Ryan Tannehill would make sense as the heir to Tom Brady’s throne with the New England Patriots, according to Cian Fahey.
Fahey was speaking on The Snap about the possibility of both quarter-backs replacing one another at their respective franchises - the Tennessee Titans and New England Patriots.
“That’s something I’ve been thinking about because if the Patriots are as comfortable with Brady leaving as everything seems to suggest they are, we have to look at where they’re going to go.
“They’re not in a position to draft anybody as far as I can tell because as Roger Goodell said this week, the punishment for spying on the Bengals is going to come out soon and that could take away their top draft pick,” Fahey explained.
The NFL analyst also noted that the only way the Patriots could add a quarterback of significant quality is if they either trade for one or sign one in free agency.
“What are your options here? Philip Rivers? No. they’re not going to swap out one old quarter-back for another one.
“Maybe trade for Matthew Stafford? Possibly. But I don't know what Bill Belichick would see in that, he’s not the type of quarterback he would go after.
“Teddy Bridgewater makes a lot of sense for everyone but most teams haven’t been very high on him and I don’t think Belichick will be either.
“So Tannehill actually makes a lot of sense,” he said.
Despite Tannehill being looked on unfavourably by some NFL observers, Fahey is confident that Patriots head coach Bill Belichick will be able to successfully incorporate Tannehill into their offense.
“No matter how much you want to criticise Tannehill or talk about what he can’t do, he has very clear and undeniably qualities in that he’s athletic, he has a huge arm, he can hit deep balls and he’s very accurate on short and medium throws.
“The question marks over him would be: how does he diagnose coverages, is able to drop back and make reads constantly and play big in clutch moments?
“Those aren’t questions that I have but questions the wider NFL audience has.
“So even if you have those question marks you put him with Bill Belichick and he can still make that work.
“He’s proven that in the past when he’s done it when Brady is either injured or suspended that he can make it work with a quarter-back with a lesser skill set,” Fahey explained.
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