5 NFL Teams and the Key Offensive Positions They Neglected in the Draft
Miami Dolphins: Quarterback
The quarterback play from the Miami Dolphins in 2017 was, to be polite, mediocre. The Dolphins had the fourth-most pass attempts and the highest pass-to-run ratio in the entire league. Despite this, their leading quarterback, Jay Cutler, managed the third-lowest Passing NEP per drop back among the 26 quarterbacks with at least 400 drop backs.
The Dolphins made no aggressive moves to maneuver themselves into the quarterback sweepstakes in this year's draft, and even if they had, they went public in assuring Ryan Tannehill that he would be the team's starter in 2018.
I fail to see why Tannehill, who has torn his ACL twice in the last two seasons, qualifies for such generosity considering how ordinary at best he has been. In his five seasons as a starter, Tannehill was never able to operate at a league-average level on a per play basis. His best season, in terms of Passing NEP per drop back, was in his truncated 2016 campaign. Even then, he could only manage 0.09 against a league average of 0.12.
The devotion to Tannehill, allied to the lax approach the team took to addressing the position in the draft, is even more baffling when one looks at who is behind him on the depth chart. Cutler is expected to retire and maybe head to the broadcasting booth.
Matt Moore, who managed five interceptions and only four touchdowns in his 127 pass attempts last season, is still out on the street. They leave Brock Osweiler and David Fales backing up Tannehill. Fales has 48 pass attempts in his three pro seasons and is still something of an unknown.
Osweiler, on the other hand, is all too familiar to the free footballing world. After performing slightly below league average before giving way to the decrepit Peyton Manning in 2015, Osweiler has spent the last two seasons as something of a whipping boy. And with good reason. In 2016, he was 22nd out of 22 quarterbacks with at least 500 drop backs in terms of Passing NEP per play, with -0.04. None of the other 21 players fell into negative figures.
