Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill said his comments earlier this month about fellow Tennessee quarterback Malik Willis were taken out context and that he will be a great teammate to the rookie.
“I meant no disrespect to Malik or anything like that,” Tannehill said on Tuesday during Titans’ OTAs. “We’ve been in constant communication since he was drafted. I’m disappointed in how things got spun and twisted a little bit. I pride myself on being a great teammate my whole career going back to when I was a kid playing youth sports.”
Tennessee used a third-round draft pick to select Willis out of Liberty University. The following week, Tannehill said it’s not his job to mentor the young QB, a player whom he considers to be competition.
The remarks led to a firestorm of criticism, including from Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner, who tweeted, “I will never understand the ‘I’m not here to mentor the next guy’ mentality…so for all you young QBs that need a mentor, DM me & I’ll be that guy, happy to help in any way I can!”
For Tannehill’s part, though, he said on Tuesday that he’s more than willing to be that guy.
“As soon as it blew up, I reached out to him and said, ‘Hey, I’m going to be a great teammate to you, I’m going to support you. They’re making this out to something that it’s not to be. It’s not what it’s been made out to be at all,’” Tannehill said. “He’s been good. He was great with it throughout the whole time. It’s been great to have him in the room and build that relationship.”
The 33-year-old and 10-year NFL vet also said he takes his role as one of the team’s leaders “seriously.”
“There’s a few people that I count as mentors. There’s hundreds of people that helped me out throughout my career, but there’s only a few people that I would consider mentors,” he said. “A mentorship is something that both people have to want, both people have to agree to enter into that, and it’s going to have to take a lot of time, energy and focus.”
Also, Willis said he didn’t have an issue with Tannehill’s initial comments.
“Oh, man, we chopped it up. I mean, it was never anything negative,” Willis said two weeks ago, adding that Tannehill also invited all the offensive rookies to his house. “Ryan’s a good dude … Everything’s cool.”
Last season, the Titans were the top seed in the AFC playoffs but were beaten at home by the Bengals in the divisional round. Tannehill threw three interceptions in the game. Then the team drafted Willis 86th overall.
When or if Willis will unseat Tannehill remains to be seen but for now there doesn’t appear to be any beef.
“It’s been cool,” Willis said of Tannehill. “He’s a great guy that works super hard and wants everybody to get their work. He’s definitely someone that you can look up to.”
