Tannehill, Brown Collect NFL Monthly Awards

Tennessee's top passing combination named the AFC's top offensive performer and NFL's top rookie in December

Christopher Hanewinckel/USA Today Sports

NASHVILLE – One could not have done it without the other.

Quarterback Ryan Tannehill was named AFC Offensive Player of the Month and wide receiver A.J. Brown was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Month for December on Thursday.

The two combined for 21 pass completions for 446 yards and four touchdowns in five games. The Titans won three of those five and earned their second playoff berth in three years.

Tannehill’s recognition makes it two years in a row that the Titans have had the conference’s best offensive player in the season’s final month. He completed 90 of 132 passes (68.2 percent) for 1,322 yards with 12 touchdowns and two interceptions. His 124.6 passer rating was the highest for any month of his career.

Running back Derrick Henry was AFC Offensive Player of the Month in December 2018. The last Tennessee quarterback to earn a Player of the Month award was Marcus Mariota (November 2016).

The Titans’ starter since Week 7, Tannehill finished the regular season as the NFL’s leader in passer rating (117.5) and yards per attempt (9.6). His completion percentage (70.3) was the best of his career.

“Just trying to get wins, and that was kind of a by-product of the full team effort and throwing the football,” Tannehill said this week in regard to leading the league. “… It’s huge being able to spread the ball around. Not only our backs out of the backfield, our tight end group, our receiving group, had different guys step up at different times in the receiving group.

“The more we can kind of spread the ball around and create matchups all across the field, it’s tough for teams to take away one guy.”

Brown, a second-round pick out of Ole Miss, caught 21 passes for 470 yards and four touchdowns (one reception came on a throw from Mariota). His touchdowns doubled his total for the season and his receptions matched the number he had in the previous two months combined.

He was the only NFL rookie with 1,000 receiving yards this season (he had 1,051) and finished second among all players in yards per reception (20.2). His 91-yard touchdown reception on a throw from Tannehill in the Titans’ victory over Oakland was the second longest pass play of the season for any team.

The last Titans player named Rookie of the Month was Mariota (September 2015).

“(Brown) comes to work every day and tries to figure out a way how he can get better,” Tannehill said. “I think his role has expanded, obviously, the more plays he’s made and the more he’s shown to do well. I just want to keep that going.”

The Titans (9-7) face the New England Patriots (12-4) Saturday at Gillette Stadium in an AFC wild card contest (7:15 p.m., CST, CBS).