Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill is always a popular topic of conversation within the fanbase this time of year.
He’s usually the focal point in a lot of offseason debates where people argue whether or not he can be the quarterback who can bring the first-ever Lombardi Trophy to Tennessee.
The unfortunate part for the Titans quarterback is the fact that these debates have only been amplified due to former general manager Jon Robinson’s decision to re-structure Tannehill’s contract a few years back in order to make room for Julio Jones.
Since then, that decision ultimately gave Tannehill a cap hit that has been among the league’s highest over the last two seasons.
This year alone, Tannehill has the second-highest cap hit in the NFL ($36.6 million), coming in just behind Kansas City Chiefs superstar quarterback, Patrick Mahomes ($39.7 million), according to Spotrac.
Biggest cap hits in the NFL this year (via @spotrac)
Patrick Mahomes $39.7M
Ryan Tannehill $36.6M
Leonard Williams $32.3M
Jared Goff $31M
DeAndre Hopkins $30.8M
T.J. Watt $29.4M
Myles Garrett $29.2M
Jake Matthews $28.4M
Chris Jones $28.3M pic.twitter.com/O6lQzTyLjm— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) May 19, 2023
Tennessee could obviously restructure and/or extend Tannehill’s contract to lower that cap number, but truth be told, the Titans just need to bite the bullet on this one and leave it as is for the betterment of their future.
Any type of restructuring of contracts would simply be a short-term fix that would end up costing the team down the line, which really makes no sense for a few reasons.
For starters, realistically speaking, there isn’t an expensive, franchise-altering player to be had at the moment, and the likelihood of one becoming available is slim to none.
Also, if everything goes according to plan, the team will move on from Tannehill for rookie quarterback Will Levis by next season.
That means the last thing the Titans want to do is unnecessarily eat into the money they finally have available in 2024 just to keep their heads above water in 2023.
One sneaky scenario that would be a home run for this franchise would be finding a trade partner that’s willing to acquire the veteran quarterback.
He’ll be off the books next year regardless, so getting some type of draft compensation in return for Tannehill would be ideal for a team that desperately needs draft picks.
This scenario becomes even more realistic if Levis shows enough promise to take over on a full-time basis sooner rather than later. However, that would be more likely to happen during the season when a starting quarterback inevitably goes down.
