Ryan Tannehill needs redemption, and Mike Vrabel's Tennessee Titans just need a win | Estes
Ryan Tannehill didn’t want to talk about it.
Looked like he'd rather be anywhere else. But he tried. He gave reporters’ questions a cursory four minutes on Wednesday until — abruptly, yet inevitably — he could take no more: “Guys, I just want to move on to San Diego.”
Told you something about the Tennessee Titans’ suddenly embattled quarterback.
That Tannehill, too, still forgets where the Chargers play now.
Just like the rest of us.
“I mean, sorry — LA,” he sheepishly corrected himself to laughs. An unintentional tension-breaker, making a multimillionaire NFL quarterback appear a little more relatable to anyone who has had a really bad day at the office and just wanted the chance to be able to move on and try to correct it.
After his jarringly woeful Week 1, Tannehill still deserves that chance. He has earned it with the Titans.
“Ryan has played good football for us when we’ve been able to protect (him),” coach Mike Vrabel said. “I'm confident he'll hit the ones we're supposed to hit and eliminate the mistakes.”
Clearly, Tannehill is under the most scrutiny from the Titans' 16-15 loss to the Saints. But it's not just him in the redemption line. While we’re at it, others around here could also use a get-well week.
How about Vrabel? He didn’t have his best day on the bayou, either, with a couple of regrettable coaching decisions in key situations. Most NFL coaches on an eight-game losing streak would be feeling more heat by now. Not Vrabel, though. He also has earned that with the Titans.
So have Derrick Henry, Kevin Byard and a few other core veterans who’ve built tenure over the years with this franchise. Like Vrabel and Tannehill, we know what these guys are capable of doing because we’ve seen them do it. That’s why, collectively, they deserve the right to try to fix this before it's too late.
It’s time they get started.
Few Week 2 games loom as significantly for a team as Sunday’s home opener against the Chargers is for the Titans. Everyone wants a win in the early days, but the Titans already need one in the worst way.
The Titans, as a franchise, have lost their mojo.
They’ll need it back in order to stop a train that’s rolling downhill. They'll need it to show that it still can be reversed when hardly anyone outside of Nashville or their own fanbase seems to agree.
Check the NFL Power Rankings this week: ESPN has the Titans No. 27 out of 32. Pro Football Focus? 27. Fox Sports? 28. Two betting sites, Caesars and DraftKings, each has only three teams listed — the Colts, Texans and Cardinals — with worse odds than the Titans (+10000) to win this year’s Super Bowl.
Having watched these Titans since the start of training camp, do I believe they are that bad? That their quarterback is that terrible? That their odds are that hopeless?
No, I don’t. I've thought the rest of the league is sleeping on the Titans.
But it’s getting more difficult to back up such a belief.
Used to be that Vrabel’s Titans, while rarely dominant, were good at pulling out ugly victories by being tougher and more poised when it mattered most. You could count on it. After Tannehill became the starter in 2019 through the first 10 games of the 2022 season, the Titans were 22-9 in one-score contests.
Since then, the Titans are 0-5.
Dropping the close ones — much like being able to win them — can become a habit that’s hard to break.
This past Sunday, the Saints didn’t outplay the Titans for four quarters. They outplayed the Titans when it mattered most. The Titans seemingly found a way to lose — again.
“Based upon losing seven games (in a row to end) last year,” Byard said, “it was a big emphasis for us to try to go out there and start fast and try to get that losing-streak taste out of our mouth. It didn't happen. But hopefully, we'll get it done this week.”
No one said redemption would be easy.
The first step is simply being able to win one game again, and that's not a simple task. The Chargers made the playoffs last season. They are three-point favorites in Nashville. By Sunday, the Titans will be 304 days removed from their last win.
"I guess," Tannehill said, "the bright spot: I feel like it's gotta be better from here, right?"
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: As Tennessee Titans host LA Chargers, Ryan Tannehill just needs a win
