Given another year, you can assert he'd be the first pick, or that he would have been benched by the new regime in favor of Manziel. Neither one is particularly outlandish, IMO. I'm amazed the second option has not been brought up.
That's a lofty assignment, top of the draft. I'd have to back away. Tannehill has looked solid but seldom extraordinary. The team picking first generally wants a hint of extraordinary.
I looked at Tannehill's stats. Third down was the issue. Very poor there. When he missed Reggie Bush last week that was a third down play. I looked at the tape last night and that pass was even more dreadful than I sensed at the time. Reggie was 4 yards in the clear for a certain touchdown yet the pass wasn't close. Tannehill was roughed on the play but it came from his right and didn't impact the throw at all. Long gone. Tannehill actually was bailed out by the television coverage because they replayed the late hit but not the terrible throw. A few weeks ago Reggie was used on a deep sideline route to the left and the ball sailed wildly out of bounds. At least one prominent poster tried to claim it that Reggie's fault, that he should have sensed to cut the route short for a back shoulder throw. Disregard that the ball would have been over his head anyway. If we're going to apologize for Tannehill on that play it's insane to completely ignore how far off he was on the deep ball to Reggie at New England. We obviously saved that design for a special moment and it broke wide open. There's an industry on this site to pretend everything Tannehill does is glorious, or can't be criticized. In looking at the game again last night I don't see how that performance can be viewed as anything but weak. You'd have to have made your mind up ahead of time, and determine to stick to it. Other than a handful of nice throws, notably on play action to his right early in the game to Hartline, Tannehill was tentative and indeed demonstrated very poor pocket awareness. Reggie likewise had a poor game, other than one or two meaningless runs and the route he broke free.
Anyway, Tannehill has got some strange numbers depending where he is on the field. His completion percentage and yards per attempt were notably higher on his own end. Did surprisingly well from his own 1-20. But the bulk of his interceptions were from his own 21-50. I think it's 8 interceptions when plays started in that range.