You like to point to this poll...but you have zero knowledge as to how these insiders are ranking him. For all you know, they're basing it off highlights also.
It's true we don't know how much these insiders know about Tannehill, but it's pretty clear that: 1) They know more about football than we do. 2) Collectively they bring a fairly unbiased perspective to how good QB's are (remember it's an anonymous poll). 3) With 50 insiders this year (10 GM's, 5 HC's, 10 coordinators, 10 senior personnel executives, 5 QB coaches and 10 others with job titles ranging from assistant HC to salary cap manager to analytics director) there are bound to be quite a few that helped game plan against Tannehill over the years. So to suggest that all these guys are just looking at highlights I think greatly undervalues their knowledge base. I mean these guys do football for a living. One more thing I'll add: it's quite common for fans to think more highly of players on their team than the rest of the league does. That's a bias you'll see in any sport.
These rankings are arbitrary in my opinion. What are any of them based on? Are we ranking a QB based on his career? His play in a particular season? Who you would want leading your franchise for one season, for the next 5 years? I personally would have Ryan all over the place depending on the category.... I think it would be a fun exercise to nail down the criteria and see where many of us would rank these guy's. For example, if you are asking me who i would rather have as the QB in Miami with Adam Gase? I would have Ryan in the top 10 of that criteria and a guy like Cam Newton somewhere in the 20's. However if you are telling me I'm starting a franchise from scratch, I would choose Cam Newton over Ryan based on pure ability to compensate for imperfect circumstances. Lot's of variables.
They're asking them to rate the QB's ability at the current time. They're not including guys that aren't in the league anymore, and if you look at the rankings from year to year they change a lot. Regarding Brady here are some quotes that show it's current ability: https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/2016-nfl-qb-tier-rankings/story?id=41230629
