards per contest.
Some of that certainly had to do with improved blocking upfront, but clearly Henry was at least somewhat of a beneficiary of improved quarterback play.
In the one game Tannehill played without Henry in Week 16, he completed 63 percent of his passes for 272 yards and three touchdowns to zero picks.
Tannehill’s extension doesn’t preclude the Titans from inking Henry, either. In fact, general manager Jon Robinson has made it clear that the team will work hard to come to an agreement with the running back.
Because talks are ongoing and remain positive, I continue to believe a deal will get done, which would nix a large part of the argument that Knox made here.
At the end of the day, Tannehill is far more important to this team than people give him credit for, and hopefully the successful symbiotic relationship that he and Henry enjoyed in 2019 will continue.
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