The Tennessee Titans have had more than their fair share of woes at the quarterback position.
Now that they’ve found a potential franchise quarterback in Marcus Mariota, it’s been a struggle to find a competent name to place behind him.
Former Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill now has a chance to be Mariota’s first truly reliable backup. But obviously, given the team’s troubles with second-stringers, some fans find it difficult to get on board with the move.
Some have even called Tannehill just a “single step ahead” of a recently released Blaine Gabbert.
And if you put a lot of stock into Pro Football Focus ratings, he quite literally is. According to PFF, Gabbert was the only quarterback in 2018 with over 100 dropbacks and a lower overall grade with Tannehill.
But the two are not the same. Tannehill offers much more potential than Gabbert did, and should be able to be successful in situations Gabbert struggled in previously.
Titans team reporter Jim Wyatt tackled a question regarding Gabbert and Tannehill in his most recent mailbag post.
“I think he was a great addition,” Wyatt said of Tannehill. “Tannehill is the best back-up QB Marcus Mariota has ever had behind him. If Marcus goes down with an injury, Tannehill will give the team a great chance to win. I give Blaine credit for the job he did last season. He guided the team to two wins (Houston and Washington) and deserves more props that ridicule. But not sure I agree on Tannehill just being ‘a single step ahead’ of Gabbert.”
Wyatt also compared the two by the numbers, where a drastic difference can be seen.
“I’ll roll off these categories with the two QB, listing Tannehill’s numbers first, and Gabbert’s second: Games (88-56), Wins (42-16), Comp % (62.8-56.2), Yards (20,434 –9,063), TDs (123-48), Rating (87.0-71.7), Rush yds (1,210-631), 2018 rating (92.7-74.9).”
While numbers stats like these look promising, only time will tell if Tannehill is up to the task if called upon in 2019.
