Ryan Tannehill's Availability Affects Bears' QB Hunt
So many successful quarterback situations in the NFL result from being surrounded by the right talent.
It's why Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace beat this into everyone's head at the NFL combine and their postseason press conferences about how they had to get better around Mitchell Trubisky on offense.
"It's not just one person, it's not just the quarterback," Pace said. "It's a number of factors."
ESPN’s Matthew Berry reported on Tuesday that a Titans insider he spoke with the at the combine expects Tannehill to hit the open market. Would the Bears be interested? Should they be?
There's a finite difference between interest and signing away all of your cap space.
Talk about quarterbacks who lucked into something.
Tannehill left Miami, benefited from Marcus Mariota struggling to do much, then handed off well to Derrick Henry in addition to running a few bootleg pass plays.
Before Tannehill came to the Titans he had a career 87 passer rating, a so so 7.0 yards per attempt and a 42-46 record as a starter in Miami.
For a guy who could run a little, he'd been sacked on average 41 times a season, which is not exactly testifying to his elusiveness or Miami's pass blocking.
In short, he'd been Andy Dalton pretty much. The stats are similar.
Then the offensive line the Titans put together and Henry started moving the earth like a fleet of bulldozers and Tannehill took over for struggling Mariota. He stood back behind the line, handed off and occasionally threw a pass.
If Tannehill came to the Bears, Matt Nagy's teams have yet to proven they can even run the ball let alone be dominant on the ground. Tannehill would have to carry the offense as a passer. It's something he never was able to do before coming to Tennessee.
The added problem in this scenario is the cost. The Bears are at around $26.5 million under the cap. Yet Spotrac.com estimates $30 million for Tannehill on the open market.
The Bears could afford Ryan Tannehill if they didn't sign Nick Kwiatkoski or Danny Trevathan, didn't sign someone to replace Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, didn't find a veteran addition at tight end, didn't bring in a free agent wide receiver to take Taylor Gabriel's place and kept Rashaad Coward as their starting right guard.
If the Bears wanted to sign a $30 million quarterback, there's one who New England hasn't signed yet and could be in the open market. He's won six Super Bowls.
There are plenty of less expensive quarterback options who play at a comparable level to Tannehill, although he sure does know how to hand off well.
The Bears need to explore those while trying to bolster the talent level around Mitchell Trubisky.
About the only way Tannehill's availability affects the Bears is if some other team gets snookered into abandoning their own quarterback and signing him.
Then the Bears would have another option to consider.
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
