With rookie quarterback Will Levis out with an ankle injury, the Tennessee Titans were forced to give the reins back to veteran quarterback Ryan Tannehill last Sunday.
This was the chance for Tannehill to not only prove that the Titans made the wrong decision by benching him, but a solid outing would’ve undoubtedly raised his stock heading into free agency this spring.
Unfortunately for him, he did neither of those things. In fact, you could argue that the complete opposite occurred, and the Titans got reassurance that they made the right choice while Tannehill’s personal stock plummeted further.
To say that the Texas A&M product had an uninspiring performance would be putting it mildly. This wasn’t the worst game of his season or anything of that nature, but it surely wasn’t anything to write home about, either.
Tannehill finished with 152 yards passing and made several unacceptable mistakes in the process for any quarterback, let alone a 12-year veteran.
Unsurprisingly, his numbers analytically reflect the underwhelming performance, with Tannehill ranking in the bottom half of the league in nearly every category, per RBSDM.
One of the most notable drop-offs came in air yards. One week after Levis led the NFL with 15.0 per attempt, Tannehill ranked near the bottom of the league, failing to crack even five air yards per attempt.
Because of this safe approach, his completion percentage ended up being among the best in the league for the week, but when a quarterback is only averaging a smidge more than four yards in the air on each pass, I would certainly hope he’s at least completing a high rate of throws.
Now, let’s take a look at where Tanne ranked at the conclusion of Week 16, which could very well be his last start in the two-tone blue.
Ryan Tannehill’s Week 16 stats and rankings
- EPA+CPOE Composite: 0.120 (18th)
- Adjusted EPA per play: 0.105 (22nd)
- EPA per play: 0.105 (22nd)
- Success rate: 45.7 percent (21st)
- Completion percentage: 78.3 (3rd)
- Expected completion percentage: 71.5 (7th)
- Completion percentage over expectation/CPOE: 6.8 (8th)
- Air yards: 4.8 (31st)
Glossary
- Expected Points Added (EPA): “EPA measures how well a team performs compared to their expectation on a play-by-play basis. EPA and EPA per Play, along with other stats using EPA, can help us evaluate team and player performance. EPA serves as a better tool of measurement for team/player performance because it takes into account that not all yards, touchdowns, and turnovers are equal.”
- Completion Percentage Over Expectation (CPOE): “Not all completion percentages are built the same way, as throwing shorter passes to more open receivers generally leads to a higher completion percentage. CPOE adjusts for that, using pass depth and receiver separation to determine the likelihood of an average quarterback making any given throw.”
- Success Rate (SR): “SR is an efficiency metric that determines the success of a play. A play is successful when it gains at least 40 percent of yards-to-go on first down, 60 percent of yards-to-go on second down, and 100 percent of yards-to-go on third or fourth down.”
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