Ryan Tannehill: Why Dolphins' Best Move is to Pass on Texas A&M QB

The 2012 NFL draft kicks off Thursday night in New York City, and while most draft pundits expect the Miami Dolphins to complete their prolonged pursuit of a potential franchise quarterback this offseason by selecting Texas A&M quarterback Ryan Tannehill, the team's best bet lies in throwing those experts a draft day curveball.

Draftniks aren't the only people who feel that Miami selecting the Aggies standout is more or less a foregone conclusion, as Marc Nessler of NFL.com reported Tuesday that Jacksonville Jaguars director of player personnel Terry McDonough doesn't see Tannehill making it past the Dolphins.

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"People know Miami's going to take (Tannehill)," said Jacksonville Jaguars director of player personnel Terry McDonough, appearing on Pete Prisco's radio show Tuesday, per The Florida Times-Union.

"If a team wants a quarterback, they're going to have to come in front of Miami," McDonough said.

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Miami head coach Joe Philbin kept a poker face on in a recent interview with the Palm Beach Post, stating that in no way are the Dolphins locked into any one player with the eighth overall pick, signal-callers included.

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A “productive draft” might not include a quarterback, given that the Dolphins have two decent veteran options in Matt Moore and David Garrard. Philbin said there’s no reason at this time to discount Moore, 27, or Garrard, 34, as options for the Dolphins past 2012. The two split practice snaps almost evenly on Tuesday and will battle it out in an open competition all spring.

“Really I don’t have any preconceived notions as to, ‘This guy is a stop-gap guy, this guy can’t be a long-term answer,’” Philbin said. “We are going to see how they lead the offense, see how productive they can be, see how quickly they grasp things and how the players respond to them, how the staff responds to them and see where it takes us.”

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Philbin's comments may not contain any more truth than McDonough's, although the team was recently linked to defensive tackle Fletcher Cox. However, Dolphins fans should not only be hoping that Philbin is serious about Miami keeping their options open but they should be praying that the team bucks conventional wisdom and takes a pass on Tannehill.

Granted, the 6'4" Tannehill did throw for over 3,700 yards last season, and the strong-armed 221-pound senior impressed at the Aggies pro day and reportedly scored a 34 on the enigmatic Wonderlic intelligence test administered at the NFL scouting combine.

However, Tannehill also remains a fairly raw prospect who started less than 20 games at quarterback during his career at College Station, and in his biggest contests a year ago, Tannehill struggled, throwing three interceptions each in Big 12 showdown with Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas.

This isn't to say that the Dolphins don't have a hole at quarterback, because Philbin's comments aside, it's doubtful that anyone views Garrard or Moore as long-term options under center in Miami.

That's far from the only need that the Dolphins have, however, including along the offensive line and on a defense making a transition to a 4-3 front this season. A team with that many gaps on the roster doesn't need to be gambling a top 10 pick on a far-from-proven option, regardless of the position he plays.

There's a great deal of emphasis on the quarterback position in the National Football League, and each season, that emphasis places the incoming class of passers in the NFL under a microscope, especially from squads still searching for an answer to their quarterback question.

However, the fact that the Miami Dolphins need a franchise quarterback doesn't suddenly make Ryan Tannehill one, and if the Dolphins allow the draft day tail to wag the dog and allow desperation to dictate draft strategy, then they'll likely wind up no closer to their goal than they were when the offseason started.

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