I have been wanting to do a piece on the Miami Dolphins QB for a long time. There’s so much of a debate on what kind of QB he is. Some don’t even believe he is a QB. I am going to get to that. But, first, I need to get something out of the way.
I love Tannehill’s character. I have no problem with his character. He is a hard worker. One of the first guys in the building I am told. He takes pay cuts to help the front office build this team. He doesn’t come with any baggage. I can see why the Miami Dolphins wanted him as the face of the franchise. How I view him as a person should not be included with how I see him as a player. So, let’s move on.
Tannehill was drafted 8th overall in the 2012 draft. He was the first QB selected in the first round since Dan Marino. Now, just from those two sentences alone, what sort of expectations would you have for Ryan Tannehill? What is fair? Let me tell you mine.
You draft a QB in the top ten, he must be an immediate starter. Looking back, that was probably a dumb idea to think because I think Tannehill riding the pine for a year could have been beneficial for him. Too bad, #17’s only competition was David Garrard and Matt Moore. Moore’s career was already out the door and Garrard’s was just getting there at the time.
Now, I didn’t expect Ryan Tannehill to be the second coming of Dan Marino but after 7 years, not only can Tannehill not get this team to the playoffs, he can’t even produce a winning season. Tannehill lovers, please! The Dolphins were 8-5 when they played the Cardinals, they hadn’t won the game yet. Moore may have been struggling but that is to be expected from your backup QB who has to shake off the rust after not playing for 5 years.
The Dolphins have suffered 2 straight losses and it’s only the beginning of October. For the first time this season, the Dolphins don’t even make it into the red-zone during the Bengals game. They are 17-55 on 3rd downs whereas their opponents are 28-63. Now, to be fair, I don’t think that is entirely Tannehill’s fault, but it shows in our time of possession as our opponents have outdone us for 166:38 to our 133:23. That means, our opponents through 5 games, have been able to hold onto the ball for more than 2 quarters. That gives us a 50-50 chance to win ball games. Who’s ready for another 8-8 season? Show of hands? I’m not putting mine up. But, with Ryan Tannehill as our QB, that is exactly what we are on course for.
Now, let’s talk about my feelings about the QB position. You can win games being a game manager. Now, what’s a game managing QB mean to me? A game managing QB is someone who hands the ball off to his RB and makes that critical throw whenever the team gets into 3rd and long situations.
An elite QB is someone who despite no running back committee, a porous o-line and a weak defense, still can rally the offense and pull out a victory. Tannehill is not an elite QB. He could be a successful game-managing QB if he had the right pieces behind him. We have seen that. But, he is just a guy playing QB. He is not anything special and he needs way too much help to be good.
Now, there’s been some discussion that he is really a WR. All I can say about that is two things:
1) Why kind of competitive ball player who wants to go to the pros, elects to stay at a school to play a different position when there are hundreds of schools out there that are in need of a QB? Have you no self-respect for yourself?
2) The constant lack of no competition has got me wondering if there is something internally going on with Ryan Tannehill. Like maybe he really doesn’t have any confidence in his play-making abilities and the Dolphins have sort of hand-held him through this whole process. I mean, the guy is willing to take pay cuts. That could be because he knows he is not good.
There were a lot of Dolphin fans on Sunday calling for Gase’s head. All I got to say about that is this. Gase has had not even 3 years with this team yet. Tannehill is in his 7th. Yes, I am including his one year on IR because you know what? He should have learned something. He is at the midway point of his career for crying out loud. This is his year to shine and he is letting this fan-base down.
I am done with the mediocre QB. Unless, by some miracle, he can be the guy who can sustain drives and keep the ball out of the opposing QB’s hands, it’s time to trade him and get what we can for him and let the “suck for Herbert” sweepstakes begin. The Dolphins may be able to win another 3 games with Tannehill but what is the point? The point is to get back to the playoffs this year and it isn’t going to happen with Ryan Tannehill. That much I do know.
Steve Ross, please, please let’s move on from Ryan Tannehill. Can we pretty please with a cherry on top? Let this regime continue to build up this roster. They still need to work on this defense and o-line. Yes, I believe Miami Dolphins Owner is Ryan Tannehill’s biggest advocate. Dolphins need an elite QB until this ball club can overcome the roster deficiencies because I am tired of losing. I am tired of the constant regime changes and delusions that Tannehill is something he is not. You got your football people. Now, let them do their job.
I agree with your analysis to a point. It may not be time to move on from him ( somebody has to play QB), but it is time to realize he is not the future. I think Gase knows that and that is why he was interested in those young QB’s during the draft, just not enough to give up draft capitol to get one with this roster needing to fill so many holes other than QB. I think we are trying to find a base of young players to build upon and will draft a QB next year. Tannehill will be playing the role of bridge QB from the present to the future. What concerns me is if the questions about the players forming our young base don’t have good answers. If Harris, Tunsill, Jesse Davis, Parker, McMillan,etc…are not part of the long term solution then we have bigger problems. This is all supposing Gase has an actual plan, which i’m not so sure about. His game plans are suspect, play calling is suspect, and in game adjustments seem to be non-existent. So to think he actually has a long term plan may be a bit naive on my part. I agree we need to lose to get better draft position. I still root for them to win! But if we want to keep pace with the Jets and Buffalo who already have a head start with their young new QBs, we need to find our next QB as soon as we can!
I think all the guys you mentioned with the exception of Parker are to a certain point part of the Dolphins future. Some of them my be long-term backups and those drafted are expected to be long-term starters that just haven’t broken out yet.
On Gase, I truely believe he is the right coach. It might be another decade and a half before we find a young, passionate, high football IQ coach like Gase. The problem is for us, Dolphin fans, we have had to suffer the growing pains of so many coaches before him and it’s taken it’s toll. Now, we are being asked yet again to go through, Gase’s growing pains. One of them, I am going to talk about in an upcoming article later this week but Gase needs to understand that good offenses know how to drive the ball and milk the clock. After 3 years, Gase is still struggling with that lesson. I don’t care that he is offensive-minded. This is his first head coaching gig. He is going to make mistakes.
Exhibit A of what it means to have an elite QB; the Cleveland Browns. Baker Mayfield is not Tom Brady yet, but his composure is impressive; you sense that he knows what to do how to get the most of even bad situations. He is electrifying and makes ordinary receivers play like first round draft choices. Look at Landry who we know well; catch long bombs. As an example of what a good QB means to a team watch the Jaguars; where they’ve assembled a terrific defense and a decent running game . Yet Bortles makes that team look like Super Bowl bound on a good day; but very average one on one of Bortles bad days. Management in Jacksonville has been very smart in most of their decision; but there too management cling to the notion that Bortles is an elite QB.
Let’s be honest, Tannehill was Mike Shermans baby from the beginning. I’m not sure that even Sherman believed that Tannehill would be the QB of the future but since Chad Henne was such a bust and Dolphins really needed a new household name, then they took the wildcard and hoped the combination of Coach/QB could be the future. Well, Sherman was fired by Texas A&M and Dolphins signed him as a OC. That was a huge mistake and Sherman was eventually fired after two seasons. The “golden child” was still with the team, and with so much money invested and a stubborn belief that Tannehill was the future did put the franchise in this situation. Anyway, it could have worked out if the front office wasn’t such a joke, with bad draft choices and and spending huge money on free agents who only saw the chance to get well paid and a vacation in the sun. Tannehill isn’t scared and he could take a hit for the team, but he isn’t a NFL QB, and then you as a coach at least have to try to make some adjustment to that. Use your bags of tricks, find a way to throw the ball out of the pocket and give Tannehill a run option. Obviously, Gase isn’t smart enough to understand that or he is not willing to make any adjustment in his playbook. Gase is beyond crazy if he believes in Osweiler but why not give Fales a chance? There’s no sense keeping a third string QB, if you don’t see the future in that guy.
You are 100% correct. The issues go beyond Tannehill. They got to stop signing people on the wrong side of 30. They need to stop drafting receivers and tight ends in the early rounds. And Ross needs to hire people with experience for the positions needed in that front office.
Now we are already in this mess, I say tank, get a qb in the first round of the 2019 draft and let this regime continue to have the chance to learn from their mistakes while also try to clean up past regimes’ mistakes.