For a guy who “just hands the ball off”, Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill was exceptional at making difficult throws in 2019.
Of course, that’s the narrative that Tannehill’s naysayers push, claiming that he really isn’t that good and certainly not worth the four-year, $118 million extension the team gave him because he simply hands the ball off and lets Derrick Henry do the work.
When someone says that, you can tell they didn’t watch Tannehill during the regular season and are solely basing that statement on two of the three playoff games in which Henry carried the Titans on his back.
Even in the Titans’ two playoff wins that saw him throw for just a combined 160 yards, Tannehill was tasked with making some clutch throws to put Tennessee over the top, which he successfully did — but I digress.
Next Gen Stats listed the quarterbacks who led the NFL in completion percentage over expected in 2019, which it describes as “the difference between a quarterback’s actual completion percentage and expected completion percentage based on the level of difficulty of pass attempts.”
Look who tops the list; that’s right, it’s the guy who does nothing but hand the ball off.
Long story short: Tannehill was completing difficult throws that otherwise should have lowered his 70.3 percent completion rate — which was second-best in the NFL — another eight percentage points.
And it’s not like Tannehill was dinking and dunking, either. His 9.6 yards per attempt and 13.6 yards per completion ranked as the best in the NFL, on top of his league-best passer rating of 117.5.
Granted, some of that has to do with the Titans’ pass-catchers, who were sensational at not dropping passes last season and gaining yards after the catch; however, someone has to actually deliver them the ball.
If all that isn’t enough to give Tannehill credit, just consider that the former No. 8 overall pick took a 2-4 team that was inept offensively and led it to elite status during the final 10 games.
From Week 7 when Tannehill took over through the divisional round, the Titans averaged 30 points per game were able to score a touchdown on an astounding 34.6 percent of their drives, the second-best mark in the NFL in that span.
That kind of success doesn’t just come from handing the ball off every time.
While there’s no question Tannehill thrives off the play-action setup by Henry and the running game, the Titans’ franchise quarterback has shown time and time again that he has the ability to make all the throws.
In fact, he ranked as the best quarterback in the NFL last season in four different types of throws based on Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions’ metrics, according to Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar.
The evidence that Tannehill brings much more to the table than his detractors give him credit for is overwhelming. When you break it all down, it’s understandable why the Titans wanted to lock him up this offseason.
