The Titans’ quarterback drama won’t even start

You might remember that, a few days ago, Ryan Tannehill created some distractions when he said it wasn’t his job to mentor Malik Willis, the rookie who was a 3rd-round pick in the 2022 draft. Willis was widely lauded as the quarterback with the most upside from the entire quarterback class of the draft, and some thought this could cause some sort of threat to Tannehill’s job.

But according to head coach Mike Vrabel, what Tannehill said about Willis is right. It’s not the quarterback’s job to mentor whoever the Tennessee Titans decides to draft:

“His job is to prepare to help us win a bunch of games and be a great teammate and help out”, Vrabel said. “And I know that he’s going to do that. So that was not any sort of issue for me. I thought Ryan handled that very well. I thought he was genuine. I thought he is authentic. And I know Ryan is a great teammate. Everybody here knows he’s a great teammate. And that is not his job.”

It’s a fair vision from Vrabel and it reinforces what we said in the other article. There’s no point for Tannehill to put focus on helping a guy who’s looking to take his job away. They’re going hard on practice, on the film room, and if Willis learns something from the veteran, great. But that’s not part of Ryan’s job. Basically, it’s exactly what he said:

“That’s part of being in a quarterback room, in the same room”, Tannehill said back then. “We’re competing against each other, we’re watching the same tape, we’re doing the same drills,” Tannehill said to reporters on Tuesday. “I don’t think it’s my job to mentor him. But if he learns from me along the way, then that’s a great thing.”, he finished.

The responsibility of being the number one quarterback involves leading the team more than anything, but mentorship isn’t exactly tied to leading. It’s up to the coaches of the Titans – and for Willis himself – to mentor him and do everything to develop the rookie. Tannehill’s focus should be on leading the team to another division title.