Ryan Tannehill Continues to Find Footing as Dolphins' Franchise QB

At the end of the Miami Dolphins' biggest game of the season yet, Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill stood tall at the forefront of an impressive 22-9 victory over the Buffalo Bills. Tannehill’s gutsy performance against a fearsome Bills defense was a critical component of a much-needed win for the Dolphins franchise.

Make no mistake about the importance of a Dolphins win on Thursday night against their rival. Having lost their previous matchup with Buffalo earlier in the season, Miami had to nullify the head-to-head tiebreaker that Buffalo would’ve had if the Dolphins lost again. Miami’s playoff odds swung 33.4 percent up to 51.4 percent by winning, according to Mike Beuoy and Reuben Fischer-Baum of FiveThirtyEight.com.

With the prime-time lights shining their brightest, the Dolphins had to get a solid performance out of their offensive unit. The Bills’ tremendous defense was ready to swarm over the Dolphins’ makeshift offensive line. They were able to get to Tannehill for five sacks, but he kept getting back up and never allowed the hits to damage his psyche.

Alan Diaz/Associated Press

Coupled with a strong game plan from offensive coordinator Bill Lazor, Tannehill delivered yet another performance that will solidify his status as the Dolphins’ franchise quarterback. He was fearless on his 39 dropbacks despite having a rookie protect his blind side and a former guard trying to block Mario Williams.

To complete 26 of 34 passes for 240 yards and two touchdowns against the Bills was another accomplishment in Tannehill’s career belt. Miami’s Week 11 win against Buffalo was its first since December 2012, and the Bills were becoming Tannehill’s kryptonite.

In his previous five career games against Buffalo, Tannehill often looked lost and confused, averaging just 50 percent completions, 158 yards and a 1-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio. Week 11 was clearly a marked growth.

Even with the pressure of national television and playoff hopes on the line, Tannehill remained calm and even-keeled, as he so often does. His improvement as a quarterback in 2014 has been obvious to any eye. Victories like this only continue to bolster the argument for Tannehill’s future as the leader of the Dolphins.

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

There are certainly valid concerns over aspects of Tannehill’s on-field abilities, such as his deep-ball accuracy and overall pocket awareness. He very well may continue to struggle in those areas because those aren’t strengths of his game, but a good game plan can mitigate those issues and put him in a position to play well.

(On a side note, the narrative that Tannehill cannot throw a decent deep ball needs to be kept in perspective. According to Pro Football Focus, Tannehill has thrown a catchable ball on passes over 20 yards on 35.7 percent of his attempts in 2014. That’s higher than Jay Cutler, Nick Foles, Tom Brady, Andy Dalton, Cam Newton and Eli Manning. It’s not his fault if a receiver drops a pass or misplays the ball in air).

And that’s what happened on a very efficient night for the Dolphins offense. Miami moved the ball at will with Tannehill showing decisiveness delivering the ball with great placement to his receivers. Miami did not have a single three-and-out drive all game, and it entered the red zone six times, scoring four times (the final “drive” came when Miami was killing the clock at the end of the game).

	Tannehill's QB Rating	Total Yards Per Game	Win Percentage
First 3 Games	74.63	327	33%
Last 7 Games	101.67	357	71%

Where Miami has seen Tannehill grow the most is his ability to spread the ball around to numerous receivers throughout the game. The passing game earlier in the season featured far too many forced passes to Mike Wallace, which created an element of predictability. As Tannehill has improved his field vision and used his legs to extend drives by making game-changing passes, the offense has flourished.

Alan Diaz/Associated Press

The NFL is like a microwave society that seems to make quick judgments on young players far too early. It’s easy to forget there is far less supply than demand for a quality quarterback, with a majority of NFL starters likely closer to average than anything better.

All-time greats like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are few and far between. But we’ve seen the formula of having a strong, deep team with a good coaching staff be able to win a Super Bowl with very good but not necessarily elite quarterback play (2013 Seahawks, 2012 Ravens, 2011 Giants). The point is, it takes a well-rounded team to win a Super Bowl, not just one individual player. 

Ryan Tannehill isn’t yet at the level he needs to be for the Dolphins to advance to the final stage of the playoffs, but he’s improving rapidly in front of our eyes. He’s a third-year player who hasn’t had much of a supporting cast in terms of receivers and coaching staff, and his current offensive coordinator is only the second he’s had since high school.

Winning takes time and commitment in the NFL. It’s time to enjoy the growth of Ryan Tannehill as the Dolphins’ quarterback. As long as Tannehill continues at his current trajectory, he will make progress toward what the Dolphins franchise has so desperately sought since Dan the Man retired: a franchise quarterback.

All stats used are from Sports-Reference.com.

Ian Wharton is a Miami Dolphins Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report, contributor for Optimum Scouting and analyst for FinDepth. 

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