Will Dolphins run Ryan Tannehill more?

The Miami Dolphins haven’t used Ryan Tannehill and the read option very much this year but that could change in the foreseeable future. The Dolphins anemic running game last week against Philadelphia didn’t go unnoticed by the coaching staff. Especially Dan Campbell who pointed out the 3.8 yards per carry average on the game.

"“We somewhat hit a brick wall last week,” Campbell said. “We averaged 3.8 per carry, and that’s not good enough. We need to be averaging a minimum of four.”"

Running the ball is a bread and butter play for Tannehill who statistically has done very well since arriving in 2012. Last year the Dolphins ran the read option far more than they have this year. The Dolphins have a big offensive threat in Tannehill when he is out of the pocket. Allowing him to pull the ball and run is something that the team needs to focus on.

When Tannehill has success running from his quarterback position, it opens up the rest of the rushing attack. In fact, it opens the passing game a bit as well. While it’s not a full proof guarantee that Tannehill will pick up first downs he has consistently picked up chunk yards when he carries the football. Yet for some reason, this year, Bill Lazor isn’t calling his number.

It’s possible that the coaches are trying to keep their franchise quarterback healthy but limiting an area that he excels at is holding the team back and more importantly allowing defenses to channel their vision to stopping Lamar Miller and Tannehill’s passing attack.

The Miami Herald talked about this in an article this morning. The Herald points out that Tannehill is on pace for career lows in every rushing category. That’s something that the Dolphins hope will change. For his part, Tannehill has said that he would like to run the ball more but it’s not something in his control. Tannehill is not allowed to audible at the line of scrimmage which has put the Dolphins repeatedly in bad situations. More on this later this morning.

For the Dolphins to be successful they need to utilize all of their players to the best of their abilities. Tannehill is developing nicely at quarterback but he is one of the leagues best rushing quarterbacks and again, the Dolphins are not calling his number. While Dan Campbell said that they would like to run him more, it’s not as easy as doing it. He points out that part of the issues stems from what the team faces from the defense but the Dolphins are not dictating what the defense will run instead, they are reacting to the defense that is being run.

That is a big problem. Teams like the Patriots play their offense and make teams change their defense. The Dolphins don’t do that. It could be a big reason why they are not consistently producing points offensively. Maybe that will change this week. More likely it won’t.