http://www.thephinsider.com/2013/5/23/4358770/a-look-at-ryan-tannehill-and-the-read-option Wait til you see how easy he read the D-end and scored, did you know we unleashed it against buffalo for 10 carries for a 10 yard average. Like taking candy from a baby. Very excited to see this become a smart part of our offense, Sherman doesn't seem to wanna go all Shanahan on Ryan's ***, but I for one love it, and think when you can make defenders hesitate when they wanna be teeing off, when you can make them think when they just wanna use their instincts, your already winning the play..
I really thought we underutilized Tanny's athleticism until about week 10 or 11 last season. I really hope we do more read option stuff this season. He's way too gifted an athlete to just stand back in the pocket and do nothing. We really should force defenses to account for more offensive possibilities.
To be fair, I think that was part of the plan, to keep Tannehill in the pocket learning his reads as much as possible rather than letting him use his legs to get out at the first sign of pressure. Plus he was carrying an injury for a few weeks that limited his mobility.
All true and confirmed by Sherman in the Training Camp Preview videos on the official site. They wanted Tannehill to learn to play from the pocket.
It seemed to me at your most positive, you were cautiously optimistic when you weren't at your most positive you were genuinely worried. You obviously think he's waaaaaaay behind CKap, Wilson & Luck.
I think the read option won't be nearly as effective as it was last year. If you watch the Super Bowl, the Ravens pretty much wrote a book on how to defend. From what I could tell, they essentially had a defender sell out on Kaepernick at all times, forcing him to hand it off to Gore, rush his throw, or scramble. Ad since this is a copycat league, I expect a similar concept to be used throughout the league in the upcoming year. Wilson, Kaepernick, Griffin and others may find a tougher road to sow, this upcoming season.
Which shows the foresight of our staff all the more, by forcing Tannehill to play in the pocket more. If it works, like I think it will, (Tannehill ascends dramatically and CKap, Wilson & RGIII come back to Earth some.) it will totally be worth not making the playoffs last year.
NFL will always catch up to the flavor of the year stuff. Wildcat was eliminated basically and these running quaterbacks will see some push back this year. You have to use it sparingly and at the right times. The quaterback position will always come down to making throws inside the pocket when all is said and done. I am happy they decided to make Tannehill learn inside the pocket, it is a healthier way to play the game and will be better for us long term.
That's okay though. Ideally we prefer to have RT not run. If the D has a defender sit on the outside run just in case RT runs that just means there's one less defender to crash down on the inside run or a defender who is not dropping back into the passing lanes. I'd prefer RT to only run when he can get outside to the sideline. If you look at most of CKap's big runs last year they were outside of the end and he was untouched for the first 10 yards at least. That's how I see RT being most effective. He is almost as fast as CKap (just a few 10ths slower). And CKap isn't nifty. He's a straight line runner like RT. I don't want RT trying to be RG3 or Wilson. He's not as agile as those guys. And he doesn't have Wilson's experience in terms of knowing when to get down yet. RG3 doesn't seem to see/sense the contact so I really don't expect him to last.
My thoughts are compartmentalized into a couple categories, yes I think he's behind Kap, Luck, Wilson, and RG, but that's because I have those guys as elite top 5 qbs if I'm starting a franchise tomorrow, so in that sense I'm trying to understand his ceiling relative to them and where it's at in general, My excitement for him and where I think he can make up ground on the those elites is from the pocket, I've expressed that excitement ever since I saw in in camp last year if you remember, ( blown away by innate accuracy, working the middle of the field) the other category as to how I judge him is related to Ireland, seeing that we could of easily aquired Kap and Wilson if the evaluation was done correctly, I want to see where he measures up with those guys (and RG, could of made a run, for which I was in favor of) because that will tell me a lot in terms of what we have in our GM, and where I'm at in terms of evaluating qbs. I've expressed optimism with Tannehill because I can't comprehend how a player can play a big time position at a division 1 big conference level, at receiver, then all of a sudden switch to the most difficult position Qb, I've stated that my personal evaluation gets confusing for me because of some of the weaker parts of his game, I'm not sure how much of what I see is because of tremendous rawness and inexperience, my research dating back to his high school years showed me this dude never dropped back in the pocket until about 32 games ago, hence the reason why I think as far as a pocket passing goes, his upside is very good.. The things I worry about in terms of where his ceiling is, is individual play making ability (which we all have discussed at serious length all offseason) I haven't seen the comfortability yet in his feet, mind, and arm, I haven't see that moment where I feel he's seeing it clearly, his feet are relaxed, his peripheral awareness feelers are on point, his athleticism/maneuverability in the pocket is 2nd nature, and his arm can make subtle changes last second to fit certain throws..I'm pretty sure that has to do with the inexperience and rawness, but that's probably where you pick up on my worries, I believe he will improve his Qbr, I believe he will be better than what we saw last year, ( I know he's in much better shape this year) I'm just at this point holding him to the highest standard of comparisons, just so I know what we have moving forward..We need this 2nd year to evaluate him to truly understand his ceiling, because those guys have so many more reps than he does. Basically, This may not be true, but i think he's quite possibly the most inexperienced Qb ever to start a rookie NFL season, and he showed pretty good, I'm thinking that inexperience made the speed of the game a bit to fast for him to display his pure talent..All I can do now is wait to see to truly know how good or great of a Qb we have.
I don't really see this happening. Its ultimately still a numbers game, and the offense will always have an advantage if the QB is a threat to run. Defenses can do things like scrape-exchange to confuse the offense, but those are just wrinkles. The Ravens did a good job against the 49ers, but it wasn't necessarily anything groundbreaking as much as it was the Ravens having players good enough to win battles that the majority of players usually lose. Having a safety like Ed Reed makes life tough for any QB.
WADR, after reading your post, I still feel like my assessment of your take on Tanny is spot on. I genuinely don't see a difference between what you said and my basic summation. I guess my thing is, its been hypothesized numerous times by me and others, that: - the coaches purposely limited Tannehill to the pocket (reigning in his ability to make plays) - he was suffering a knee injury (reigning in his ability to make plays) - he was handicapped by inferior talent at skill positions (reigning in his ability to make plays) And all of that has been 100% confirmed, yet you still have all the same concerns at all the same intensity.
heard them mention it on NFL radio as well. with read option, just target the QB. while the occasional read-option is exciting to me, I'd rather reserve it for a small part of our offense. I don't want to see Tannehill get hurt by running it too much.
IMO RT is a year behind CKap in NFL experience and way behind him in college experience. CKap is much more comfortable and natural in the read option. But CKap still doesn't read defenses in the passing game well. He's the only NFL QB I can recall being successfull waiting for the receiver to get open and then throwing it. You can do that in college, but in the pros you have to anticipate the opening. CKap seems to get by through a combination of his run threat simplifying the looks and his cannon. I would say that RT is ahead of CKap when it comes to making reads from the pocket spite less experience. Wilson and Luck are the most naturally comfortable in the widest variety of game aspects. They're both comfortable inside and outside of the pocket. Neither guy has as much arm as RT and I don't find Luck as accurate as RT. RG3 physically could be the best of the bunch, but he doesn't seem to sense contact inside or outside of the pocket. For years I watched him take incredibly hard hits that he should have anticipated. And it hasn't changed over the years. I don't think he'll ever develop that. And I don't think keeping him in the pocket will help much since he takes hits there too. He gets by b/c he's a better athlete than most people chasing him, but I think it's just a matter of time for him. Despite the highest ceiling, he'd be my last choice of the five (CKap, Wilson, Luck, RT and RG in no particular order) if I were starting a team. I just think that he has the highest risk of injury and subsequently quitting than the others. IMO it makes him the least likely to reach his ceiling. I actually think RT has the next highest ceiling of the bunch. He's behind the others in terms of experience, but I see his odds of reaching his ceiling as excellent. (I feel that way about the others as well except for RG).
the exact reason why I didn't want to trade up for the guy in the draft. It's not that he's not a good QB and exciting as hell, but everytime I watched him in college he would get pounded. He's going to win a lot of games for Washington, but he's also going to miss a lot of games if he keeps running the same offense. Having said that, I'm not sure I would do it any differently if I was Shanahan. With the skyrocketing costs teams now have to pay, even for 2nd tier QBs, your best chance to win the superbowl is before that 2nd contract depletes your cap and the talent surrounding the QB. Might as well go all in to win it.
I don't believe in Sophmore slumps for qbs who have great individual playmaking ability, their abilities are innate and will always take over when pressured.
How the coaches called a game has nothing to do with what I talked about.. The injury has nothing to do with what I talked about. The inferior talent played a role. I'm excited to see his progression..
