Gil Brandt-Tannehill keeping up with RG3, Luck, great article! | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Gil Brandt-Tannehill keeping up with RG3, Luck, great article!

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Entering the 2012 season, rookie quarterback Ryan Tannehill was supposed to be a project for the Miami Dolphins . Folks were excited to see what fellow first-round draft picks Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III could do with the Indianapolis Colts and Washington Redskins , respectively, but Tannehill wasn't even expected to see the field for a year or so. However, after his first five games as Miami's starter, I think Tannehill has proven his doubters wrong by showing he's nearly as good as his higher-profile peers.

After a rough welcome to the NFL , with the Houston Texans picking him off three times in a season-opening loss for the Dolphins , critics began to question whether he had what it would take to get the job done . But since then, he's improved significantly, especially in the last two weeks, lighting up the Arizona Cardinals' tough pass defense for 431 yards (the second most by a rookie QB) and a touchdown in Week 4 and guiding Miami to a tough 17-13 win over the Cincinnati Bengals last Sunday.

Watching the game tape on Tannehill, I can really see the progress he's made since Week 1. Tannehill's development goes beyond stats. He's a smart guy, and he's making important adjustments from one game to the next in a way that suggests very good things about his future.

For example, in a tough overtime loss to the New York Jets in Week 3, Tannehill threw a pass to the incorrect shoulder of a receiver who was running a particular route. The receiver caught the pass, so Tannehill got away with the mistake, but it was a mistake nonetheless. Some rookies might fail to recognize that kind of miscue or correct it, but in the following game, when he attempted to go to a receiver running the very same route, Tannehill threw to the correct shoulder. He hasn't repeated that mistake since.

Dolphins personnel know he has the skills to become a special player, and they notice his leadership abilities when it comes to his veteran teammates. After all these years, it would seem that Miami has finally found a true successor to Dan Marino.

But why was he overlooked heading into the draft? Even after he was drafted, why did most football people think it was going to take him some time to become a starter?

I think the issue is that sometimes we try to find everything wrong with a player, and really dwell on the flaws we find. Two of the big knocks on Tannehill were his relative lack of experience (he'd started just 19 games at quarterback for Texas A&M, while Luck started 38 at Stanford and RG3 started 40 at Baylor) and a high number of tipped passes.

But as I said, Tannehill is a very smart guy. After all, according to his old Texas A&M biography , becoming an orthopedic surgeon was one of his career goals. While smart guys don't necessarily make for smart football players, Tannehill is a smart guy who really gets football. He's a highly focused person who appears to have a better feel for the game from one week to the next, learning to avoid those tipped throws and correcting things like pass location.

Something that's also helped Tannehill a great deal is the fact that his old coach at Texas A&M, Mike Sherman , is the Dolphins ' offensive coordinator. Sherman knows Tannehill and the kinds of throws he can make, and Tannehill likely knows much of the terminology the Dolphins use. Going to a relatively familiar situation with Sherman likely helped Tannehill cut down on the time it took him to adjust; if he'd gone to a different team, perhaps he would have struggled a bit more in his first season.

Perhaps folks should have seen this coming, given that Tannehill has a history of defying expectations. Playing for a high school team in Big Spring, Texas, that threw the ball sparingly, he was not heavily recruited, even though he had the size, speed and mental ability to be a big-time college quarterback, and even though (like most signal-callers who come up in Texas ) he worked on his passing game intensively in 7-on-7 football. When he landed at Texas A&M, he spent his first two seasons as a receiver. But when he finally got under center in 2010, Tannehill thrived, setting a school record by passing for 449 yards and four touchdowns in his first start.

So maybe folks shouldn't have expected David Garrard or Matt Moore to be starting for the Dolphins this season, as so many of us did. After Tannehill won the job and seemed to struggle in his first game against the Texans , maybe folks shouldn't have been so quick to wonder about him. After all, two of the three interceptions in that game came on tips by Texans defender J.J. Watt , who has made a habit out of victimizing quarterbacks like that all season. And Tannehill has really cut down on those kinds of mistakes.

Unfortunately, because he was in the same draft class as Luck and RG3 , Tannehill will probably always be sort of the third guy. But Tannehill has performed almost as well as them, even though he doesn't have the equivalent of Colts receiver Reggie Wayne or Redskins receiver Santana Moss to throw to. It's true that Luck entered the league light-years ahead of everybody, but I think Tannehill is about on the same plane as RG3 .

We've seen just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what Tannehill can do, and I think time will show him to be a very good NFL quarterback.

http://m.nfl.com/news/0ap1000000079074/
 
Good article except the part about not having a Reggie Wayne or a Santanna Moss . Reggie Wayne is still a damn good receiver while Tannehill has two receivers as good as Santanna Moss right now in Hartline and Bess. Santanna Moss is not even a starter anymore he is a pure slot receiver. He is still a good player but he is totally a role player now and not even better than our weapons.
 
Cool I respect Brandt's opinion
 
I was skeptical of picking Tannehill at #8 and at playing him this year. I am glad Tannehill is proving me wrong. I think Tannehill's progress has been truly impressive. As long as he limits turnovers he has shown he is a legit playmaker.
 
Gil Brandt had the same kind of question marks about Tannehill, but the difference with Gil is he understands things like character and work ethic and how a player can succeed quickly in the pros while not neccessarily having big success in college.

So many players out there get overlooked based on what they did in college in a system where teams are brought together via a football program and its high profile and rankings where top players go to bigger schools and such. When you go into the pros, you are working with established teams, players. Its just different.

The fact that Tannehill comes in with same coach and system in Texas as your OC now, is just insane. It never happens. No wonder he has poise. He is a leader (unlike what Mike Holgren thinks).
 
And now......The big question I had about RGIII is rearing it's head. Those concussions
he takes are going to take a toll. That hit he took the other day is similar to more than
a few I saw him take at Baylor. He's got to learn to run OOB.
 
And now......The big question I had about RGIII is rearing it's head. Those concussions
he takes are going to take a toll. That hit he took the other day is similar to more than
a few I saw him take at Baylor. He's got to learn to run OOB.

thats the only complaint one can have about griffin. all these other things acting like griffin is not a good qb are just plain silly and without merit
 
thats the only complaint one can have about griffin. all these other things acting like griffin is not a good qb are just plain silly and without merit

That's kinda my point. I love me some RGIII, BUT since everyone these days think concussions are the worst
thing ever, there's a finite number of them the NFL is going to allow someone to take.
 
That's kinda my point. I love me some RGIII, BUT since everyone these days think concussions are the worst
thing ever, there's a finite number of them the NFL is going to allow someone to take.

Goon, the point is that there's already a finite number of concussions that a person can take without seriously messing up their brain -- and body.

Concussions have like this weird half-life -- where each successive one adds almost exponentially to susceptibility and potential danger.

Concussions, because they cannot be seen, have been dismissed fairly easily. But medical science is gradually overcoming football culture ignorance. FACT: Concussions are far more damaging to a person's life than blowing out an ACL or tearing a rotators cuff.

The fact that RGIII has already had multiple concussions is a red flag, no other way to put it. He's a phenomenal talent but needs to be protected. Otherwise he will shorten his career and life.

LD
 
It's always good.to hear the things Brandt said. I respect him and his opinions.

BUT,

That article felt more like a fluff human interest story than an objective football analysis by Gilbert Brandt IMHO. The main knocks against Tannehill were his raw read and react skills from his dearth of starts at QB, his lack of production at crunch time against premier competition, and his tendency to stare down receivers. Brandt knows this but all he mentioned were tipped passes.

He further made it seem that football people were highly negative of Tannehill's first game against the Texans. Actually, most were very pleasantly surprised and thought there was a lot upon which to build. Unfortunately, Brandt leaves out all of this to write a typical heart-warming piece about a young QB. I would be more excited about Gilbert Brandt's praise if he had given us his full football analysis of Tannehill and it were positive.
 
Having watched both RG3 and Tannehill in college, I fully expected them both do well.
 
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