Packer Central

No, Packers Aren’t Going to Sign Ryan Tannehill

Bill Huber

Ryan Tannehill passes the ball against the Packers while the Titans' quarterback in 2022. Tannehill is a free agent; could he help the Packers?
Ryan Tannehill passes the ball against the Packers while the Titans' quarterback in 2022. Tannehill is a free agent; could he help the Packers? / Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – With Jordan Love sidelined by a knee injury, the Green Bay Packers’ season might depend on the play of their backup quarterback.

That quarterback will not be Ryan Tannehill.

Tannehill is far and away the best available veteran quarterback. Plus, he’s got a foundation in coach Matt LaFleur’s offense. The Packers may or may not be interested in Tannehill, who has started 151 games and accounted for 243 touchdowns in his career, but Tannehill almost certainly isn’t interested in the Packers.

No offense to the Packers.

Tannehill was a first-round pick by the Miami Dolphins in 2012. In 2015, he signed a four-year, $77 million contract extension with the Dolphins. In 2020, he signed a four-year, $118 million contract with the Tennessee Titans.

Over 12 NFL seasons, he’s pocketed almost $196 million, according to Spotrac.

In other words, Tannehill doesn’t need to be with a team today. He can afford to be picky and wait for the right situation.

Situationally speaking, nothing has changed since mid-August, when the Packers’ backup battle featured Sean Clifford and Michael Pratt. When the time is right – or, more accurately, if the time is right – Tannehill will sign with a team.

The Packers received the best possible news about Love on Saturday. Not only didn’t he suffer a torn ACL against the Eagles, he won’t even need surgery. With rigorous rehab, Love could be back in the starting lineup in a few weeks.

Had the Packers received the worst possible news – a season-ending injury for Love – it’s possible Tannehill would be in Green Bay today and on the practice field on Monday. However, there’s no reason for Tannehill to come to Green Bay, start a few games, and then spend the rest of the season hanging out with his former Titans teammate, Malik Willis.

With all those Benjamins in his checking account, Tannehill’s next team isn’t about money. It’s about opportunity.

A few weeks of starts for the Packers isn’t that opportunity.

So, the Packers will trudge forward with Willis and Clifford as the backups.

Willis, of course, was the Packers’ move to bolster the backup position.

When Tannehill was injured in 2022, Willis as a third-round rookie started three games and played in a few others. He completed just 50.8 percent of his passes with zero touchdowns, three interceptions and a 42.8 passer rating.

In 2023, the Titans drafted Will Levis, which effectively closed the door on Willis’ career in Tennessee.

After a strong preseason, the Packers acquired Willis for a seventh-round pick on Aug. 26.

“His ability to win with his arm and with his legs was something that attracted us to him,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said a couple days later.

If Willis starts against the Indianapolis Colts next Sunday, it will be on Day 20 with the team. While Willis has an NFL skill-set, will he have had enough time to run an NFL offense?

“He’s a very intelligent guy,” coach Matt LaFleur said two day after the trade. “In talking with him, there was some similarities with what he first learned when he got in the league when Todd Downing was the OC there in Tennessee. The offense went from myself to Arthur Smith to Todd Downing, so there was a little bit of crossover there in terms of some of the terminology and some of the things they were asking him to do.

“A lot of these teams are doing a lot of similar things, you just might call it something different. So, it’s like learning a new language.”

It’s not just learning the playbook and the language.

“I’ve said it a million times in here, [footwork is] the foundation for good, consistent quarterback play. It always starts with the feet,” LaFleur said on Monday.

How is that part of the process going?

“I think it’s going better than it went yesterday. That’s always awesome,” Willis said on Monday.

The other option to start against the Colts is Clifford, who was released a day after the Packers signed Willis. A fifth-round pick in 2023, he’s been in the offense for about 16 months. He knows the plays, the reads and the footwork, but his turnover-prone training camp is why Gutekunst traded for Willis.

There’s little question the offense would function better with Clifford and that LaFleur would be able to choose from a larger menu of plays.

But Willis was acquired for a reason. If this were Oct. 8 rather than Sept. 8, there would be little debate on who would start next Sunday at Lambeau Field.

And maybe there will be no debate this week. Against the Eagles, Willis was the No. 2 quarterback and Clifford was not elevated from the practice squad.

What is abundantly clear is that everything changed on Friday night. The Packers’ season changed. The sense of urgency for Willis changed. And Clifford’s prospects for playing changed.

What hasn’t changed is Tannehill’s prospects of coming to Green Bay. He wasn’t coming in mid-August and he’s not coming now.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.