There is a lesson the Miami Dolphins can learn from Ryan Tannehill
By Brian Miller
Former Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill will start today in the AFC Championship game and he could be starting in Super Bowl LIV.
Many fans are simply wishing Ryan Tannehill the best but Miami Dolphins fans also know that in Miami, Tannehill was never going to be great. In Tennessee, he doesn’t have to be. Somewhere there is a lesson to be learned and that lesson is one that Chris Grier and Stephen Ross need to pay close attention to.
The Dolphins have always been looking for the next great thing. Wayne Huizenga wanted Jimmy Johnson and then Nick Saban and then Bill Parcells. It all blew up in his face. Stephen Ross wanted Jeff Fisher and Peyton Manning but his mistakes left him Joe Philbin and Ryan Tannehill and Adam Gase. We now know that Ryan Tannehill wasn’t the problem. Not entirely and maybe not at all.
Tannehill is succeeding in Tennessee because he isn’t being forced into a hole he doesn’t fit into. This is the lesson that Miami needs to learn.
When the 2020 NFL Draft rolls around Grier, Flores, and Ross will need to decide if a quarterback is what they want in round one. They have to decide what quarterback they want and how that quarterback fits into what they are hoping to build in Miami.
If they believe Tua Tagovailoa is the best QB in this class then they need to get him but they also have to believe that he is the best QB for this team. If he isn’t what Flores and his staff believe will work, then don’t draft him.
Many believe that Oregon’s Justin Herbert is the target for Miami. A lot of that talk has quieted down over the last few months with Herbert’s disappointing season but Miami may still value him. Like Tua, he has to be the right fit for the team and not some prospect they hope will develop.
What we have seen with Tannehill is interesting. He was a QB that Philbin reportedly didn’t want with an OC who coached him in college. Philbin and Mike Sherman kept everything simple for Tannehill and as a result, they didn’t allow him to develop. They couldn’t coach him up. When Adam Gase arrived, we were supposed to see a different Tannehill and in 2016 we started to see just that.
Tannehill was getting better before his injury. When he returned, Gase was caving to the pressure and instead of continuing Tannehill’s development, the Dolphins simply threw him out into the game with a bad supporting cast and no direction.
Brian Flores believes they have a direction. Chris Grier and Stephen Ross believe that the team has a direction. No one knows what that direction is but we should also point out that last year the Dolphins, who imploded the team in favor of a rebuild, signed Ryan Fitzpatrick in the off-season and traded a 2nd and 5th round draft pick for Josh Rosen.
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Rosen wasn’t developed last year. He wasn’t coached up and when his performance on the field wasn’t good, he got benched. So why is here? A cheap back-up? A risk with little downside if he doesn’t work out or a starter if he does?
Miami tends to give up on some players too soon and others too late. Tannehill is in the middle. He needed a change of scenery, a new team, and the Dolphins needed to go in another direction but the lesson here is simple. Miami needs to get a QB that they will develop into their system. There is no point in drafting a player like Lamar Jackson if the won’t let him run. No point in drafting a QB who can’t run if they want him to.
Miami’s offensive system is practically unknown. Last year we really don’t know what they wanted to run because they had no offensive line or running game and their best player was Fitzpatrick who spent as much time running for his life as he did tossing passes downfield.
It will be interesting to see what the Dolphins do at the position and what they do with the player that they believe to be the future. They need to be careful though. There is no problem with drafting a player that will sit for a year or even two but if the Dolphins are not progressing, if they are not turning it around and starting to show signs of improvement, that QB that is sitting on the bench may not be the QB of the future when Flores is fired and another guy is brought in.
It’s a fine line that they are walking or so we think.