Dolphins first quarter grades are not good

Aug 29, 2015; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill (17) drops to throw during the second quarter of an NFL preseason football game against the Atlanta Falcons at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

Quarterback B-

Ryan Tannehill looked sharper in week one than any other week this season and while he didn’t play bad against the Jaguars he looked horrible against the Bills and Jets. Everything imploded after Jacksonville. Tannehill’s biggest problems are not singular. There are a myriad of issues that he has to deal with each and every Sunday.

To evaluate the quarterback position you have to first look at his protection and that has been atrocious. Tannehill has little to no time and that takes away from the offensive success of individual plays. He is rushed and is remaining in the pocket by design. Considering that he is far more accurate with time and while moving out of the pocket it’s a serious mismanagement of coaching to assume he can hang in the pocket and take hits week after week.

Offensive line play aside, Tannehill still hasn’t figured out his touch passes or his deep passes. Again he is much better as a read and react quarterback and his success goes up when he gets out of the pocket. His successful deep plays are thrown outside of the tackle. Bill Lazor has to do a better job of getting Tannehill out of the pressure zone to allow him an opportunity to make plays. The problem is you take half of the field away when you roll him out.

Another problem is that Tannehill is not allowed to audible at the line of scrimmage. This is important because if a play is called in and the defensive lineup shows what will stop that play, Tannehill can’t change it and that means a likely negative result. His only option is to hit the dump off receiver and more often than not, he can’t due to defensive alignments and pressure. In addition he can’t change a run to a pass or vice versa and that puts the Dolphins into a hole before the snap of the ball.

Finally the lack of a running game, any running game is hurting the Dolphins passing options. Opposing teams know the Dolphins are not going to run and when they do it’s typically outside sweeps. Lamar Miller has only carried the ball a fraction of what he did last year. Defenses easily can tee off on Tannehill knowing he will be throwing the ball.

Tannehill hasn’t been sharp but there again lies a lot of reasons for this to be. He needs to tighten his game up but until other aspects of the offense are fixed, Tannehill is an injury waiting to happen.

Next: There is no running game