Miami Dolphins Deal QB Ryan Tannehill to Tennessee Titans

Ryan Tannehill has been the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins for the past seven seasons. Starting this Fall, however, he’ll most likely be the backup for the Tennessee Titans. The Dolphins traded Tannehill to the Titans earlier today. The most likely scenario for the 30 year old quarterback is serving as a very experienced and capable backup for Marcos Mariota. To make room on the roster for Tannehill the Titans have released veteran Blaine Gabbert who was the #2 quarterback on Tennessee’s depth chart last season.

While the Titans are set at quarterback for the immediate future the same can’t be said about the Miami Dolphins. They decided it was time to move on from the ‘Tannehill Era’ earlier this year and they’ve been trying to work out a deal ever since. It definitely wasn’t a ‘windfall’ for the Dolphins–they sent Tannehill and a 2019 sixth round pick to the Titans in exchange for a 2020 fourth round pick and a 2019 seventh round pick. Not that Miami expected to get much in return for Tannehill and at one point considered just releasing him outright.

Curiously, Miami made the decision to part with Tannehill without having a viable starting quarterback option in place. The only quarterbacks currently on the Miami roster are Washington State product Luke Falk and Jake Rudock out of Michigan. Ruddock has played in 3 NFL games completing 3 passes on 5 attempts with one interception. Falk has yet to see any NFL action. Both have the physical attributes and worth ethic to play quarterback in the NFL but there’s no way that Miami will go into the regular season without at least a few more options at the position.

The current operational plan among the Dolphins’ braintrust is to try and land a quarterback prospect in the upcoming 2019 NFL draft. In addition, they’re going to try to sign an experienced free agent to give them a serviceable option for the short term. The current crop of free agent quarterbacks include Colin Kaepernick, Blake Bortles, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Robert Griffin III, AJ McCarron and Mike Glennon

Tannehill’s tenure in Miami wasn’t horrible but at the same time not particularly impressive. He went 42-36 as a NFL starter with a 62.8 percent completion rate, 20,434 passing yards, 123 touchdowns and 75 interceptions. ESPN called his numbers ‘somewhere between mediocrity and slightly above average’. No one can question Tannehill’s toughness–at one point he started 77 consecutive games. During the 2013 season he was sacked 58 times. In 2015, there are reports that he was urinating blood after a game but still played next week. Unfortunately, injuries caught up with him in the past few seasons. A torn ACL put him out for part of the 2016 season and all of the 2017 season. A shoulder injury sidelined him for five games last season.

Unfortunately, for all of his toughness and dedication he never got much appreciation from South Florida fans and media. Several local papers have characterized his time in Miami as a ‘failure’. He even took some shots from several former Dolphins’ teammates on Twitter. Dolphins’ fans clearly forgot the revolving door they had at quarterback before Tannehill’s arrival. In the decade before he joined the team Miami went through 15 different quarterbacks–Jay Fieldler, Ray Lucas, Brian Griese, A.J. Feeley, Sage Rosenfels, Daunte Culpepper, Joey Harrington, Cleo Lemmon, Trent Green, John Beck, Chad Pennington, Chad Henne, Tyler Thigpen and Matt Moore.