Miami Dolphins have no easy answers to finding a franchise quarterback

The Miami Dolphins are still joined at the hip with quarterback Ryan Tannehill but finding his successor will not be easy when they finally move on.

The hottest debates among Miami Dolphins fans center on Ryan Tannehill and Adam Gase and after Thursday’s press conference showdown between Gase and Armando Salguero, it’s not likely going to end any time soon.

Ryan Tannehill is not the problem for the Dolphins. It’s been clearly stated that he is not the solution either. Fans want a franchise quarterback that looks like Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. They will settle for the hopes of a Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff, or Carson Wentz. It’s an “anyone but him” mentality and it’s wrong.

Where Miami is failing however is that they are putting too much trust in Ryan Tannehill. They believed in 2017 that Tannehill could come back with no surgery to his knee. They were wrong. They believed in 2018 that Tannehill would come back from his knee and while they were right that he did, they didn’t foresee the possibility that another injury could sideline their franchise QB.

Brock Osweiler has been playing o.k. but everyone knows he is not the future of this team. But neither is the 30 year old Tannehill without a lot of help in a lot of areas around the team. Tannehill is not Rodgers, Brady, or Manning. He is a middle of the road starter that will have really good games, a few bad games, but never a great game.

How do you fix that? How do you fix a position that needs to be fixed when the opportunity to fix it never comes your way? The first answer is the draft and development. Let us start there.

For the Dolphins, picking high in the draft has been a problem simply because they pick high enough to think they could get a quarterback but still low enough to miss out without selling draft picks to move up for developmental players. That is a problem. Miami could draft a QB in the 2nd round or even the third and develop them but over the last two years those pickings have been a lot thinner.

More from Dolphins News

It seems more and more quarterbacks are being drafted in the first round and one reason is that under league rules, the QB is far more protected and thus there is a lot less likelihood of them being injured. This allows teams to develop that talent longer knowing that an investment of three to four years of developing can still pay off for another ten. Ryan Tannehill is 30 years old and if he can start avoiding the injuries that are creeping on him now, he could be in the league ten years from now. Maybe starting.

Miami simply can not get into the right position to draft a future starter but they need to make QB a focal point of the draft. 2019’s draft is not supposed to provide a big group of franchise potentials but the 2020 draft is. So the Dolphins need to look elsewhere.

The next logical stop is free agency but this year is not likely to provide any Kirk Cousins on the market. It will likely have a Teddy Bridgewater or a Derek Carr. Bridgewater makes a lot of sense for the Dolphins. He is untainted so to speak. The NFL hasn’t beaten him down like Carr he simply suffered a bad injury that he is now two years removed from.

Bridgewater could serve as a bridge until the 2020 draft. It would give the Dolphins another season with Tannehill behind center but a true competition behind him that will push Tannehill to be better. If Tannehill gets hurt, Bridgewater can take the team over or perhaps the Dolphins could just give the team to Bridgewater and evaluate him 2019.

Regardless the Dolphins need to draft a quarterback in 2020 at the latest and they may need to finally bite the bullet and make a move up to get one. Waiting for a sixth round gem like the Patriots got rarely happens and waiting for it to happen is costing coaches their jobs.

Home/Dolphins News