According to Dianna Russini of The Athletic, the Green Bay Packers have “reached out” to former Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill, the top free-agent quarterback yet to sign a contract before the 2024 regular season. According to Russini, Tannehill claimed in July that he was looking for the “right situation” before joining a team in 2024.
Following Jordan Love’s MCL injury in the regular season’s opening game, the Packers will start with Malik Willis, who was traded at the deadline, according to a report from FOX’s Jay Glazer. However, everything seems wide open after Week 2.
According to Spotrac, the Packers have $16 million in salary cap space for the 2024 season — that’s 13th in the NFL. It might be tight, but Green Bay could get Tannehill under that number. As a reminder, salary cap space also takes into account any players who end up on the injured list, meaning that number has to account for the 53-man roster, practice squad and injured list throughout the regular season.
Let’s say the Packers want to create more salary space. In that case, they’ll likely have to adjust the contracts of defensive tackle Kenny Clark or cornerback Jaire Alexander, the only players on the roster currently making a salary above $3.5 million. While Clark will make $29 million in 2024 because he signed a three-year contract extension before the season, $10.05 million of that will come in the form of salary that can be converted into a signing bonus and spread over a maximum of five years of the salary cap. Alexander currently makes $6.65 million, while he’ll make a total of $15.3 million this season with the help of roster bonuses.
The questions now are whether Tannehill would sign with Green Bay and whether it would be worth adding him to the roster. If Tannehill isn’t ready until Week 3 and Love returns to the starting lineup in Week 4, how much money is that worth? Would Tannehill want to play just one game for the Packers? Would he want to become a free agent after the assignment, or would he take on the backup role for Willis? What would all of this mean for Willis? As you can imagine, there are a lot of questions both sides need to answer before potentially signing a contract.
In his NFL career, Tannehill has an 81-70 record as a starting quarterback. He has thrown 216 passing touchdowns and 115 interceptions with a 91.2 passer rating in 11 NFL seasons. Keep an eye on what the 36-year-old quarterback decides, as his availability could be critical to the Packers’ season if they receive bad news on the second opinion of Love’s MCL injury.
Update:
There are now conflicting reports that the Packers have been in contact with Tannehill. According to Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, the Packers have not “pursued” Tannehill and have no plans to do so.
