Miami Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill: How far the player has come in his rookie season? – NFL Feature
Miami Dolphins rookie quarterback Ryan Tannehill has gone through an up and down season just as usually the case for any rookie. However, the player has taken huge strides in adjusting to the professional atmosphere of the league.
Many would argue that Tannehill got overhyped after getting a great start to his career and the dust slowly settled as the season progressed.
However, most of the initial predications proclaimed that Tannehill would be the bust of the 2012 draft; this does not seem to be the case.
Dolphins have been trying to improve their offensive team for quite some time and Tannehill has been their best acquisition in the last few years.
After being drafted as an eighth overall pick in this year’s draft alongside many other top-notch rookie quarterbacks, there was a great burden on the player to fulfil the “Phins” expectations.
Ever since entering the National Football League (NFL), it has been a tale of two halves for the rookie quarterback.
After putting up a hefty 1,762 passing yards and five touchdowns in the first eight games of the season, Tannehill went on to throw five interceptions in the next two games and put up 358 passing yards and scored just a single touchdown.
Despite struggling at times, Tannehill has already broken the franchise record for most passing yards covered by a rookie quarterback formerly held by famous quarterback Dan Marino.
Tannehill’s performance in the second half of the season might show that the quarterback has hit the rookie wall. However, the rookie has already gone far away from being an ordinary rookie.
Taking a look at the players surrounding Tannehill would give an explanation why the quarterback has failed to give his team many wins as compared to other rookie quarterbacks like Robert Griffin III and Andrew Luck.
Dolphins offence has been ranked pretty low in the league rankings for quite some time. Starting wide receivers Davone Bess and Brian Hartline would likely end up as backups in many of the top teams as they struggle to reach the end zone despite putting
up good yards.
The offence does not have backup to the two wide receivers which has resulted in the team playing makeshift offensive line whenever injury occurs to them.
This has put great pressure on Tannehill to come up with goods. Even the legendary quarterback Trent Dilfer once said:
“Just because an offense doesn't look good doesn't mean they didn't hit on the rookie quarterback. [Tannehill's] a fantastic player. I think he's going to be an absolute rock star in this league, but it may take a little bit longer than some other places."
The quarterback is not the only player to be blamed for another dismal season by Dolphins. The team should mould the rest of the offence with the demands and skills of their quarterback in mind.
Tannehill’s prospects can best be described by the recent comments of Dolphins offensive coordinator Mike Sherman in which he said:
"I don't think the book is written on Ryan Tannehill just yet. I think there are going to be a lot of chapters, a lot of great chapters. The really, really good quarterbacks make everybody play at a higher level. I'm assuming that Ryan will be that type
of player at some point."
Disclaimer: The views do not represent editorial policy of bettor.com
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