Vrabel, Others Address Titans' Addition of QB Matt Barkley

The veteran backup will have to learn the offense quickly, but indications are he will be happy to do so.

NASHVILLE – Matt Barkley is not just happy to be with the Tennessee Titans. To hear Ryan Tannehill tell it, he is happy to be pretty much anywhere.

“I know (Barkley) a little bit, just over the years,” Tannehill said Friday. “He is a great dude. Love being around him. Happy guy.”

The two are going to spend a lot more time together now that they are teammates. The Titans signed Barkley, a 30-year-old career backup, on Thursday and released DeShone Kizer, who had been competing for the No. 2 job.

“[We] wanted to get a guy in here that we felt like could continue to compete with (Woodside),” coach Mike Vrabel said. “Plus, we expect (Barkley) to do the same things that everybody else does: to show up; know what to do quickly; make a positive impact on the football team; and try to find a role and compete for a job.”

The best that Barkley can hope for with the Titans is to be the primary backup. Tannehill is entrenched as the starter, having taken over six games into the 2020 season and having led Tennessee to 18 wins in the regular season and two more in the playoffs. He was the NFL Comeback Player of the Year and a Pro Bowler in 2019.

It is a role he knows well. For the past three seasons, he served in that capacity for the Buffalo Bills, the last two behind Josh Allen. In 2020 Barkley appeared in five games, all of them in relief. That was more than he played in all but one of his previous seven NFL seasons.

His last start was for Buffalo in Week 10 of the 2018 season, and in that game, he completed 15 of 25 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions and led his team to a rout of the New York Jets.

He has started six other games in his career, all with the Chicago Bears in 2016, and lost five of them. The first of those was a 27-21 loss to the Titans in Week 12, a game in which he attempted a career-high 54 passes and completed 28 for 316 yards and three touchdowns with two interceptions.

“[We need to] just get him acclimated right now, get him lined up and ready to go,” quarterbacks coach Pat ‘Ohara said. “… We’ll just go from there with Matt and get him up to speed as fast as we can.”

To become Tannehill’s backup, Barkley must overtake Logan Woodside, who has established himself as a No. 2 quarterback in his own right. A seventh-round pick by Cincinnati, the 26-year-old Woodside has attempted just three passes in the regular season but has been Tannehill’s understudy since the start of 2020 and has fended off multiple challengers for that spot, most recently Kizer, who was more experienced than either Woodside or Barkley.

It is likely that the Titans will need a “quarantine quarterback” in 2021 as they did last season. Such a player would remain largely separate from the team to ensure his availability in the event of issues with COVID-19. It is a job that demands someone with experience.

“(Barkley) has been around the league a long time, veteran player,” Tannehill said. “We will get him up to speed and he will help to push us and compete in the (quarterback) room. The more quality players we can have in every position, the better we are going to be.

“I look forward to getting him up to speed and having him in the room.”