What's Next for Tannehill is Anybody's Guess

The veteran quarterback wants to return to the Tennessee Titans and has one year remaining on his contract, but coach Mike Vrabel sounds decidedly non-committal.

NASHVILLE – Ryan Tannehill is by far the Tennessee Titans’ best option at quarterback right now.

He’s also under contract for 2023.

So naturally that means he’ll be the Titans’ starter next season.

Right?

It hardly seemed like a sure thing based on the comments of both parties on Monday.

Tannehill was at least definitive about wanting to return.

“Of course, yeah, I’d love to be back here,” he said. “And we’ll just have to see what happens.”

We’ll just have to see what happens?

An hour or so later, coach Mike Vrabel was asked if he was optimistic Tannehill would be the team’s starter next season.

His initial response was less than definitive.

“We have a lot of guys here that are under contract,” Vrabel said. “We have a lot of guys that want Ryan to get as healthy as he possibly can to go be our quarterback and figure out things that are going to help us win. That is the case for a lot of guys. A lot of guys that are under contract, finished the season not out there. Let's get everybody healthy and see where everybody is at, then we can make some decisions.”

Sounded a little vague. So, Vrabel was asked, does that mean you’re not willing to commit to Tannehill as the 2023 starter at this point?

“He is our starting quarterback,” Vrabel said, given a chance to clarify his answer. “If he was healthy, he is our starting quarterback. That is all I can tell you. Right now, there are a lot of guys that are not healthy and that didn't finish the game. We are going to be talking in a lot of hypotheticals, two days after our last game. I am happy to talk a lot about things that I can answer, but I can't answer things that are in the future.”

What’s going on with Vrabel’s word dance?

It’s hard to believe there are significant concerns about Tannehill’s health moving forward.

After all, it wasn’t as if Tannehill tore an ACL, ripped an Achilles or broke a bone. He tore several ligaments in his ankle Dec. 18 against the Los Angeles Chargers, an injury that sidelined him for the Titans’ final three games and necessitated surgery. But Tannehill didn’t need any assistance getting around the locker room on Monday, and even mentioned that he hoped to begin jogging again this week. In other words, he should be just fine by the time OTAs get underway in April.

It’s the swollen state of Tannehill’s contract, more so than his ankle, that’s the real question mark here.

Tannehill is scheduled to count $36.6 million against the cap this season, per overthecap.com, a figure that includes his $27 million base salary and $9.6 million pro-rated bonus.

Why such a large figure, which accounts for 16.1 percent of the Titans’ cap in 2023? It’s a result of the Titans' decision to restructure Tannehill’s deal in the 2021 offseason when they were trying to fit Julio Jones’ 15.3 million cap hit into the budget. What seemed like a good idea at the time never panned out, as the injury-plagued Jones played just 10 games in 2021 before the Titans released him.

In any event, Tannehill’s contract is one of several that now comes under scrutiny for the Titans, who have to start whacking away at the payroll in weeks to come.

The Titans currently sit $18.5 million over the league’s salary-cap limit for 2023, the third-highest figure in the NFL, per OverTheCap. That’s without accounting for a likely new deal for star defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, potential re-signings of linebacker David Long and guard Nate Davis, and a needed splash or two in the free-agent market.

There are a number of potential cuts that could be made to help trim the payroll such as left tackle Taylor Lewan, edge rusher Bud Dupree, inside linebacker Zach Cunningham and wide receiver Robert Woods.

So maybe the solution for Tannehill, depending on the relief the Titans might get from cutting others, might be to re-structure his deal – ideally lowering his 2023 cap figure without handicapping the team any further in the long run.

Then again, let’s keep in mind that the general manager – Jon Robinson – who brought Tannehill to Tennessee is gone.

Who’s to say what the strategy of the new man will be? What happens if he and Vrabel decide on a “blow-it-all-up” path, which – at least theoretically – could lead to the Titans making Tannehill a post-June 1 cut and pocketing $27 million in salary-cap savings (versus $9.6 million in dead money)? What happens if they want to collect as many draft picks as possible, using Tannehill to try to seek one?

“Yeah, it’s definitely not the fun part of the business,” Tannehill said when asked about the NFL’s annual offseason uncertainties. “But it’s something that you do get used to over time. Just kind of have to take it as it comes, keep your mind in a good space, keep the people around you that support you and care about you, and just build those relationships, lean on those relationships and just take it how it comes.”

The obvious next question: Who exactly would be the Titans’ 2023 starter if they moved on from Tannehill? That’s another story for down the road.

In the meantime, it’s clear Tannehill is the best option on the roster at present.

But as was reflected in the cloudy looks into the future by Tannehill and Vrabel on Monday, that doesn’t mean his return is automatic.