These three NFL starting quarterbacks played badly enough this week to merit being benched.
While quarterback play was pretty good across the board in the NFL this week, there are always a few who hold the rest of the league back.
The theme this week is what happens when the weather starts to change. The ball can be a little bit more challenging to hold onto. There is also a more conservative approach to play-calling, meaning offenses will go more ground-control as a result. Though this can help, it also magnifies each and every mistake a quarterback ends up making with limited opportunities available for him.
If three quarterbacks deserve to ride pine next week, these three can go hold a clipboard.
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NFL Week 11: 3 starting quarterbacks who deserve to be benched
Ryan Tannehill was a turnover machine vs. the Houston Texans on Sunday
While he is not getting benched, Ryan Tannehill was an unmitigated disaster for the Tennessee Titans this week. He could not stop turning the football over. Tannehill put the ball on the ground twice. Though neither fumble was recovered by the opposition, he still threw four interceptions to the Houston Texans defense. Tannehill is the reason the Titans lost to the Texans in Nashville.
This horrendous performance by Tannehill feels like an anomaly in Titans uniform. He has rarely played this bad since coming over to Tennessee in 2019. However, this was an atrocious division loss there are no excuses for it. With the Indianapolis Colts playing better football of late, you cannot drop a game at home to a bottom-feeder like Houston under any circumstances. What a debacle!
The shame in it all is the Titans defense played very well. They allowed only 190 yards of offense to Tyrod Taylor and the Texans. Still, Tennessee lost a totally winnable game 22-13 because Tannehill could not have been more reckless with the football. At 8-3, Tennessee is a virtual lock to make the AFC playoffs. However, this totally hurts their chances of getting home-field advantage.
Simply put, Tannehill played like he was still the quarterback for the Adam Gase Miami Dolphins.
Trevor Lawrence has hit a developmental wall with the Jacksonville Jaguars
It is undeniable at this point. Trevor Lawrence has hit the rookie wall as the Jacksonville Jaguars starting quarterback. After falling to 2-8 on the season following their blowout home loss to the San Francisco 49ers, Lawrence is not playing with the confidence he once did while at Clemson. Jacksonville may be devoid of talent, but his lack of dynamism resulted in a brutal 30-10 defeat.
While he did not turn the football over, Lawrence threw for only 158 yards on the afternoon. Though his numbers were not considerably worse than his counterpart Jimmy Garoppolo’s, Jacksonville had no running game. Garoppolo had no issues handing the ball off to his many tailbacks to grind out an impressive road victory. Lawrence went conservative and got burnt.
Ultimately, this is as much on the coaching staff as it is on Lawrence. The Jaguars were pitiful a year ago and took him No. 1 overall for a reason. Can he still be the franchise’s savior? Totally, but he may not be the type of player who can carry a moribund franchise on his own. The last thing he needs is to develop bad habits playing in a losing situation in the infancy of his professional career.
Lawrence will probably pop in year two, but he has played with a certain level of timidness of late.
