The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

By Omar Kelly
Sun Sentinel
7:16 a.m. EDT, October 8, 2012

Its early, but Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill is setting records as a rookie starter in the NFL.
Tannehill passed for 223 yards in the Dolphins’ 17-13 win at Cincinnati.

The Dolphins' first-round pick passed for 1,269 yards this season, which is the second-most passing yards in NFL history by a rookie in his team’s first five games.

The only player he's behind is Carolina's Cam Newton, who passed for 1,610 last season.

Tannehill is the first rookie in NFL history to pass for 1,250-plus yards and record at least two wins in his team’s first five games.

Tannehill's steadying presence was part of the reason the Dolphins pulled out Sunday's victory, which was sealed when safety Reshad Jones picked off Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton in the game's final minutes.

But with his team leading by just four points Tannehill put together two respectable drives in the fourth quarter that forced the Bengals to start their offensive possessions at the 20-yard line after booming punts from Brandon Fields.

After the win Tannehill acknowledges he enjoys facing that type of pressure.

"It’s fun. The pressure mounts, but I think that’s what brings the best out of a good quarterback," said Tannehill, who completed 57.4 percent of his passes, throwing for 1,269 yards (two touchdowns and six interceptions). "I try to take advantage of those situations and make plays when I have the chance.”

Tannehill's improved each week, and his 70.4 quarterback rating has him ranted as the 30th best starting quarterback in the NFL.

He's ahead of Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, Kansas City's Matt Cassel and fellow rookie Brandon Weeden, the starter for the Cleveland Browns.

Tannehill has been sacked 10 times in five games. Only 16 quarterbacks have been sacked more this season.

He's thrown 19 passes of 20 or more yards. Only five QBs have thrown more this season.

Only 10 quarterbacks have thrown for more yards this season than  Tannehill, who has 1,269 after five games.

Tannehill's yards per attempt (7.5) is the 13th highest in the NFL heading into week six.

Tannehill only has two touchdowns on the season. That's the fewest in the NFL thrown by a starting quarterback.

The eighth overall pick in the 2012 draft is completing 57.4 percent of his passes, which has him ranked 28th in the NFL in that category. He clearly needs to improve in that category to get better.

There are 20 NFL starters who are completing 60 percent or better this season, and that's a good, achievable goal for Tannehill in the coming month.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-dolphins/dolphins-blog/sfl-dolphins-qb-ryan-tannehill-setting-rookie-records-20121008,0,6646868.story

http://www.dolphinstalk.com/2012/10/breaking-sports-news-video-mlb-nfl-nba.html

Philbin also getting a bunch of praise for Miami's turnaround on offense and for the Packers struggles on offense.

I wrote that on another thread (problem with the packers). Watching the talking heads the other day, they were saying G.B. just doesn't look the same. What could be the problem? lol

I heard on some sport show that Miami is averaging more offensive yards than GB this year. Seems like a pretty big deal to me. :)

^ Yeah, well, let's see how the Phins (and Tannehill) handle being favorites for the first time this season.

I think people are getting a little too excited too early.

2) He hasn't shown the ability to take a 3-point lead in the 4th quarter, drive down the field, and punch it in to seal the game

A franchise QB needs to be able to do both of those things.

No, I am not in the "Let's cut bait after two quarters of his first game" camp.

I would still say that through their first 6 starts, I was higher on Henne than I am on Tannehill right now.  So more time is needed to evaluate whether he is truly the solution at QB.

He looks promising, though (just as Henne did).

Can't believe I'm going to say this, but in his defense, neither has any QB for Miami in the past few seasons. Coughing up 4th quarter leads and losing the game has been a problem going back to 2010. It seems as indicative of the rest of the team's players as it does the QB position. Henne, Moore, and now Tannehill have had this as an issue. Either they're all equally bad at closing games out, or there are other issues present. -EK

Curious- do you consider Henne a bust, given that he was drafted much lower or do you even consider where a player is taken in giving them that label? -EK

Curious- do you consider Henne a bust, given that he was drafted much lower or do you even consider where a player is taken in giving them that label?

Tannehill needs to make a Pro Bowl (or win a ring) in his career.

We have to stop calling rookies rookies

STATS Inc. came up with this great number last week: Through the first five weeks of the season, not only were the Miami Dolphins leading all NFL teams in use of the no-huddle, running it on 58.9 percent of the snaps, but also they were more productive in the no-huddle, averaging nearly a yard more per play when they didn't huddle than when they did ... with a rookie quarterback, Ryan Tannehill, running the controls.
Tannehill, according to STATS Inc., ran 26 snaps of no-huddle in his first NFL game and never slowed down. In the stunning upset of the Packers in Week 5, Andrew Luck ran 13 snaps of no-huddle -- something his coach, Bruce Arians, said Peyton Manning never did until his third or fourth year in the league. College teams are running three- and four-receiver sets so regularly, and high-school quarterbacks enter college football so much more ready to play because of summer seven-on-seven passing leagues. Young quarterbacks walk onto NFL teams so much more confident and ready than their current veteran NFL peers were.
Rookie quarterbacks were 4-1 Sunday, first-pick Luck the only loser, and Cleveland's Brandon Weeden getting his first pro victory. What should amaze us all is the quick maturation of them all. Robert Griffin III runs the Redskins like it's Baylor. Tannehill picked up where he left off at Texas A&M. And Russell Wilson -- more about him later -- has overcome the height and rookie thing to beat Tony Romo, Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton and Tom Brady in the first six weeks of his pro career.
"In college football,'' Cleveland coach Pat Shurmur told me Sunday evening, "Geno Smith throws eight touchdowns in a game, and he might drop back and see every receiver open. Here, you might drop back and everyone's covered. So the young quarterback has to learn to take what's there.''
The last time rookie quarterbacks went 1-2 in a draft, before this year, was 1998, with Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf. The landscape's changed dramatically in 14 years, obviously, in how quickly rookies can be ready to play.

Check out the first six weeks of the rookie starters in 1998 versus 2012:
Comparing Rookie QB Classes
W-L   TDs-INTs
Manning-Leaf, 1998   3-9   7-26
Luck-Griffin-Tannehill-Weeden-Wilson, 2012   13-16   31-31

So you say: Well, 13-16's not a great record. But these quarterbacks landed on teams that went a combined 24-56 last year. Wilson, Griffin and Tannehill have already exceeded or matched Manning's three rookie-season wins with the Colts.
Sometimes we're in the middle of history and don't realize what we're seeing. But there's a new era of quarterback play, and it's trending much younger and happening before our eyes today.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/peter_king/10/15/week-6/index.html#ixzz29Ot4ph98

This is WHY you take a chance on a QB in the top 10. Because you just never know and there's no bigger impact to your team that you can make then at the QB position. Don't get caught up in making Tannehill the "Savior" because that's too much to put on his shoulders, but do be excited that he's shown enough to build around despite the fact that he's still really green. He's still gonna have some rough starts, but I also expect that his best days still lie ahead. That's encouraging.

No, I am not in the "Let's cut bait after two quarters of his first game" camp.

I would still say that through their first 6 starts, I was higher on Henne than I am on Tannehill right now.  So more time is needed to evaluate whether he is truly the solution at QB.

He looks promising, though (just as Henne did).

I think people are getting a little too excited too early.

He seems to be progressing well, but:

1) He hasn't yet shown the ability to take over a game (e.g. 300yds + 3TDs)
2) He hasn't shown the ability to take a 3-point lead in the 4th quarter, drive down the field, and punch it in to seal the game

A franchise QB needs to be able to do both of those things.

I think he is more promising than Henne through their first 6 starts. Henne had 1 great start vs the Jets. An OK start vs the Jets where he led a 4th quarter TD on the road for the win. But his other starts weren't nearly as impressive in my mind as what Tannehill is doing. Plus Henne NEVER had control of the offense like this making audibles and shifting line assignments. Slight edge to RT1 through 6 games in my opinion

Henne didn't start in year 1 either. He had a full season of getting accustomed to the NFL game that Tanny didn't have. Taking that into consideration as well I think you have to believe he's further along than Henne was at this point in his career.

Henne also didn't have the luxury of knowing 80% of the offense before he ever even took the practice field. How many rookies get the chance to run almost the exact same offense, with the exact same coach in thier first year that they had in college? -EK

Let's face facts EK. Most people NOT AFFILIATED WITH THIS BOARD thought it was a bad decision to draft him at #8 despite that advantage. Some of us didn't.

Well after a year on the team I would hope Henne knew 100% of the offense and he had practiced it for a full year against an NFL caliber defense, so he still had an advantage starting his first game as a 1 year veteran over Tannehill.

And by the way, the fact that Tannehill was running the same offense for the same coach he had in college was probably the BIGGEST reason that I wanted Miami to draft him and start him in his first year. Remember back when everyone was saying that he HAD to sit on the bench for a year to learn how to play in the NFL despite the fact that he already knew the offense? It's not like everybody else didn't KNOW that he was playing for the same coach at that time and yet most didn't think it would make that much difference because the PRO game is different.

Let's face facts EK. Most people thought it was a bad decision to draft him at #8 despite that advantage. Some of us didn't.

Must have missed that. In the "Who do you want" type threads, I saw mostly people wanting Tanehill, with only one or two (including myself) in the "don't want" column. -EK

Even the people who didn't mind choosing Tannehill were pretty adamant that he shouldn't play his first year.

http://www.dolphinstalk.com/2012/10/remember-when-mcshay-looks-like-genius.html

This is funny. McShay on the island by himself back in April pounding the table for Tannehill. While Skip Bayless is saying he would take Weeden at #4 and Tannehill is overrated!

Skip Bayless the "Bleacher Report" of ESPN talent. Another Tannehill "hater" with egg all over his face right now

Thanks for sharing this Mike.  It's amusing to see how wrong Bayless is, but it's fascinating to hear why McShay likes Tannehill, and then see how Ryan has delivered on just those qualities as a starter. 

I think Bayless has made a career out of being proven wrong on everything.  He is, by far, my least favorite "journalist" in sports.