Is Ryan Tannehill the NFL’s next Rich Gannon?
By John Buhler
Ryan Tannehill had a terrific season with the 2019 Tennessee Titans. Is the impending free agent poised to be the NFL’s next Rich Gannon or Jim Plunkett?
What Ryan Tannehill did with the Tennessee Titans was great and reminds of us someone else.
Tannehill had been a former top-10 pick by the Miami Dolphins out of Texas A&M. He had his moments in Miami, but could never quite put it together in one of the most dysfunctional situations in football. After starting the year as a backup, Tannehill emerged as the Titans’ starter mid-season and helped Tennessee reach the AFC Championship for the first time in over a decade.
Tannehill will be 32-years-old in 2020 and will be hitting unrestricted free agency. We knew he always had the talent, but now he’s finally putting it all together later in his career. Though he might have been a one-year wonder, is Tannehill the NFL’s next Rich Gannon or Jim Plunkett, signal-callers who found great success later into their career after struggling initially?
Achieving what Gannon did with the then-Oakland Raiders might be too tall of a task for Tannehill. The former Delaware Blue Hens quarterback went from a former fourth-rounder of the Minnesota Vikings, who was asked to be converted into a defensive back, to a four-time Pro Bowler, an NFL MVP and an AFC Champion. Despite a slow start, Gannon put together a Hall of Very Good career.
Plunkett might be the better comparison to what Tannehill’s NFL future might hold. The 1970 Heisman Trophy winner at Stanford went to the lousy New England Patriots and then proceeded to get rag dolled. He then went to the San Francisco 49ers for two years and looked totally washed out. Then, he landed with the Raiders and went on to win two Lombardi Trophies.
Plunkett has been held in high regard in NFL circles, despite being a former No. 1 overall pick who never even went to a Pro Bowl. Tannehill still has to win the AFC to get on either Raider greats’ levels, but he does have a Pro Bowl and an NFL Comeback Player of the Year nod already on his résumé. The other thing he has going for him is another decade or so of an NFL career to unfold.
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Most of this has to do with where Tannehill ends up in his impending free agency. Maybe he can be for the Titans what Gannon and Plunkett were before him for the Raiders? If he has to go to a third team like Plunkett did, or a fourth team in Gannon’s case, that will only strengthen his comparison to them. If Tannehill keeps winning, we’ll keep talking about him in this regard.