Miami Dolphins offensive line improvement won’t help Ryan Tannehill
By Brian Miller
For the last seven years we have listened to the Miami Dolphins fans excuses for Ryan Tannehill but one excuse won’t change anything if fixed.
You have read it everywhere. Mainstream media, forums, even here a dozen or more times. The Miami Dolphins Ryan Tannehill can’t be fully judged without a real offensive line. I believed that. I don’t anymore.
To put this clearly and I take no ownership of this because it was posted on Twitter a few days ago by someone I can’t find now, but it goes something like this.
A quarterback who is horrible on third down, can’t make simple reads, and has poor pocket awareness will not benefit from a solid offensive line. And that is 100% true.
Ryan Tannehill is not a bad quarterback. He is far from it and if the offensive line was playing at a much higher level and his tight-ends were getting open more frequently, and if the play calling was a lot better, and the defense was playing better, then Ryan Tannehill would be a really good quarterback. But he wouldn’t be elite and he wouldn’t be great.
For his improvements made in his deep passing game and his ability to run, Tannehill is a little above average but when protections break down forget about it.
There is uncertainty surrounding Ryan Tannehill as it relates to the 2019 and beyond. Will he or won’t he be in Miami beyond 2018 and if so for how long? The Dolphins need to do better. Not do a better job blocking, although yeah that too, but they need to do better at quarterback.
Tannehill is likable on and off the field. He has put in a lot of effort and tries in an awkward way to be the team’s leader but he can’t. Quarterbacks can’t be just vocal leaders on a football team. They have to earn the trust and respect of their teammates on both sides. Tannehill has the teams respect but does he have the trust? When the game is on the line do they look to Ryan Tannehill to make the throws necessary to drive 90 yards with no time-outs down by four? Not without a lot of fingers being crossed.
Miami fans don’t have to look too far back to see that there are questions about Adam Gase’s trust in Tannehill as well. On third and long situations why is Gase not dialing up passing routes to the first down markers? Is it because he doesn’t trust the offensive line or does he not trust Tannehill?
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Tannehill is really good when rolling out but Gase doesn’t ask him to do that too often despite the fact it opens the offense up a bit and keeps pressure off Tannehill. That is important because Tannehill doesn’t make fast reads of all his receivers. He is slow to recognize the blitz and slower to find the open receiver when an edge rush comes from a corner or coverage linebacker.
I genuinely root for Tannehill to succeed. To see those three touchdown games and those throws that make you say, “There, right there. That is where he should be”. In those moments you realize that all too often they are the exception and not the rule.
2018 Ryan Tannehill is not much different from 2012 Ryan Tannehill. Many of the same issues are still present. Many issues of development still remain. While Tannehill can make most of the throws needed by an NFL quarterback he is too inconsistent to trust when the game is on the line. The fan in us all want to scream outward that we know he can drive the field and pull it off but the inner voice reminds us that chances are he won’t.
The Miami Miracle was a touchdown pass by Tannehill that went 20 yards and was then carried on the legs of Kenyan Drake after pitches from Kenny Stills and DeVante Parker. The Dolphins “high-five” moment of the season was a touchdown pass from Tannehill to Albert Wilson who raced down the field to slap fives with Jakeem Grant early in the season. Yet the pass was a forward pitch to Wilson behind the center.
Miami has two games left and maybe these will be the last two games for Ryan Tannehill in Miami. More likely they will not be. If Tannehill is here in 2018 the Dolphins are going to need to get Tannehill’s issues fixed, or fix every other piece of the team around him so that he can be “really” good.