New England Patriots: Pros/cons of Ryan Tannehill for 2020 QB

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the New England Patriots adding Ryan Tannehill at quarterback if Tom Brady leaves in free agency?

As crazy as this may seem, the New England Patriots and the Tennessee Titans could end up swapping quarterbacks this month.

If you would have told Pats fans between 2012 and 2018 — the seven seasons Ryan Tannehill was on the Miami Dolphins — that in 2020 Tannehill would be the starting quarterback for New England, and Tom Brady would be a six-time Super Bowl champion playing for another team in the AFC and not retired, they surely would have called you crazy.

Somehow, that’s a very real possibility today. Look how far we’ve come.

It’s not that Tannehill is bad, necessarily — it’s that he wasn’t good for so long, if that makes any sense at all. He was serviceable perhaps for the Dolphins, and he did string together some decent seasons that felt kind of like what Brady just put together statistically in 2019.

But by and large, he never did enough to bring Miami over the hump in the AFC East. It obviously didn’t help matters that he had to occupy the same division as peak-Brady and Bill Belichick for so long, but he still never even brought the Fins anywhere close to a wild card berth even.

All it took for Tannehill to come into his own was a change of scenery. Almost a year ago exactly, the Dolphins traded Tannehill and a sixth-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft for a seventh-round selection last year and a fourth-round pick this year.

Tannehill began the season as Marcus Mariota’s backup, by Titans head coach Mike Vrabel made the switch from Mariota to Tannehill in a Week 6 game against the Denver Broncos. Tannehill never relinquished the opportunity, going 7-3 for the remainder of the season as Tennessee’s starter.

He guided the Titans to upset victories on the road in the playoffs over the Patriots in the Wild Card round, the Baltimore Ravens in the Divisional round, and almost the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game. For his efforts, he was rewarded with the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year award.

Somehow — despite all of that — he might be without a job here soon. Tannehill signed a one-year deal with the Titans after the Dolphins trade, so he’ll be a free agent just like Brady come March 18 unless he and Tennessee come to terms on a new deal.

According to rumors, Tannehill’s camp is looking to use last season’s incredible run as leverage to get a better deal. The Titans, on the other hand, are reportedly looking to use the threat of signing Brady in free agency as leverage of their own.

Now it’s just a matter of seeing which side has the better leverage.

Honestly, Tannehill might be in a similar boat to just about every other available quarterback this month in free agency anyway — they’re all somewhat at the mercy of Brady, and must wait to see where the G.O.A.T. signs first before anything else starts to happen with other players and teams. As has been said often during the run-up to this month: Brady will be the first domino to fall in free agency.

For the Patriots, if Brady signs with the Titans or with any other franchise, they could do a whole lot worse than inking Tannehill to be their starter for 2020 at the least. It might be worth it just to see exactly what they’d have in the former Texas A&M Aggie.

If it’s the quarterback they competed against during the early years of the 2010s — the Dolphins signal-caller who averaged about a 61% completion rate and around 20 touchdowns and 13 interceptions a year — then the Patriots will most likely turn the keys of their offense over quickly to someone else, like Jarrett Stidham or a rookie they take in April’s draft.

If, however, the QB they get in this scenario plays closer to what the Titans got last year from Tannehill when he won Comeback Player of the Year — a 70% completion rate with 22 touchdowns and six interceptions across 12 games for a 117.5 quarterback rating — then New England would obviously be well set-up to continue their contender status into the future with the 31-year-old at the helm.