Traded away from a Dolphins franchise he was once envisioned to become the face of, Ryan Tannehill arrived in Tennessee as a forgotten first-rounder who would take over the Titans' backup spot.
What followed was a thrilling tale that began as a Tannehill renaissance and ended with the reinvigorated quarterback producing the finest season of his career while captaining a comeback not just for himself but for the Titans, who clinched a playoff berth on the last Sunday of the season before going on to two mammoth postseason upsets.
For his revival and the histrionics and success that accompanied it, Tannehill was named the 2019 AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year during Saturday's NFL Honors in Miami.
Tannehill earned 16 of 50 votes, edging out 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (15) by just one vote.
Tannehill's memorable campaign was truly a tale of two comebacks -- his and the Titans.
At season's end, Tannehill had tallied an NFL-best 117.5 passer rating, a 70.3 completion percentage, an NFL-high 9.6 yards per attempt and 22 touchdowns (to just six interceptions) - all career-highs.
As former Titans first-rounder Marcus Mariota struggled, Tannehill took over at the midway point of a Week 6 loss to the Broncos.
With Tannehill starting under center, the Titans emerged from a listless 2-4 start, going 7-3 to finish the regular season with the 31 year old as QB 1.
Tannehill, who also threw for 2,742 yards in 12 games and had five rushing scores, led the Titans' offense back from the doldrums. With Tannehill starting, the offense nearly doubled its scoring output, going from 16.3 points per game to 30.4 as it's passing yards per contest went from 187.7 to 245.6 and set up a rushing game resurgence with an improvement of 102.8 to 160.6.
The Titans were simply a different -- and far better -- team once Tannehill took over.
Tannehill came off the bench and never looked back, leading a comeback for the Titans and for his career.
