The one key Tannehill problem that he suddenly fixed but the Dolphins seemingly cannot
You want to know the biggest irony of Ryan Tannehill’s renaissance with the Tennessee Titans?
For years, one of the biggest problems with Tannehill was his inability to deal with a pass rush. When Tannehill faced heavy pressure — which was often the case — Tannehill and his Dolphins teammates unraveled more often than not.
When under pressure, his passer ratings in his time in Miami (excluding the 2017 missed season due to a knee injury) were 68.6, 46.3, 76.7, 77.2, 49.1 and 73.5 last season.
So what does Tannehill do this year? He was second in the league (barely behind Drew Brees) in passer rating when facing a heavy pass rush, at 98.4, including five touchdowns and two interceptions. Of course, if Tannehill had mastered that here, he likely would still be Miami’s starting quarterback.
Meanwhile, while Tannehill immediately went from subpar with Miami to exceptional with Tennessee in that one important area, the Dolphins quarterbacks who replaced him picked up where Tannehill left off, and not in a good way.
Ryan Fitzpatrick had a 57.7 passer rating (28th among NFL starters), took 40 sacks and threw six interceptions (compared with four touchdowns) when facing a heavy pass rush.
Josh Rosen was even worse when under pressure, going 13 for 33 for 162 yards and a touchdown and producing a 30.1 passer rating while taking 16 sacks. Among quarterbacks who threw at least 25 passes when under pressure from a pass rush, only Will Grier, Luke Falk, Eli Manning and David Blough were worse than Rosen.
So sadly, one of the big issues that made Miami want to move on from Tannehill remains a problem here, while Tannehill thoroughly fixed the problem in Tennessee. Go figure.
More insight on the Dolphins quarterbacks, from metrics provided by Pro Football Focus:
▪ We know the Dolphins QBs were subpar when under pressure. But how about when they had a clean pocket?
Trouble is, Rosen was worst in the league in passer rating (61.6) in that set of circumstances, too, with one touchdown and three interceptions and a 59.2 completion percentage.
Conversely, Fitzpatrick had a 98.4 rating with a clean pocket (19th best), with 15 touchdowns, seven picks.
Tannehill was best in the league in that category, too, at 122.8.
▪ Rosen and Fitzpatrick were given essentially the same amount of time to throw — 2.44 seconds, on average, for Rosen, and 2.45 for Pitzpatrick.
What’s interesting is that Fitzpatrick was better when he threw in less than 2.5 seconds than more than 2.5 seconds. When he threw under the 2.5 mark, he has a sterling 97 passer rating, with 14 touchdowns and three picks. When Rosen threw under those circumstances, he had a 55 rating, no touchdowns and two interceptions.
Considering the Dolphins’ problems blocking for the quarterback, those stats offer another reason Fitzpatrick was the better choice at quarterback, and speaks to Fitzpatrick’s skill in processing information quickly and making the right read.
Interestingly, neither Fitzpatrick nor Rosen was very good when they took more than 2.5 seconds to throw. Fitzpatrick, under those circumstances, had five touchdowns, 10 picks and a 67.9 rating. Rosen had one touchdown, three picks and a 48 rating.
▪ PFF has this interesting metric called adjusted completion percentage, which takes into account drops, spikes to stop the clock, batted passes or being hit as thrown.
In that category, Fitzpatrick was 18th among 38 qualifying quarterbacks at 73.4 percent — better than Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Jared Goff, Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield and others.
Dolphins players dropped 31 of Fitzpatrick’s passes; only Dak Prescott, Brady and Carson Wentz had more passes dropped.
But this stat was also telling about Rosen. Even in this category (and Rosen had nine of his passes dropped), Rosen was worst in the league (minimum 100 attempts) in adjusted completion percentage at 66.3.
▪ Dolphins quarterbacks combined to complete only 30 of 81 passes that traveled at least 20 yards in the air, which is subpar. Fitzptrick was 26 for 65 for 745 yards on those throws, with that completion percentage ranking 28th on deep throws. But his eight deep-ball TDs were 10th most.
Rosen, on deep throws, was 4 for 16 for 122 yards, with two drops.
▪ Fitzpatrick’s 85.5 overall passer rating was 24th among quarterbacks who finished the year as starters, ahead of Josh Allen, Sam Darnold, Jameis Winston, Mitch Trubisky, Baker Mayfield, Andy Dalton, Dwayne Haskins and David Blough.
Rosen’s 52.0 was worst among quarterbacks who attempted at least 100 passes.
NEWS NOTES
The Dolphins signed cornerback Rashard Causey (who attended UCF and Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas) to a futures contract.
The Dolphins have signed nearly all of 11 players who ended the season on their practice squad. One glaring exception: QB Jake Rudock, who would become a free agent if the Dolphins don’t sign him by Monday....
Nick Korte, the compensatory pick expert for Pro Football Focus, predicts that Miami will end up with a fourth-round compensatory pick for losing offensive tackle Ja’Wuan James to Denver, no pick for losing defensive end Cameron Wake to Tennessee and a seventh-rounder for losing running back Brandon Bolden to New England.
The Dolphins hoped to get a fifth-rounder for Wake, but he played just 202 snaps this season before finishing the season on injured reserve. Miami hoped to get a third-rounder for James, but he played in just three games because of a knee injury.
This story was originally published January 3, 2020 at 3:03 PM.
