COLUMN: The Reason Behind the Nonsensical "Aaron Rodgers to the Titans" Discourse
The Aaron Rodgers to the Tennessee Titans conversation can officially end, now. Ian Rapoport announced on Tuesday that the four-time All-Pro will stay in Green Bay on a contract valued at $50 million annually. It's a good thing that the discourse on Rodgers and the Titans is over, since most of it was a cesspool […]
The Aaron Rodgers to the Tennessee Titans conversation can officially end, now.
Ian Rapoport announced on Tuesday that the four-time All-Pro will stay in Green Bay on a contract valued at $50 million annually.
It's a good thing that the discourse on Rodgers and the Titans is over, since most of it was a cesspool of nonsense, even though Pro Football Talk did report Tennessee was a potential destination for Rodgers on March 4.
Some fans (and, unfortunately, reporters) asserted that the Titans would never and should never be interested in Rodgers because he's a diva.
By the way, the idea that the "burden" of a bit of offseason drama, if you can call it that, would outweigh the benefit of having a quarterback who's won NFL MVP two years in a row is ludicrous.
Others, so eager to make Rodgers to the Titans seem like a real possibility, ran with the fact that Rodgers is building a home near Nashville⏤something that's apparently been in the works for multiple years⏤and declared that development to be a sure sign of Rodgers' impending switch from the green and yellow to the two-tone blue.
Titans fans' divide on Rodgers⏤between those who desperately wanted him and those who performed logical hula hoops to make a trade seem like a terrible idea⏤reflects a greater divide within not just the fanbase, but also both local and national reporters.
That divide surrounds the Titans incumbent quarterback, Ryan Tannehill, who the team is likely, now, stuck with as their starter for 2022 whether they want him or not.
Ever since Tannehill's beyond lousy, three-interception performance in the postseason knocked the 12-5 Titans out, there's been a great deal of disagreement about the veteran signal caller's merits.
Some have posited that Tannehill is absolutely capable of leading Tennessee to the promised land so long as he gets better talent around him.
Titans general manager Jon Robinson is, at least publicly, a member of that group.
"I think it’s pretty apparent where he stands with us," Robinson told The Tennessean in February. "He’s our quarterback. I don’t know how many more times I gotta say it.”
Others, like me, believe the Titans have likely reached their ceiling with Tannehill.
After all, he's 0-3 in the postseason when RB Derrick Henry doesn't explode with a monster game. He was flat in 2020 and a disaster in 2021.
Looking at this from a scientific perspective, there's no evidence currently available to indicate that Tannehill is capable of taking the Titans, or any team, on a three- or four-game postseason winning streak.
That's precisely why so many folks took anything that hit the internet connecting Rodgers to the Titans, even the stuff that came from notoriously fraudulent Twitter accounts, as fact.
If there was no reason to worry about Tannehill's capabilities, the Rodgers discussions would have never had any life. After all, the Titans owe Tannehill a boatload of money and would've had to pay Rodgers a second boatload.
But because Tannehill's ceiling is such a question mark, people wanted to believe Rodgers was a possibility when he likely never was.
The Rodgers to Tennessee discussion may be over, but similar ones are likely right around the bend. They will be until Tannehill forces us to shut up.
- Tannehill image: George Walker IV/The Tennessean
- Rodgers image: Jeffrey Becker/USA Today
