New Orleans Saints: Breaking down Ryan Tannehill and the Titans’ offense
The New Orleans Saints will take on the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, and Ryan Tannehill must have the game of his life to keep playoff hopes alive.
Ryan Tannehill was drafted by the Dolphins in the first round of the 2012 draft, and on Sunday, he’ll be taking on the New Orleans Saints.
Tannehill played good enough to receive a contract extension but struggled to rise into the top half of QBs. Given his career in Miami, nobody believed he would ever play to a high-level. This year, however, he has played exceptionally well and it goes to show the importance of coaching and supporting cast.
Even though the Titans are only about average in those two areas they still represent a massive upgrade over what he had in Miami, specifically having to play under Adam Gase. Tannehill has been the seventh-best QB according to football outsiders’ DVOA metric and third according to PFF.
During his time in Miami, Tannehill’s passer rating was 87; this season it’s 114. One of the noticeable differences between his time in Miami and now when watching him play is his aggressiveness.
The stats also back it up: he’s thrown the fifth-highest percentage of throws into tight windows, according to Next Gen stats. He also has the highest difference between his expected completion percentage and his actual completion percentage, according to Next Gen Stats — Drew Brees is second.
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It’s not surprising to see most of the best quarterbacks at the top of this list as it’s a great indicator of accuracy.
I thought A.J. Brown was the best receiver in last year’s draft and he’s even outperformed my expectations as he’s being one of the best wide receivers in the league. He has been 12th according to PFF, and 5th according to football outsiders’ DVOA metric.
Brown excels on slant routes and other in-breaking routes as they take advantage of his size and physicality. He plays in a similar fashion to Michael Thomas, which is why I had pretty high expectations for him.
Like most weeks, I expect Marshon Lattimore to shadow Brown for pretty much the whole game. It will be a fascinating matchup to watch as they’re two of the best young players at their respective positions, and both have aggressive styles of play.
If you simply look at O-line rankings you would see that the Titans have a solid offensive line. However, like always, a single statistic can’t tell a whole story.
This is a perfect example as the Titans rank sixth in run-blocking and last in pass-blocking, both according to football outsiders.
Tannehill’s average time to throw is 2.85 seconds, which is 12th slowest. Brees, by comparison, is second fastest at 2.53 seconds. This coupled with terrible pass protection means that the Saints pass rush should be able to get home consistently.