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If we had a better quarterback, our secondary and front office would be better at their jobs.*




* Things idiots say in the QB thread.
 
If we had a better quarterback, our secondary and front office would be better at their jobs.*




* Things idiots say in the QB thread.

:lol: :nerd:

Really looking forward to seeing DVP and Landry out there together for a full season. That's all I'm really excited about (and Tunsil, no doubt about it)
 
I'm excited for the whole O, but, I really really really really really wish we kept Miller.

But Tunsil, Carroon, Drake, Grant all joining the offense with a lot of other young talent + Gase, that's exciting.
 
I'm excited for the whole O, but, I really really really really really wish we kept Miller.

But Tunsil, Carroon, Drake, Grant all joining the offense with a lot of other young talent + Gase, that's exciting.

:lol: Yeah, that's what I was getting at. Would've been nice to have that same core back, should've paid Lamar. Tannenbaum :smh:
 
good to have Reshad back. We get Dion Jordan back, and I think we have a very strong chance to have a top defense if healthy
 
Top defense????? :lol:

We'd need ALOT of things to go our way perfectly.

I'll be happy with 10-15 range after last season. More than that is pushing it.

But, I guess if Mario, Wake, Jordan, Kiko and Ifo all work out, and the corners hold up, we know Suh/Jones will be elite, that's a lot of iffy ifs tho.
 
Why not?

Of course health is of extreme importance, and we need guys like Kiko, Wake and Byron to return to peak form.

But what if Ifo, Dion, Isa, Lippet, Mario turns out to be solid contributors? I think we have solid players on the front and back end who can be game changers. Scheme and good offensive play can put this defense in position to be top 10.

The margin between winning defenses and marginal ones is really slim, imo.
 
With Wade gone, it's time for Tannehill to step up and become the new face of Miami sports
 
Ryan Tannehill is the forgotten patron of the famed 2012 quarterback class. Andrew Luck recently received a mega deal, Robert Griffin III has been an enigma for as long as he’s been in the league, Russell Wilson has done more than enough to prove that he was always a first-round talent, and even Kirk Cousins has made a name for himself as a starting quarterback in the NFL. One way or another, all of those quarterbacks have curated interesting narratives for their careers, but Tannehill has been orphaned by the media.

The lack of intrigue and coverage surrounding Tannehill’s career has allowed many to pass him off as a mediocre quarterback that Miami could easily move on from if they wanted to. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Miami needs to charge full steam ahead with Tannehill.

In 2013, Tannehill’s second year in the league, Miami’s young signal caller had a bit of a break out season. He took on a heavier workload as a passer, improved his completion percentage and doubled his passing touchdowns from the year before. Mentally, he looked more efficient and confident, though he still had plenty of miscues. He had shown clear improvement in a number of areas and, at least for a moment, there was widely accepted optimism for his future.

The following season sent Tannehill’s narrative back to the “this is what happens when a wide receiver tries to play quarterback” days. For reasons unbeknownst to me, he was largely looked down upon as the problem down in Miami.

When Mike Wallace and Brian Hartline were his top two receiving targets, when Joe Philbin was tearing the team apart and trying to unrightfully bench him, and when the defense was a hobbling mess, Tannehill was the fall guy in Miami. The quarterback who again improved his completion percentage, touchdown-to-interception ratio, mental processing and ability to handle pressure, was the man with the target on his back.

It’s as if the story has been written for Tannehill instead of by Tannehill. He’s gotten better each year, yet he’s gotten zero recognition for it. Rather, he’s become gradually more accepted as an afterthought. He improved for a third time in 2015, but, of course, the shortcomings of the rest of the team masked the strides he’s taken as a passer.

The most questionable criticism of Tannehill is the aforementioned remark that him being a former receiver makes him a bad quarterback. There’s this wild belief that he doesn’t know how to throw naturally and properly because he spent time as a receiver. The reality is that Tannehill was only a wide receiver for two seasons of play. Texas A&M recruited him as a 3-star dual-threat quarterback. The team tried him out at wide receiver for his first two years, and he was still competing for the starting quarterback job during each offseason.

He was officially switched back to his natural position in the middle of the 2010 season, ousting Jerrod Johnson for the starting job. Tannehill is organically a quarterback, one whose mechanics should not be questioned due to his time as a receiver.

In fact, Tannehill now has one of the most efficient throwing motions in the league. He consistently sets his lead foot properly, taking a comfortable step forward and placing his foot just wide of his hip. His shoulders are always pointed directly at his target, allowing him to get ample torque out of his rotation. His release is quick, too. There is no pause at the apex of his hitch and he completes his follow through with lighting speed. He is a shining example of quality throwing mechanics.

Derrik Klassen @QBKlass
Tannehill's throwing motion is nice. Shoulders on point, clean rotation and a quick release.

Derrik Klassen @QBKlass
Shoulder aimed at target even before planting lead foot. Doesn't over stride with lead foot. Smooth/quick rotation.

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In fairness, the fluidity in Tannehill’s throwing motion was not quite there in the beginning of his NFL career. For the first few years of his career, Tannehill had trouble transferring his weight properly when throwing beyond 15 yards or so. A lot of young passers have that same problem, though, including Tennessee’s Marcus Mariota. It’s not an uncommon early career battle, yet it was magnified as a detriment for Tannehill.

Still, throwing over the middle and down the field was a concern for him early on, particularly because he tended to overthrow passes. When throwing to the middle of the field, overthrows can be easy interceptions for deep safeties. It was a major hindrance to Tannehill’s game. He rid himself of that issue in 2015.

The middle of the field is now Tannehill’s best friend. He has become a surgeon in that area, most notably when throwing dig routes, deep curls and skinny posts. The same throws that he used to sail over his receivers’ heads, are now the throws that he most effectively uses to march the Dolphins offense down the field. Whether he needs to rifle in a throw or thread the needle with a touch pass, Tannehill can be counted on to hit his targets over the middle of the field.

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Aside from putting Tannehill’s accuracy on display, this example serves the function of exposing a problem with Miami’s receivers. They were consistently dropping passes that they should not have. Cian Fahey of Football Guys did an extensive study of quarterback play in 2015, part of which revealed the incompetency of Miami’s skill players. Fahey had Tannehill’s receivers with 63 Failed Receptions, tying Cam Newton for 2nd in total Failed Receptions and placing 4th in Failed Reception Rate (one Failed Reception per 9.3 attempts).

In addition, Fahey only counted four of Tannehill’s interceptions against him. The other eight were at the fault of others. The number feels high at first glance, but with as many times as Miami receivers failed at catch points and bobbled passes into the air on film, it’s no surprise more than half of Tannehill’s interceptions weren’t really his fault.

But enough of Tannehill’s supporting cast for now. This throw is one of my personal favorites from his 2015 crusade. This throw had to be perfect in every way. Tannehill had no margin of error north or south of the receiver. If he doesn’t put enough air under the throw, the linebacker underneath surely gets a piece of the ball, and the deep safety would be running an interception back to the Miami end zone if Tannehill overthrew the receiver.

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In similar fashion, Tannehill could not miss the throw wide to either side. There were defenders closing in from both sides of the receiver and could have defended the pass had the throw been a bit closer to either of them. Tannehill placed the ball perfectly in between all four defenders, putting it in a spot where only his receiver could go up and snatch the ball out of the air.

Tannehill got better as a deep passer, too. His accuracy down the field has been largely criticized throughout his career, and that was fair up until now. Granted, Mike Wallace was his primary deep threat for two years and he never seemed to be on the same page as his quarterback. Without Wallace in 2015, Tannehill looked better and more comfortable throwing deep than ever before, and even more so during DeVante Parker’s emergence near the end of the season.

There was a refreshing feeling to Tannehill’s game in 2015. After head coach Joe Philbin was fired during the team’s Week 5 bye week, Tannehill began playing with newfound confidence and resiliency. Some of it was a numbness to his surrounding, but nonetheless, he really thought he could do anything.

When plays blew up in his face, he took it upon himself to fix them, often making incredible throws on the run or in the face of pressure. It was a treat to watch and it made for a handful of well needed explosive plays.

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It was as if all of his experiences and lessons in the NFL had culminated. He looked natural in the way he adjusted to pressure and found receivers on the fly. He was quicker to react to pressure than in years prior. Fans and analysts had been yearning for a play maker in Tannehill, and now they have it. He’s a natural play maker.

His lessons also came in handy elsewhere. To reference Fahey’s quarterback guide again, Tannehill ranked 3rd in Interceptable Pass Rating. To clarify, that means Tannehill threw passes that could have been intercepted at a lower rate than all but two quarterbacks in the NFL. With as predictable as the receivers were and as bad as the offensive line was, it’s a phenomenon that Tannehill did not force more bad throws.

On the flip side of that coin, Tannehill is good for one or two miserable mental errors per game. That rarely means a poor throw, though. Rather, for Tannehill, a mental error is often missing a wide open receiver or failing to recognize and adjust to a free edge blitzer.

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He just completely blanks it. They are the type of plays where you want to scream at the TV and say, “Hey! He’s right there! He’s open!” Luckily, the penalty for this sort of mental errors is often not that strenuous. Conversely, the missed opportunities could have been huge gains, but he rarely commits egregious turnovers when making one of his few mental mistakes.

Tannehill can also get stubborn, though. When he gets solo coverage versus a ‘go’ route from one of his receivers, he attacks it no matter what. He typically does a fine job of not leaving them up for defensive backs, but still, they are often wasted plays.

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This, for example, is not so much a lapse in mental processing, it’s just stubbornness. Tannehill saw the single coverage and wanted the deep ball. Even when the defensive back is clearly ahead of the receiver and pinning him to the sideline, Tannehill chucks up the ball anyway. There is a time and place for that, but the situation did not warrant it. Tannehill really did not have a guy who could win those sort of plays, either. Parker turned up the heat late in the year, but even he had rookie ups and downs.

The last thing to be griped about with Tannehill is how he throws corner posts and deep comebacks to the boundary. He has the arm talent and accuracy to hit those throws. He’s proven it time and time again. Though, too often he leaves those throws too far inside. By leaving the ball inside, he’s shortening the distance that the cornerback has to travel to get to the ball.

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If he leaves that pass too far inside versus the wrong cornerback, that’s six points for the defense. On this specific play, Tannehill let his feet get sloppy and let his lead foot get too tight to his midline. Though, regardless of why it happened, it can’t happen in the future. Aggressive cornerbacks will feast on him if he doesn’t begin doing a better job of keeping those throws outside of the defenders.

Even with his blemishes, Tannehill is a good quarterback. He has gotten better each year despite being in a miserable situation, both from a coaching and supporting cast standpoint. To be as resilient as he’s been through having rotating doors for offensive line, watching receivers constantly fail him and his (now former) head coach trying to bench in favor of Matt Moore, is baffling.

Quarterback development is normally sensitive and situation dependent, and most quarterbacks fail under less than ideal conditions like Tannehill had. Yet, here he is.

Ryan Tannehill is a franchise quarterback for the Dolphins. They can build around him and create an identity on offense that is focused on him. They have began doing so as of late, drafting three receivers in the top-100 in the past three seasons and recently hiring Adam Gase as the head coach. The floor plan is now there for Tannehill. It has been in the works for a while now, but Tannehill finally has the means and skills to thrive in Miami. His time is now.
 
Funny... I could swear I've read all of that somewhere...
 
Ok fellas.
Dion Jordan back again.

Defense gets more depth, maybe he can produce something... or maybe he gets traded. Who knows.
 
Hmmmmmmm...

Wonder who's said that since he was a rookie... dum dee doo... lol.
We'll see if this coaching staff can get it right... and if he can not piss hot.
 
Omar Kelly ‏@OmarKelly Jul 31
Players who have impressed me so far in camp: Byron Maxwell, Dallas Thomas, Chris McCain, DeVante Parker, Daniel Thomas, Chris Jones.

Took a whole day for Omar to start hyping Dallas and Daniel Thomas.

Why isn't that ************ dead yet? **** man.

Today he's hyping Damien Williams for his pass blocking. :lol:
 
Not shocked what so ever.

Read an article yesterday or the day before where he said DT was having a great year... "Turner, who excelled as a run blocker before a calf injury hindered him..."

Excelled...
He excelled...

I just laugh.
 
Looks pretty awesome.
Might have to get and hit a game again.
 
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