When the Los Angeles Rams rallied past the underdog Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl 56, Matthew Stafford became the third quarterback in NFL history to win a championship in his first season with a new team. The second player to accomplish the feat was Tom Brady, who led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a title just last year.
Both the Rams and Buccaneers built playoff-caliber rosters that desperately needed a transcendent quarterback in command, and those championship solutions included Stafford and Brady. The past two seasons have proven how valuable strong-to-elite quarterback play is, and JR believes one AFC contender should look to make a similar change, if they want to win a title.
"If the Tennessee Titans had a quarterback better than Ryan Tannehill, I think they would be a real Super Bowl contender," JR said during Tuesday's edition of the JR SportBrief show. "We're putting trust in Tannehill? I can put trust in Mike Vrabel, Tennessee's defense toward the end of the year. But if they had something better than Tannehill, people wouldn't look at them as a No. 1 seed that was one of the worst in recent memory.
"If you recall what they did in the playoffs, Tannehill decided to go out there, first play of game: interception... In the biggest moments, he choked... The Titans are a perfect example of a team, that if only they had a damn good QB, they'd be legitimate Super Bowl contenders... You threw it away to open the game, at the end of the game, and in the middle of the game... To be at the top of the top? Eh, forget about it. Nope. The Titans are one QB away..."
Tennessee, which managed to clinch the AFC's top seed without superstar running back Derrick Henry, struggled mightily to generate offense against the Bengals during the divisional round. Tannehill threw three critical picks, and completed only 15 of 24 passes in a 19-16 loss. It was the Titans' third consecutive loss on their own field as the conference's top seed.
After the game, Tannehill discussed his poor performance with reporters, saying, "It's going to hurt for a long time. It's going to be on my mind for a long time." The 33-year-old became just the third quarterback since 1991 to throw interceptions on his first and last pass attempt of a playoff game, and his QBR was a season-low 10.4. According to Spotrac, Tannehill's cap hit for the 2022 season will be a whopping $38.6 million.
JR's complete thoughts on the Titans and quarterback-needy teams can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow the JR SportBrief show on Twitter @JRSportBrief and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.