Jonnu Smith Calls Tannehill 'One of the Best Teammates'
For the better part of two years Ryan Tannehill threw a good number of passes to Jonnu Smith.
Thursday, Smith threw some support in his former quarterback’s direction.
The New England Patriots tied end weighed in on the uproar related to Tannehill’s comments two days earlier about rookie quarterback Malik Willis, who Tennessee selected in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft. Specifically, Tannehill said that he did not believe it was his job to mentor the 86th overall selection, the third quarterback taken in this year’s draft.
“It’s a highly competitive league folks,” Smith wrote. “I’m sure lil’ homie [Willis] (knows) that, and if he didn’t then he doesn’t belong. Ryan [is] one of the best teammates I’ve been around at any level, and he didn’t ‘mentor’ me but I (damn) sure learned a lot from him.”
Many draft analysts believed Willis, who started his college career at Auburn and played the last two seasons for Liberty, was worthy of a first-round selection. The prevailing interpretation of the Titans’ decision to add him is that he will replace Tannehill as their starter in 2023.
Tannehill replaced Marcus Mariota six games into the 2019 season. From then until the end of 2020, he targeted Smith 101 times, and the two connected for 70 completions (61.4 percent of his total at that time). The only Titans who had more passes come their way during that time were wide receivers A.J. Brown and Corey Davis.
Smith set career-highs with 41 receptions, 448 receiving yards and eight receiving touchdowns in 2020, the only full season he and Tannehill played together.
Smith signed a four-year, $50 million free-agent deal with the Patriots last offseason. He finished 2021 with 28 receptions, 294 yards and one touchdown.
