The Green Bay Packers face a potentially season-saving or season-ending decision at the QB position with Jordan Love out the next several weeks due to an MCL sprain.
Green Bay’s current quarterback depth chart has just north of zero experience in NFL games that actually matter. Bleacher Report’s NFL Scouting Department on Tuesday, September 10, suggested the organization change that immediately by signing free agent Ryan Tannehill to a contract.
“As mentioned above, the Packers are currently down a quarterback, which has the potential to derail their season as Love will be out for three to six weeks. While the team has Malik Willis and Sean Clifford — who is on the practice squad — to turn to, it’d be smart to add a veteran like Tannehill as another option,” B/R wrote. “That would give the offense an experienced quarterback with over 150 career starts to turn to versus two young players who have combined for three starts, all by Willis during his rookie season two years ago.”
Tannehill has amassed nearly 35,000 passing yards over the course of his pro career and topped 4,000 yards passing in back-to-back seasons (2014-15) with the Miami Dolphins. He went north of 3,800 and 3,700 yards with the Tennessee Titans in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Ryan Tannehill Expensive Backup QB, May Be Worth Money to Packers
Tannehill lost his job to Will Levis in Tennessee last year following an ankle injury. However, he played ahead of Willis with the Titans for the last two seasons, so the dynamic in Green Bay would be similar.
Tannehill is a one-time Pro Bowler, capturing the honor in 2019. That was the same year he left Miami for Tennessee and also the same season he won the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year Award.
That campaign was the first of three consecutive trips to the playoffs for Tannehill, and he led the Titans all the way to the AFC Championship Game before falling to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Tannehill earned a $118 million contract from Tennessee in March 2020, though his projected market value now is just $7.7 million for one year.
That is a considerable amount to pay for a backup QB, which might explain why the Packers decided instead to trade a 2025 seventh-round pick to the Titans on August 26 for Willis.
However, Tannehill’s price range would be far less of an issue now that Green Bay’s season hangs in the balance, with its most important player potentially out for as much as one-third of the year.
Green Bay has nearly $15 million in available salary cap space as of Wednesday and would likely be able to procure Tannehill’s service for roughly half of that, if not even less.
Packers Refute Reports They Reached Out to Ryan Tannehill After Jordan Love’s Injury
Dianna Russini of The Athletic reported on Sunday, two days after Love suffered his injury against the Philadelphia Eagles in Brazil, that the Packers had “reached out” to Tannehill.
“While there is no deal right now, the Green Bay Packers have reached out to free agent quarterback Ryan Tannehill, sources tell [The Athletic],” Russini wrote in an X post. “The former Titans quarterback told me in July, for him to sign, ‘It would have to be the right situation.'”
However, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur refuted Russini’s report during a Monday media session.
“No, despite reports,” LaFleur said. “It’s crazy to me how people come up with some of these things. I think you explore every possibility, but at no point in time did we ever have any discussions with anybody.”
