Dolphins still have questions at QB

Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill is no longer in the infancy of his NFL career. In fact, he’s four years in. At this point, if anything, it’s understood that he’s in the prime of his career.

By watching him play, specifically at the line of scrimmage, you would think he was an NFL rookie. I mean, rookies aren’t allowed to audible at the line of scrimmage, right? Well, neither is Ryan Tannehill.

You see, it’s rather simple. Let’s dumb this down a bit: Ryan Tannehill isn’t an upper echelon quarterback. He never was, he’ll never be. It’s just not him.

After the Dolphins squeaked out a win against the Philadelphia Eagles, one thing was apparent: Tannehill has absolutely no awareness and his coaches have zero confidence in him. On multiple occasions—including a sack for a safety—the Eagles showed blitz and, Tannehill, because he’s not allowed, didn’t audible out of the play and took a sack. We’ve seen this atrocity now for four years. When the hell is it going to end?

But wait, there’s more. Last Thursday, distraught and annoyed with answering the same question over and over, Lazor told reporters that Tannehill has the ability to audible whenever he wants, especially on third down and in the red-zone.

“I have no different answer than what I have given. He changes [plays] with words. He changes it with hand signals, hopefully subtly,” Lazor said Thursday. “He audibled at the line of scrimmage against the Eagles and it absolutely was 100 percent within the normal rhythm of the cadence. The goal is for no one to know he’s doing it.”

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If that’s the case, than Miami has some trouble on their hands. If, in fact, Tannehill does have the option to audible and change plays at the line of scrimmage, how can he be so unaware of what’s going on? Numerous times, especially in Philadelphia last Sunday, it was incredibly obvious what the opposition was doing: blitzing!

To make matters worse, while Miami was playing Philadelphia, legendary Dolphins quarterback Bob Griese expressed his displeasure at Tannehill’s lack of awareness on the team’s radio network. After Tannehill was sacked on a third down blitz and the team punted the ball, Griese, about to cut to break, was heard saying that he’s never seen a quarterback that was so bad at feeling pressure and understanding when to audible out of a play. Obviously, Griese didn’t want his audience to hear it, but maybe they needed to.

Ryan Tannehill isn’t the only problem with this Miami Dolphins team, but if their quarterback can’t, or doesn’t have the ability to audible—something even rookie quarterbacks are given permission to do—the Dolphins need to start looking elsewhere if they ever want to reach the one place they haven’t been in seven miserable, nauseating seasons: the playoffs.

And if it couldn’t get any worse, Tannehill didn’t make a good case for himself two days ago at home against a lowly Dallas Cowboys team. After an abysmal start—throwing a pick six in the second quarter—Tannehill was under continuous duress and, again, was made to look like a deer in headlights and couldn’t read blitzes or sustain any sort of pressure—a common occurrence for the folk in Sun Life Stadium.

Again and again, we see the same thing: Tannehill taking a sack and throwing up his arms and giving up like a coward and accepting defeat. When will he ever make the right read, throw, or decision? It’s been four years? Do we have to make it another eight years?

Wake up Miami, it is time to start looking around for yet another “franchise quarterback.” Ryan Tannehill isn’t the answer. And only someone who’s blind will tell you any different. Mr. “Check-down” will never take you to where you want to go—unless it’s towards mediocrity.