Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill was present at organized team activities on Tuesday, which was the second session in two days for the Titans.
The team made players available to the media afterwards, and Tannehill was one of them — and as you’d expect, he addressed his now-infamous comment about it not being his job to mentor Malik Willis.
Tannehill says he meant no disrespect to Willis and his comments were spun into something else he didn’t intend. He also noted that he reached out to Willis immediately after mentor-gate began.
“We were communicating the whole time,” Tannehill said with a laugh. “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 and 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 continued. “And he’s been good, and he was great with it throughout the whole time. As soon as I reached out to him, he’s like ‘yeah, I can’t believe it’s blown into this.’ So, things that were great with us from the beginning and have continued to be great, and it’s been great to have him in the room and get to know him as a person and we’ll continue to build that relationship.”
.@ryantannehill1 said his relationship with @malikwillis has been great from Day 1 with the @Titans.
— Jim Wyatt (@jwyattsports) May 24, 2022
Tannehill also spoke on the progress he has seen from Willis thus far.
“He’s kind of coming up to speed with the way we work, the way we do things, and how we do things,” Tannehill said. “That’s one of my charges as leader of the room is to try to help him out, and he’s done a good job of getting with the room and working to get better.”
Tannehill sees Willis getting better all ready. #Titans pic.twitter.com/Jp89i0a2tK
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) May 24, 2022
As we said at the time mentor-gate began, this whole thing was blown out of proportion. Tannehill was always going to help Willis out, even without using the specific label of mentor.