Let's talk some more about the Quarterback! Isn't it refreshing that there aren't 10-15 threads on the front page discussing whether or not Ryan Tannehill is good enough? That alone is a sign he's off to a great start in his first 2 years in this league. Some of you may remember I had a similar thread last year to track some of Tannehill's metrics. First we had a thread setting some benchmarks for him, then we followed his progress throughout the season. This year I figured let's do it all in one thread. First the benmarks. These are just off the top of my head with very little science behind them. Some of them in categories where there was only marginal improvement or no improvement, they are the same as they were last year. Feel free to debate, and I'll update these based on the general consensus. TDs 2012: 12 2013: 24 2014 Goal: 29 2014 Stretch Goal: 35 2014 ACTUAL: 27 TD/INT Ratio 2012: 0.92 2013: 1.41 2014 Goal: 1.60 2014 Stretch Goal: 2.00 2014 ACTUAL: 2.25 Completion % 2012: 58.3% 2013: 60.4% 2014 Goal: 63.0% 2014 Stretch Goal: 65.0% 2014 ACTUAL: 66.4% Yards / Attempt 2012: 6.8 2013: 6.7 2014 Goal: 7.2 2014 Stretch Goal: 7.5 2014 ACTUAL: 6.9 Adjusted Yards / Attempt 2012: 6.1 2013: 6.2 2014 Goal: 6.8 2014 Stretch Goal: 7.3 2014 ACTUAL: 6.9 Passer Rating 2012: 76 2013: 81.7 2014 Goal: 85 2014 Stretch Goal: 90 2014 ACTUAL: 92.8 QBR 2012: 52.28 2013: 45.78 2014 Goal: 60.00 2014 Stretch Goal: 70.00 Last year saw Tannehill make huge strides in 2 very important metrics in TD passes, and more importantly, TD/INT ratio. I think it's reasonable to assume he will improve on those again this year. Hopefully with better protection, the other important metric of Yards / Attempt improves. A little background here: 2014 goal is improvement that I consider reasonable for us to expect as fans. The 2014 stretch goal is improvement that would be great, but hard to reach. Those are numbers that the elite QBs in this league typically achieve in a normal season. I want to point out again, as I did last year that Tannehill was well on his way to hitting a lot of his stretch goals last season before the Bills and Jets games happened. I think there's plenty of reason for us to continue to be excited about this young QB and what he will show us in the 2014 season.
I think that's the ESPN invented QBR metric. It measures CLUTCH and GRIT, so it's obviously the preferred metric.
I think it's reasonable for him to reach the non-stretch 2014 goals you mentioned. But things still have to go well elsewhere for that to happen - Oline stays healthy. with our lack of depth, injuries to guys like Pouncey and Albert will put us right back to where we were last season - defense needs to improve, i.e., is the defense playing well enough to put the offense in better field position consistently?
It's all about YPA. Start getting that up near 7.2 and everything else will happen. Here's a good read on QB stats that predict wins, which talks about an adjusted ypa: http://www.footballperspective.com/correlating-passing-stats-with-wins/
That's a good read. I penned a very similar thread here back in 2011: http://www.thephins.com/forums/show...st-with-Winning-WARNING-STAT-MONKEY-THREAD!!! You can see in that thread adjusted YPA correlates very highly with winning:
Good thread! Very realistic expectations. ESPN's QBR is highly flawed though. If you take out the section based on taking sacks, Ryan was one of the best in the league through the first 14 games last year.
Honestly he would have been pretty close to those "goal" numbers last year had he had his deep ball to Wallace down. Lets hope theycan finally connect on a consistent basis this year
I tend to agree it's just there because it's listed on Pro-Football reference, where I pull most of this stuff from so agree or disagree we can see how he does according to ESPN along with everything else.
I don't like seeing it on PFR, because that site is otherwise amazing. I wonder how much ESPN paid to server costs to get that in there (WPA is far, far better for what the ESPN QBR is trying to capture).
It's wins that make a QB stand out. IF he had won 9 instead of 8 last year he automatically would have been better. That play off hunt would have been like bragging rights, so close yet so far away. It might take a ten win season this year to get that chance at a play off hunt.
Teams win. Holding it against a QB that his team's OL, or running game, or defense sucks is criminal. How many more wins might we have had last year with five adequate starters on the line? At least three?
Seattle's oline was worse. Teams do win. The QB is more responsible than any other one player though. I'm not going to put it to percentage, but it's higher.
Seattle didn't have a worse offensive line IMO maybe comparable but not worse. At the very least they blocked well enough for Lynch to be effective. I do agree QB takes the most responsibility but that QB cant do his job if the parts around him aren't working.
I think the reason there aren't a number of threads questioning if Tannehill is the right QB for the job or not, is because were all are willing to concede that he had valid excuses for not leading this team to a winning season over the past two years. In year one, he had limited QB experience in college and he had a terrible set of WR's. Last year we all know that he was dealing with a substandard offensive line. So now that the excuses are gone, we all are just waiting to see if Tannehill has what it takes to be the long term answer for the Dolphins at the QB position. All Tannehill has to do this season is what a number of young QB's have done in the past two years. Lead his team to the playoffs. If Tannehill leads this team to the playoffs this year, no one will question if he is the right man for the job or not. Of course if the Dolphins once again fail to have a winning season, Tannhehill and Philbin will both have plenty of threads about them regarding their futures in Miami. Hopefully Tannehill is the right QB for the job and next year we will be reading threads regarding when he will get the Dolphins into the Super Bowl.
They were worse at pass protection, yes. They're good at run blocking though. Wilson attempted 151 less passes last year and they rushed more and for much more yards. They actually did their best to hide poor pass blocking.
Which was what I was REALLY hoping for from our team last year, going in to the season. I thought the line/players were serviceable enough if we covered it elsewhere...didn't pan out. I don't technically know the who/how to do it, but I know other teams do. This year, with a overhaul of the line and the new coach and OC, I'm counting on improvement overall...maybe even some of that covering like Seattle does for giggles. If we get that, Tanny should thrive to the tune of over 90 rating IMHO.
That's fair. Hoping for the investments we made on the O-line pan out, and Brian "Hitman" Hartline and Brandon "Gibby" Gibson come out healthy.
This is a false assumption. Seattle's offensive line finished with a combined -39.1 run blocking grade and was pathetic in short yardage, ranking 32nd in "power runs" per Football Outsiders (That's the percentage of runs on third or fourth down, two yards or less to go, that achieved a first down or touchdown). PFF had this to say about it through the first 14 weeks: "7th round rookie Michael Bowie is the only Seattle lineman with a positive run block grade this season, and James Carpenter and J.R. Sweezy’s combined -19.7 run block grade is as bad as you’ll see from any pair of guards. Instead, Seattle’s success on the ground comes from Wilson and Lynch’s ability to make something out of nothing." That doesn't include Paul McQuistan's 14 terrible starts that saw the unit's second worst run grade at -8.7 and worst overall grade at -24.8. His 8 starts at left tackle made Jon Martin look like a keeper.
The only real disagreement I have with your theory is in completion %, if you look at his history in that area he is right about where he has always been, thus for him to gain that much is, I feel asking to much of him.
Hitman as in, Hartline gets hit, collapses to the ground faster than a brick in water, and you say "man...." Great nickname. Smart.
I get what you're saying, but keep in mind the stretch goals I've set (not that they mean anything to anyone but us fans) are based more on what the elite QBs in this league do rather than what Tannehill himself has done historically. Stretch goals are hard to hit. As fans, we should be ecstatic if he met them. I guess you could maybe argue 3% increase in just the normal goal is asking a lot, but I think he has it in him.
But it's not just about making excuses for Tannehill. Despite the horrifying play of the O-line this year and nonexistent running game, Tannehill still improved leaps and bounds. The increase in TD passes and TD/INT ratio cannot be taken lightly. That's tremendous improvement for a young QB, and I don't think he's even close to his ceiling yet.
has never we I agree that Tannehill showed improvement last year. My concern with him is that he showed that he is the type of QB which can consistently bring his team back from a deficit late in the game. He plays well in some games and as happened in the last twp games of the regular season, he completely fails to show up. Even in college he seemed to play extremely well early in games and constantly failed to play at tha same level in the second half of games. Hopefully he will show this coming season that he is the type of QB who can put a team on his back and lead them to victory in the 4th quarter. That is what the top QB's in the NFL do on a consistent basis and that is why those QB's are usually in the playoffs, year after year. If he is the QB so many people think he is, all he has to do is lead this team to the playoffs this year. If he does that, he will deserve to be considered one of the top young QB's in the NFL. If not, it might be time the GM starts thinking about who the next QB of the Dolphins should be. I want Tannehill to step up and prove he is the right QB for the job. But I also think three years as a starting QB in the NFL is plenty of time to show if you have what it takes or not to get the job done. In the NFL, getting the job done means leading your team to the playoffs. Anything less than the playoffs and I will have serious doubts about Tannehill.
Whoa now I do believe I was the first to call Hartline the "Hitman", back me up Todd! I'm not a fan of stats, I just want to see RT continue to improve. More command of the offense, better decision making, calling his own protections, that's what I'll be looking for.
And before the last two games where the whole team fell apart - and Ryan was helpless in the Buffalo game between the Bills game plan and the play of our OL - he was on fire. I thought he might get close to 30 TDs. I don't get why so many are so down on him. I mean, the guy clearly had the best season of any Fins QB not named Dan Marino in the last 30 years.
was just getting ready to say Hitman was your creation before I saw your post. Guys, Hitman was created as mocking gesture when he was being overly praised.... you know- because it totally doesn't describe Hartline's play. It was perfect at the time.
I don't think Tannehill ran for one first down in the final two games..That sh@& needs to stop..this dude better start understanding that he can threaten a defense early in the game it will help him out better, when a defense starts to turn their backs to you, and you don't make them pay even though you have the wheels to do so?, I'm sorry, it's a dipsh&$ non move.
Pennington's 2008 season could be in contention but it was absolutely the best season a young QB has had since Marino.
You never know though, the team could be 10-6 or even 11-5 and Tanne could have 30 TDS but we could still miss the playoffs. Let's just hope for more improvement IMO.
I sincerely believe that he was coached to stand tall in the pocket no matter what, and not take off down field. Sherman made several comments about it while he was OC.
I don't know how much of that was Philbin & Zac Taylor-Sherman's son in Law. I understand not wanting your QB to get hurt, but common sense would tell Tannehill win and you're in and he didn't. Your QB not rising up in that situation is a pretty big black eye and the cause of a lot of pessimism on my part.