If there’s one thing nobody can take away from former Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill, it was his toughness and the fact that he had a special ability to stand in the pocket and deliver the football accurately despite imminent threat and being blind off play-action.
In fact, a future Hall of Famer actually studied Tannehill’s tape in order to improve in that area and called the former Titans signal-caller the best to do it.
Per Kevin Clark on the “This is Football” podcast, Aaron Rodgers used clips of Tannehill to learn how to get better at standing in the pocket and delivering blind throws when he was learning head coach Matt LaFleur’s offense with the Green Bay Packers.
Random thing I learned today: when Aaron Rodgers was learning Matt LaFleur’s offense, preparing to stand in the pocket and deliver blind throws, you know who he studied? Ryan Tannehill.
Best to ever do it, he said.
— Easton Freeze (@eastonfreeze) May 27, 2024
LaFleur was the Titans’ offensive coordinator in 2018 before getting the job with the Packers in 2019, the same year Tannehill was traded to the Titans.
Of course, if Rodgers was watching Tannehill ahead of the first season of LaFleur’s tenure, he would be watching Tannehill’s Miami Dolphins days. That said, we saw Tannehill thrive plenty in that situation over five seasons with the Titans.
Tennessee had a heavy play-action offense and Tannehill was a great fit for it because of the aforementioned skill. But he also had to deal with shoddy protection most years and had no choice but to stand tough in the pocket and let it rip.
Tannehill’s toughness in the pocket was admirable to say the least, and it’s one thing we’ll remember the most about his days with the Titans.
