The Titans acquired Ryan Tannehill in the offseason, and with Marcus Mariota generally being a disappointment, some wonder if the former Dolphin can push the incumbent for the starting job. Mike Vrabel shot that idea down yesterday, not that it matters much.
Vrabel says that Mariota is the starter and Tannehill the backup, and that Tannehill's job is only to push him. "His job as a backup -- everybody's job as a backup -- is to push the guy in front of him," Vrabel said. "To compete and try to make yourself better and try to make the team better and see how everybody responds."
Depending on how you want to read it, it certainly does seem that Tannehill could make a play for that job. If Tannehill pushes Mariota enough that he's performing better in the preseason, would Vrabel consider a change? It can't be ruled out.
But the history of the two as starting quarterbacks suggests neither would be a fantasy asset.
Over the last five seasons, Mariota and Tannehill are among 20 active quarterbacks to start at least 50 games. Only two guys have put up fewer fantasy points per start than Mariota. Only two other guys have put fewer than Tannehill. Either one looks like a pretty low-impact fantasy signal-caller.
| FF PTS PER START, 2014-2018 (MINIMUM 50 STARTS) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | PYd | TDP | RYd | TDR | 2Pt | Pts |
| Andrew Luck | 54 | 286.6 | 2.31 | 17.7 | .09 | .09 | 26.1 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 71 | 264.0 | 2.11 | 19.4 | .13 | .14 | 24.6 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 72 | 301.5 | 1.96 | 3.0 | .06 | .26 | 24.1 |
| Cam Newton | 75 | 228.9 | 1.57 | 37.0 | .40 | .08 | 24.0 |
| Drew Brees | 78 | 299.4 | 2.01 | 1.7 | .13 | .01 | 24.0 |
| Russell Wilson | 80 | 239.4 | 1.80 | 32.8 | .15 | .05 | 23.4 |
| Tom Brady | 76 | 281.1 | 2.08 | 3.1 | .07 | .04 | 23.2 |
| Matt Ryan | 80 | 290.6 | 1.78 | 7.4 | .05 | .08 | 22.8 |
| Kirk Cousins | 69 | 274.4 | 1.72 | 6.8 | .20 | .07 | 22.7 |
| Jameis Winston | 54 | 264.5 | 1.57 | 14.2 | .17 | .09 | 22.1 |
| Philip Rivers | 80 | 278.6 | 1.91 | 2.1 | .00 | .08 | 21.9 |
| Matthew Stafford | 80 | 263.4 | 1.60 | 7.9 | .06 | .05 | 20.8 |
| Blake Bortles | 73 | 238.1 | 1.38 | 23.6 | .12 | .10 | 20.7 |
| Eli Manning | 79 | 261.3 | 1.66 | 1.6 | .04 | .04 | 20.2 |
| Ryan Tannehill | 56 | 236.2 | 1.55 | 13.6 | .07 | .04 | 19.9 |
| Andy Dalton | 72 | 232.5 | 1.50 | 9.6 | .15 | .06 | 19.6 |
| Alex Smith | 71 | 232.0 | 1.25 | 19.8 | .14 | .06 | 19.6 |
| Marcus Mariota | 55 | 216.4 | 1.25 | 22.2 | .22 | .05 | 19.5 |
| Joe Flacco | 67 | 249.3 | 1.36 | 3.7 | .12 | .09 | 19.2 |
| Derek Carr | 78 | 240.2 | 1.56 | 5.3 | .01 | .12 | 19.1 |
Table uses a scoring system of 1 point for every 20 passing and 10 rushing yards, with 4-point TD passes.
I'm in a couple of best-ball leagues where you draft 28 rounds of players and don't get to make any transactions. And I still have no interest in selecting either quarterback. Probably both guys will make starts this season, and not do very much with those opportunities.
--Andy Richardson