Tannehill was a 24 year old rookie. Not only couldn't we afford to let him sit for 2-3 years, but the fact that he was inexperienced at 24 strongly hints that plenty of the ready-made excuses for him were not valid. When you've never been special at that age, and coaches have found reason to start others ahead of you, the tag franchise quarterback is highly suspect at best. What makes him a franchise quarterback, simply because somebody decided to make him the guy? There's nothing in his background to warrant that label.
We may defeat the Chargers this week but we are spotting Philip Rivers more than 1.5 yards per attempt. That's not fun. Rivers is above 8.3 YPA while Tannehill is slightly below 6.7. Now, yards per attempt isn't everything. Kansas City has atrocious numbers behind Alex Smith this year. It's one of the reasons I haven't worried much about an unbeaten team into November. But as myself, ckparrothead, shouright and others have repeatedly pointed out, YPA is a trump card category year after year. Heck, Philbin referred to quarterback differential in his opening presser, and that category relies heavily on YPA.
I expected Tannehill to move above 7 YPA this season. I hoped for 7.5+ but I would settle for 7.2. He's actually slightly below his final number from last season. More troubling, his completion percentage is up several points yet his YPA is lower. That only aligns via low yards per completion, and Tannehill's is terrible. He's below 11 YPC, which is one of the worst numbers in the league and 8 tenths of a yard behind his rookie season, despite superior toys. He's simply not making enough plays down the field.
As PALMA and others have emphasized, we don't score enough points to win consistently in this league. Special quarterbacks shake off the excuses and poor planning by their coaches and will the ball into the end zone. So far Tannehill is too low key and unremarkable, seemingly willing to accept the overall team trend and not take on any additional burden or pressure.