{"id":185101,"date":"2024-08-13T16:00:52","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T20:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=185101"},"modified":"2024-08-13T12:29:50","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T16:29:50","slug":"chargers-ravens-could-fight-over-10-year-starter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/08\/13\/chargers-ravens-could-fight-over-10-year-starter\/","title":{"rendered":"Chargers, Ravens Could Fight Over 10-Year Starter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The start of the 2024 NFL season is less than a month away, and Ryan Tannehill still doesn&#8217;t have a team. A first-round pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, Tannehill has never been a superstar but has provided a steadying presence every time he&#8217;s lined up under center. Tannehill guided the Titans to three straight playoff births from 2019 to 2022 but lost the starting job to a rookie Will Levis midway through the 2023 season. Now a free agent, Tannehill has yet to find a home for the upcoming campaign.<\/p>\n<p>That could be changing soon. The Baltimore Ravens don&#8217;t have a proven option behind reigning MVP Lamar Jackson, and that lack of depth showed up in the preseason opener. As a team, Baltimore finished with just 82 passing yards while scoring an underwhelming 13 points. <a  href=\"https:\/\/ravenswire.usatoday.com\/2024\/08\/11\/baltimore-ravens-news-ryan-tannehill-free-agent-poor-performance-emory-jones-devin-leary-josh-johnson\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>RavensWire&#8217;s<\/em> Dustin Cox<\/a> believes Baltimore should sign Ryan Tannehill, but they might need to fend off another team to do it.<\/p>\n<h2>Ryan Tannehill Next Team: Ravens, Chargers In the Running<\/h2>\n<p>Let&#8217;s start with a disclaimer: Ryan Tannehill might not want to sign with a team right now. While the veteran is no Patrick Mahomes, he&#8217;s better than several players who have already signed backup contracts throughout the league. Seeing as he&#8217;s still unsigned, there&#8217;s a decent chance Tannehill is waiting for an opportunity to start. Barring injury, that won&#8217;t happen in Baltimore or Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>However, for the sake of argument, let&#8217;s say Ryan Tannehill is willing to sign with a team as a backup quarterback. If that happens, he could do a lot worse than the Baltimore Ravens. Jackson will be the starter as long as he&#8217;s healthy, but the two-time MVP missed significant time in two of the past three seasons. The Ravens could use a capable backup, and Tannehill is easily the best player left on the market.<\/p>\n<p>We know that Ryan Tannehill can be effective while sharing a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/03\/12\/derrick-henry-signs-contract-baltimore-ravens\/\" target=\"_self\">backfield with Derrick Henry<\/a>, and the team has arguably the best collection of pass-catching talent in Tannehill&#8217;s career. While nobody here is as good as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/04\/25\/philadelphia-eagles-contract-extension-aj-brown\/\" target=\"_self\">prime A.J. Brown<\/a>, Mark Andrews and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/07\/31\/zay-flowers-ravens-wide-receiver-2024-fantasy-football-outlook\/\" target=\"_self\">Zay Flowers<\/a> are a strong duo. Additionally, Tannehill&#8217;s collegiate days as a wide receiver means that he&#8217;ll have the athleticism to execute Jackson&#8217;s playbook, albeit not at as high of a level.<\/p>\n<h3>The Other Suitors<\/h3>\n<p>While several teams could use a better backup quarterback, few are in a more desperate position than the Los Angeles Chargers. Justin Hebert is battling a plantar fascia injury and should be back on the field by Week 1, but reports across the league indicate he&#8217;ll be playing through pain all year long. Chances are, this team will call on their backup quarterback at some point, and Ryan Tannehill is best equipped to handle that responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>Easton Stick did the best he could in relief of Herbert last year, but he&#8217;s simply not a starting-caliber quarterback. The former fifth-round pick isn&#8217;t making the most of his opportunities, as <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/chargers\/story\/2024-08-12\/luis-perez-easton-stick-chargers-no-2-quarterback\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">spring football superstar Luis Perez<\/a> is reportedly pushing for the primary backup job. Ryan Tannehill is considerably better than either of these players, and the Chargers could use someone like him on their team.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Denny Simmons &#8211; USA Today Sports<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Chargers and Baltimore Ravens could use a player like Ryan Tannehill, but would he want to sign with either team?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":185102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,18],"tags":[7642,7638,814],"class_list":["post-185101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ravens","category-chargers","tag-chargers-featured","tag-ravens-featured","tag-ryan-tannehill"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}