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Ryan Tannehill

Discussion in 'Other NFL' started by bbqpitlover, Oct 16, 2019.

Ryan Tannehill is...

  1. A terrible QB

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  2. A below average QB

    4 vote(s)
    5.7%
  3. An average QB

    7 vote(s)
    10.0%
  4. An above average QB

    39 vote(s)
    55.7%
  5. An elite QB

    16 vote(s)
    22.9%
  6. The GOAT.

    4 vote(s)
    5.7%
  1. Phins_to_Win

    Phins_to_Win Well-Known Member

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    high QB rating and generational talent are not interchangeable. And your are presenting a different rule then you were previously stating.

    OF the last 5 Superbowl winners 3 of them don't fit your criteria. That isn't an exception to the rule, that's a legitimate segment.

    Tom Brady's last win, Manning's last win, and Foles were not generational talents the year they won, and of course none of them were on their rookie contracts.

    We are going to have to agree to disagree. You seem convinced that you have the right box to fit Tannehill in, and you seem to be convinced your stats make you 100% correct. What I would ask you is before this year, what was your predictions of Tannehill? And be honest did he not blow all of those predictions away? I'm assuming you were using the same statistical analytics that you are propping up your opinion with now?

    My guess is you were horribly wrong before, so now, you are actually making an argument to REDEFINE the terms you used before. Nobody ever until you started to try to make the argument has stated that if you aren't a "Generational talent" then you are by all reasonable measures average. I give you kudos for creative ways to save your original argument, but it causes a general distrust by the people you are arguing with.
     
  2. The Guy

    The Guy Well-Known Member

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    Foles was on his rookie contract. If we agree to set Brady and Manning aside on the basis that they were included in the "generational talent" group on the basis of "name" alone (which is a good point, though debatable), then we're left with three of the past 15 Super Bowl winners that featured QBs who weren't performing among the best in the league and who were not on rookie contracts. Those still aren't good odds. We can even set Roethlisberger in 2008 aside (he had a passer rating of 80.1 that year), and we're still left with not good odds (4 of 15).

    My point about Tannehill's performance this year is no different from this person's:
    https://dolphinswire.usatoday.com/2...lphins-learn-from-tannehills-postseason-push/

    The issue, however, is that to create the game conditions noted in the article above (i.e., low-volume passing games) against the league's best QBs, the ones he's likely to face enroute to a Super Bowl, he needs to be accompanied by one of the league's best pass defenses. Otherwise those opposing QBs are going to put lots of points on the board, which will force Tannehill into a high-volume passing game, where historically he doesn't play nearly as well. We just saw this last weekend. Notice Tannehill didn't pump out one of his 2019 stellar 130+ passer ratings in that game.

    Compare Tannehill along these lines with Jimmy Garoppolo, for example, whose overall passer rating in 2019 was more than 15 points lower than Tannehill's (117.5 to 102), but who had passer ratings of 136.9 and 131.7 in two of his high-volume games this year. Tannehill has never performed that well in any the 35 high-volume games he's played in his seven-year career (even if we adjust his passer ratings in those games to 2019). In 2019 Tannehill's passer ratings in high-volume games were 78.1, 82.3, 92.2, 109.8, and 108.1, the most recent of which (108.1) got him beaten handily by Patrick Mahomes, whose passer rating in his own high-volume game was 120.4.

    So now consider that Garoppolo is about to play Patrick Mahomes as well, in a Super Bowl. Garoppolo's recent history at least provides some likelihood of outdueling Mahomes in a high-volume passing game, whereas Tannehill's seven-year history provides that likelihood only if his own defense stifles Mahomes and makes Mahomes play uncharacteristically poorly. Again that likely requires a great pass defense alongside Tannehill, which again makes Tannehill's needs no different from those of the average QB, who also need great pass defenses to keep pace with the best QBs in the league.

    So, this is a nuanced understanding of Tannehill and his needs, and it goes beyond mere overall passer rating. The question is, what does Tannehill need to play the way he did in 2019 and make it past the Patrick Mahomeses of the league in the playoffs and win a Super Bowl. The answer to that question is, one of the league's best pass defenses, and again that need makes him no different from the average QB.
     
  3. FinFaninBuffalo

    FinFaninBuffalo Well-Known Member

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    :headwall:

    Since Tannehill didn't play like an average QB, another approach is needed......
     
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  4. Phins_to_Win

    Phins_to_Win Well-Known Member

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    I might be missing something but where do you get Foles was on his rookie contract? He came out in 2012 and had already gone to 2 different teams, before he came back to Eagles?
     
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  5. The Guy

    The Guy Well-Known Member

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    I meant Carson Wentz, who was the starter that year (2017). Foles's cap hit that year was $1.6M, which was 1% of the team's cap, and Wentz's was $6.1M, which was 3.6% of the team's cap. Either way the percentage of the Eagles' cap accounted for by both players combined (4.6%) was relatively small. Compare that for example to Tannehill in 2017, who accounted for 12.2% of the Dolphins' cap. If Tannehill gets franchise tagged in 2020, then based on 2019 numbers he would make nearly $25M and absorb over 13% of Tennessee's cap. Compare that also to Patrick Mahomes, who accounts for a mere 2.6% of the Chiefs' cap this year.
     
  6. PhinFan1968

    PhinFan1968 To 2020, and BEYOND! Club Member

    Let me guess...is the argument now comparing Tannehill's salary, if Tennessee signs him, to Mahomes' rookie numbers? As if rookie QB money is somehow the recipe for success in the NFL?

    So all we have to do is get a purely-elite, MVP, generational QB this draft, put the perfect HC and system around him, load out the elite offensive weaponry to 100% compliment his abilities, and throw together a decent defense, and highly coveted DC, and get in the 2023 Super Bowl.

    It's so easy, even a caveman (and 31 other NFL teams) can do it!!

    Of course EVERYBODY would be elated if their team could pull this off...KC fans are riding high (as were we in 1985...some of us remember). How many times this happen between then and now? Let's make the outlier the standard...makes sense.
     
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  7. Cashvillesent

    Cashvillesent A female Tannehill fan

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    "Come back to Miami, Tannehill we miss you!"

    Lol. Cant hear what he said in respond to that fan.

     
    Last edited: Jan 23, 2020
  8. Mcduffie81

    Mcduffie81 Wildcat Club Member

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    I will always hate Calais Campbell for his dirty hit on Tannehill’s knee. Screw that guy.
     
  9. Cashvillesent

    Cashvillesent A female Tannehill fan

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    Kind of the sameway that Dolphin DL few years back aiming at Marifloatas knee.
     
  10. Mcduffie81

    Mcduffie81 Wildcat Club Member

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    Ok. Who was it? Is this is some kind of retort?
     
  11. Phins_to_Win

    Phins_to_Win Well-Known Member

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    The other problem with your statistical diagnosis is you are creating subsets within the population. Once you do that you HAVE to know what representation is before you can figure out anything from your numbers.

    QBs that were starters for the team at the beginning of the year that were not on rookie contracts and are not considered "generational talent" (we probably should call it the elite, generational talent feels like it is being used to loosely here) from the 2019 season only are represented in 13 teams(give or take 1 or 2 this is not as readily available as one would think). So that's about 41% so of 15 Superbowls expectations should be right around 6 wins. Of course this year might not be an equal representation of the previous years, but that's too much work for a calculation that I don't agree with from the start. So moving forward with the assumption this year was a fair representation of the past 15 years, 4 or even 3 wins isn't horribly out of the ball park from expectation. Especially since I don't think 15 is a high enough number to balance out common deviations due to random chance.

    And that is only if you balance it out equally. I agree that having an elite talent gives you an advantage to win a superbowl but to what degree would that effect the expected number? If its even 1 game difference that puts us right in the ball park for what is expected.
     
    The Guy likes this.
  12. Cashvillesent

    Cashvillesent A female Tannehill fan

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    Cant remember his name.... but it was a dirty hit, it was the game before the last we faced you guys when Mularkey was our HC.
     
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  13. PhinFan1968

    PhinFan1968 To 2020, and BEYOND! Club Member

    I remember that hit...put him out of the game. Didn't like it. Wasn't that when Dan Campbell was interim HC?
     
    resnor likes this.
  14. Cashvillesent

    Cashvillesent A female Tannehill fan

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    I think so.
     
  15. resnor

    resnor Derp Sherpa

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    It was under Campbell, and the player was Olivier Vernon. I think he was flagged for a late hit on the play.
     
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  16. Mcduffie81

    Mcduffie81 Wildcat Club Member

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    Yeah screw OV too. Overpaid scrub.
     
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  17. The Guy

    The Guy Well-Known Member

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    I invite @cbrad to critique the following if he has the time and is willing.

    Here is the plot for Super Bowl wins as a function of adjusted (to 2019) regular season passer rating differential in the NFL since 2004 ("PRD" on the X-axis indicates passer rating differential):

    [​IMG]
    The noteworthy thing there in my opinion is that teams have almost no chance of winning a Super Bowl if their regular season offensive passer ratings and defensive passer ratings surrendered are equivalent or nearly equivalent.

    For example, let's say Patrick Mahomes pumps out a regular season passer rating of 115 and leads the league in that regard. Well if his pass defense happens to be exceptionally poor and it surrenders a passer rating around 115 (which is highly unlikely but used here just to make the point), the Chiefs' have almost no chance of winning a Super Bowl. Likewise, if Andy Dalton pumps out a 2019 league average passer rating of 90.4, the Bengals stand almost no chance of winning a Super Bowl if their defense surrenders a passer rating around 90.4.

    In other words, passer rating differential (offense minus defense) is what wins.

    Now, let's add the context of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks' salary cap hits since 2004.

    Since 2004 the correlation between the percentage of the salary cap absorbed by the regular season starting quarterback on Super Bowl-winning teams and those teams' defensive passer ratings surrendered is 0.52. Here is that plot:

    [​IMG]
    So what that means is that the more of his team's salary cap the regular season starting QB on a Super Bowl-winning team absorbs, the higher his team's passer rating surrendered will likely be.

    This is exactly what I'm getting at with regard to Tannehill, his need for a strong pass defense to help him keep pace with the league's best QBs in the effort to win a Super Bowl, and the likelihood that his future salary cap hit will interfere with his team's ability to surround him with what he needs to win (a very strong pass defense).

    Tannehill's passer rating in 2019 was 117.5, and Tennessee's passer rating surrendered was 90.4, which was precisely the league average. Notice Tennessee didn't win the Super Bowl despite having a very good passer rating differential of 27.1.

    Now, the important questions are the following in my opinion: 1) what is the likelihood that Tannehill in 2020 will come close to replicating his 2019 passer rating? and 2) what is the jump in his salary cap hit likely to do to Tennessee's ability to add defensive talent and improve the passer rating it surrendered in 2019?
     
  18. The_Dark_Knight

    The_Dark_Knight Defender of the Truth

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    Since this a thread on Tannehill...and I haven’t seen it mentioned (although it may have been), did anyone else see that the NFL replaced the ELITE Patrick Mahomes in the Pro Bowl with that AVERAGE Ryan Tannehill? :wink2:

    Yes, I’m stirring the pot!
     
  19. cbrad

    cbrad .

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    Since you asked.. lol

    Regarding the 1st graph:

    1) What kind of function are you fitting to that first plot? You should be fitting a logistic regression model, not some kind of polynomial-type function, because logistic regression actually has a meaning: it's the (log of the) "odds of winning". In other words the mathematics has a meaning for dichotomous data (0's or 1's).

    2) Also, if you have lots more 0's than 1's, or vice versa, then that alone will bias the fit because the fitting procedure is trying to minimize cumulative error, which is dominated by whichever is more numerous (in this case 0's). So it's better to do this for regular season wins (1's) and losses (0's), not SB winners vs. everyone else.

    3) The result is obvious. If you have 0 passer rating differential in the regular season, then that probably means you didn't even make the playoffs (most likely you're an 8-8 team)!! I think it's better to plot win% against PRD. That's more informative.

    Regarding the 2nd graph:

    1) Technicality: you say you're plotting a correlation, but a correlation equals the slope of the best-fitting line ONLY when both axes are equal, which they're not here. So what is being plotted? The best-fitting line, or did you just take the correlation and assume it's the slope of the best-fitting line? If it's the best-fitting line, then you should tell us the slope.

    2) What does a hypothesis test on that correlation say. What's the p-value? For only 14 data points, even with a correlation of 0.52 I'd bet the p-value is greater than 0.05 and you can't reject random variation around a true correlation of zero being responsible for the result.

    3) Point #2 brings up the key point: we need larger sample size because correlations can vary tremendously over seasons. I know it requires some work, but since you seem to be interested in this, I'd suggest looking at the regular season because win% is more fine grained than looking at just the SB winner. Should be minimum 5 seasons. Maybe you can plot that data for 2014-2018.

    4) You say you're interested in whether Tannehill will replicate his 2020 passer rating. That's offensive passer rating, and if your theory about salary cap% is correct, then the result should also be seen for offensive passer rating. So I'd extend #3 to offensive passer rating.


    Anyway, good job getting the data, but I'm not yet convinced salary cap% for QB's is that important for a winning team. It sounds good in theory, but: 1) the resources saved through a rookie QB contract aren't THAT huge and I doubt most GM's would increase win% by a huge amount, and 2) too many SB's are won by QB's that weren't on their rookie contract. But yes, it's good you're gathering data here.
     
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  20. PhinFan1968

    PhinFan1968 To 2020, and BEYOND! Club Member

    And did you see in the QB skills competition, Jarvis Landry beat Lamar Jackson?!?!?!

    Umm.....
     
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  21. The Guy

    The Guy Well-Known Member

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    Appreciate your feedback!

    The first graph was a logistic regression model. Here is the plot for season win percentage and passer rating differential for the 480 team seasons since 2004 (r = 0.81; p < .001):

    [​IMG]
    The p-value for the correlation between the percentage of the salary cap absorbed by the starting QB on Super Bowl-winning teams since 2004 and those teams' defensive passer rating surrendered is 0.055 (again r = 0.52). And there are only 14 data points because one of the seasons since 2004 was uncapped.

    If I'm reading it correctly, the function is y = 1.16x + 72.83

    The correlation between percentage of the cap absorbed by the starting QB and offensive passer rating among Super Bowl-winners since 2004 is 0.28.
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2020
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  22. cbrad

    cbrad .

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    No, a logistic regression is a single sigmoidal curve asymptoting at 0 on the left and 1 on the right. Look at the graphs here:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistic_regression

    Your graph has a kink in it so it can't be logistic regression. Either way, you want similar numbers of 0's and 1's so regular season is best.

    Right.. not statistically significant. So the most important thing here is to get a large enough sample size using regular season and win%.

    Which I'm sure is also not statistically significant, but that points in the opposite direction of your theory. That would be suggesting that the more you pay QB's the better the passer rating, which in some sense makes sense because so many SB winning QB's weren't on rookie contracts and the ones that get paid more tend to be the better ones.
     
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  23. Cashvillesent

    Cashvillesent A female Tannehill fan

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    @The Guy

    Mahomes hasn't faced a defense lately that's anywhere near the level of SF. And they will have no answer for the Niner run game, I don't think thats really debatable.
     
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  24. Phins_to_Win

    Phins_to_Win Well-Known Member

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    I think this is an economic question and not a statistical question at this point. If you are paying Tannehill for the value he brings to the team and not more, then you can build a solid team around him.

    I remember making the same argument you are making now about Suh. I thought it was insane to pay what we did for a DT, no matter how good he was.
     
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  25. Sceeto

    Sceeto Well-Known Member

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    After those graphs and charts. it is all so much more clear now. I was lost until I saw those. Thanks so much!
     
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  26. Cashvillesent

    Cashvillesent A female Tannehill fan

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  27. The Guy

    The Guy Well-Known Member

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    Man, you are a scientific stickler! p = 0.055 "not significant." :smile:
    Yeah when you extend the correlation between salary cap percentage and defensive passer rating beyond the Super Bowl winners, it collapses.
     
  28. The Guy

    The Guy Well-Known Member

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    That is indeed the theory, and I felt the same way about Suh. In fact in 2017 Tannehill accounted for 12.2% of the team's cap, and Suh accounted for 11.4% of it. Two players with nearly a quarter of the team's cap. And of course the team was 6-10 that year, with Jay Cutler.
     
  29. The Guy

    The Guy Well-Known Member

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    Be careful if you're betting on the game, because the Chiefs just dealt successfully with Derrick Henry, and in terms of passer rating surrendered on the season the 49ers' pass defense isn't even a standard deviation better than the Titans', who Mahomes just posted a 120+ passer rating against.
     
  30. Cashvillesent

    Cashvillesent A female Tannehill fan

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    Their pass rush is much better than what Titans had to give Mahomes.
     
  31. The Guy

    The Guy Well-Known Member

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    You're right about that. They had a decent bit higher QB pressure and hurry percentages than the Titans.
     
  32. PhinFan1968

    PhinFan1968 To 2020, and BEYOND! Club Member

    RT at pro bowl mic'd up.

     
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  33. Cashvillesent

    Cashvillesent A female Tannehill fan

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    He has a good personality, I can see why Titans offense changed so much when he took over.

    Mariota is probably the classiest guy in the league... but his personality was super dry and never commanded the huddle like I seen real QB do.
     
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  34. Fin D

    Fin D Sigh

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    Why would such an average to below average QB be at the Pro Bowl?

    Did the voters not see his lack of leadership? His lack of a deep ball? His lack of accuracy? His lack of touch? His lack of scoring? His lack of red zone efficiency? His lack of clutch? His inability to call an offense? Did they not know he was a former WR? That he was carried by the entire team?
     
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  35. Fin-O

    Fin-O Initiated Club Member

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    LOVE this thread!!

    :jt0323:
     
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  36. The Guy

    The Guy Well-Known Member

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    Here's an interesting and important finding in my opinion.

    As mentioned above, the correlation between win percentage and adjusted passer rating differential for the 480 team seasons from 2004 to 2018 is 0.81.

    As we know, sacks aren't included in the calculation of offensive or defensive passer rating.

    If we add sacks differential (offensive minus defensive sacks) to the model, both adjusted passer rating differential and sacks differential are statistically significant predictors of win percentage (p < 0.001 for both), and the R for the model increases from 0.806 to 0.852. You get about an 8% increase in the ability to predict win percentage on the basis of adjusted passer rating differential when adding sacks differential to the model.
     
    Last edited: Jan 25, 2020
  37. The_Dark_Knight

    The_Dark_Knight Defender of the Truth

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    Gee Tony, you’re just so...so...negative! :sidelol:
     
  38. Mcduffie81

    Mcduffie81 Wildcat Club Member

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    Funny you say that.

    People here knocked Tannehill for not being a leader or showing emotion.
     
  39. Pauly

    Pauly Season Ticket Holder

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    I think that is because the coaches here didn’t allow him to lead.

    Under Philbin/Sherman Tannehill was the rookie who was getting chewed out for making off-script plays, even when they were successful. The guy hey told everybody was a work in progress, the guy they brought in his college HC to hold his hand in the transition to the pros.

    Under Philbin/Lazor Tannehill was the dud who wasn’t allowed to audible. The guy they wanted to replace with Derek Carr. The guy Lazor was reported as saying “would get them all fired.”, which if we heard that as fans then the players on the team all knew it.

    Under Gase he was the golden child who was immune from criticism. Gase was the one who jumped in and responded to queries about Tannehill’s leadership, and didn’t allow Tannehill to set his own agenda.

    None of those situations allow for Tannehill to be himself and to establish his own leadership style. One thing I’ve learned in my corporate life is that if you want leaders to lead, you have to give them the freedom to do so. When the big boss is constantly looking over the shoulder and micromanaging that cuts off all lower leadership at the knees.
     
    Last edited: Jan 25, 2020
  40. The Guy

    The Guy Well-Known Member

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    I don't mean to be argumentative, but I think you get what you got out of Tannehill this year by "decentralizing" him as the hub of the wheel of the offense, both in terms of physical play and leadership. In my opinion he needs to experience himself within his team as a complementary piece and not the driving force. Physically speaking that manifests itself in low-volume passing games, as I've mentioned extensively here, and leadership-wise I suspect that manifests itself in having other players around him who are understood as heavy-duty load-carriers and therefore leaders (like Derrick Henry).

    I don't think Tannehill is either a leader or a great player who was "lying in wait" so to speak. I think he's neither, and the 2019 Titans just so happened to have just the right mix of ingredients to get out of him what was never gotten out of him before, and likely will never be gotten out of him again.
     

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