Titans Should Not Pass On Opportunity to Sign Brady, If They Get It
NASHVILLE – It all seemed so simple not that long ago.
Ryan Tannehill was the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year and one of the pending free agents nearly everyone agreed the Tennessee Titans should bring back for 2020 and beyond. After all, the team won seven of 10 regular-season games and two of three playoff contests with Tannehill at quarterback. He led the league in passer rating and played some of the best football of his career. He shared offensive coordinator Arthur Smith’s vision for how to move the ball and meshed his talents well with running back Derrick Henry.
Then came the reports that Tom Brady, another player in the final year of his contract, might actually leave New England and finish his storied career elsewhere. Then came reports that the Titans would be a franchise he would consider. In the last week, the whole issue has gained steam courtesy of ESPN’s Jeff Darlington, who stated in separate reports that 1) Brady is more likely to become a free agent than he is to re-sign with the Patriots and 2) Tennessee is the favorite to sign the guy who has won and played in more Super Bowls than anyone at his position.
So, what now?
The answer is simple. If the Tennessee Titans actually have the chance to sign Tom Brady, they must seize it. Forget whatever plans they have made. Forget whatever budget they have set. Forget any sense of loyalty to Tannehill, even though he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
It is often said that one of the tricky aspects of the NFL is that there never are 32 quarterbacks at any given time good enough to be starters, which means some teams have to make do with a deficiency at the most important position in sports.
It is also true, though, that not everyone good enough to be a starting quarterback is good enough to win a Super Bowl. Brady is. It was only a little more than a year ago that he most recently hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy amid falling confetti in the Patriots’ colors. Heck, the guy has been a starter for 19 seasons and has gotten to the Super Bowl nine times.
Tennessee is not a team building for the future. The idea is to win now, and no quarterback wins more consistently than Brady, particularly in the postseason.
Yes, he is 42 years old and will turn 43 before Week 1 of the 2020 season. Yes, his best days are behind him. Yes, there is no telling how much longer he will be able to compete at the highest level. Yes, he showed signs of physical failings in 2019.
None of that changes the fact that Brady knows what it takes to get himself and his team all the way to the end of the NFL calendar and up on a podium for a trophy presentation.
Tannehill has been in the league since 2012 and never sniffed a Super Bowl until this year, and that came on the strength of a regular season performance that analytics say is statistically unsustainable. And he did not exactly light it up during the playoffs.
Think about the end of Peyton Manning’s career, i.e. his four seasons with Denver. He joined the Broncos at 36 years old after a neck injury caused him to miss an entire season and prompted some to wonder for a time whether he would ever be able to throw a football again. Twice in a span of three years he guided that team to the Super Bowl and once he won, which allowed him to end his career on a high note.
Manning’s final season was hardly his best. He battled injuries that contributed to the lowest completion percentage of his career outside of his rookie season (59.8) and ultimately forced him to miss six games. Yet, when the playoffs arrived, he was the guy. No one will argue that he was at is best in the 2015 playoffs (55.4 percent completion rate, two touchdown passes, one interception) but he was good enough to help a good team win it all.
If that’s the kind of performance the Titans get from Brady, so what? Assuming Henry is retained via a new contract or the franchise tag, Tennessee will have a running game that guarantees Brady won’t have to be what he was in the late 2000s and early 2010s. His ability to read defenses prior to, and immediately after the snap combined with an experienced and well-paid offensive line should allow him to feel relatively comfortable when he drops back. And with exciting and proven young targets such as wide receiver A.J. Brown and tight end Jonnu Smith, he won’t have the uncertainty he faced in 2019 with New England’s mostly non-descript group of pass-catchers.
Those elements combined helped Tannehill play the best football of his career.
Just imagine what they could accomplish with the guy many consider the best quarterback ever running the huddle. Better yet, if there’s any chance to make that a reality when the free agency signing period starts on March 18 the Titans should do it.
