NFL Rosters: Did Miami Dolphins Make Huge Mistake With Ryan Tannehill Contract?
The Miami Dolphins are 1-3.
They recently fired their head coach and sit in last place in the AFC East division behind the New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills and New York Jets. Two of the Dolphins three defeats have been against divisional teams. Ndamukong Suh hasn't exactly been the wrecking force he was with the Detroit Lions so far. Don Shula and Dan Marino aren't walking through those doors anytime soon.
There's no doubt about it, Ryan Tannehill hasn't played his best football. After four games of play Tannehill has seven touchdowns to five interceptions with a 56.7 completion percentage. Normally a quarterback wouldn't be criticized as heavily as Tannehill is, but his contract demands more production.
This offseason Tannehill signed a contract extension worth $96 million and $45 million guaranteed.
The cap hits will also be enormous for the Dolphins over the years. Tannehill's contract has cap hits that include $11.6 million, $20.3 million, $19.8 million, $21 million and 19.5 million. The Dolphins can fully opt out of this deal after the 2016 season and save a lot of money, but they appear to be fully committed to him.
While many will bring up the fact that Tannehill doesn't have an elite offensive line in front of him, he has not improved his play calling skills at all. Many of the sacks against Tannehill come on blitzes where he doesn't audible into a different play or option his tight end for an extra blocker. Opposing defenses know this, and that's why they frequently sack Tannehill.
Tannehill's QBR this year so far is 32.09. An average QBR rating is 50, so that kind of puts things into perspective. His career touchdown to interception (70-47) mark isn't terrible, but it just doesn't' rank among the elite. Unfortunately for Tannehill, he will always be compared with the elites because of his huge contract. The wins aren't exactly piling up either. Tannehill is now 24-28 and he has never even once led the Dolphins to a winning record, let alone a playoff berth.
With so much money invested in Suh and Tannehill, it will be very difficult to improve the roster. The NFL trade deadline is looming, and the Dolphins have big holes to fill, especially on defense. Again, Tannehill is a pretty good quarterback, but he'll always (like others) be compared to his contract.
Tannehill hasn't even been the best quarterback in his draft class. Russell Wilson, Andrew Luck, Nick Foles and even Robert Griffin III have had better moments in the NFL.
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