Tannehill Shows QB Toughness In The Pocket

By Will Cinelli, The Scouting Academy

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I had a QB coach that I worked with for a few years that used to tell his signal-callers, “There’s only one way for you to prove to your teammates that you’re tough. And that’s to stand there and make the throw knowing you’re about to get destroyed.”

In this clip, we see the Titans’ Ryan Tannehill do exactly that. He’s facing pressure quickly, thanks to a nifty spin move by the defensive end that gives him a clear shot on the QB. Quarterbacks will feel this pressure up the middle. And there are times when it makes sense to bail out and scramble out of the pocket. But in critical situations, the right play might be standing in there and delivering. 

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Here, Tannehill decides the right move is to hang on his read. There is also a huge element of mental processing taking place on this play. Tannehill is, on the fly, calculating how much time he has before the DE hits him and comparing that to the time he has until the WR flashes open.

Tannehill delivers the throw with impeccable timing and anticipation, before his target is actually open, to the spot. He trusts that his WR will get there, and he does! A huge play for the Titans because Tannehill trusted what he was seeing and made the play his team needed in the moment.