Miami Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill Must Carve Path of Consistency vs Green Bay Packers

Ryan Tannehill has been consistently inconsistent in his time in Miami, evidenced by the Dolphins record 17-19 record in Tannehill's time as the team's starting quarterback.

Tannehill has suffered from unfortunate circumstances in his time in Miami. Lack of weapons to throw to was the excuse in his rookie season, then lack of a legitimate, scheme-fitting offensive line unit hindered his second year.

Still, Tannehill showed flashes of greatness at times in these years, such as fourth quarter comeback wins against the now-NFL-dominating Seattle Seahawks in 2012 and the Patriots last season.

It's these flashes that leave many who're involved with the organization yearning for simple consistency, to see winning performances week in and week out from the Dolphins starting quarterback (the position that most affects the rest of the offense, and the position most dependent on the rest of the offense).

But for every great game, Tannehill has an astonishingly bad game. Tannehill has had 13 games with less than an 80 passer rating, 11 of those with a rating less than 72. That is a losing performance from the quarterback.

It seemed that Tannehill was building consistency towards the end of 2013 when he was able to string together seven straight starts with a rating over 84. Unfortunately, Tannehill, along with the entire Dolphins offense, sputtered in the final two games of the season. Tannehill earned ratings of 45.6 against the Buffalo Bills and 42.1 against the New York Jets. The Dolphins' offense only put up seven points in those two games.

Tannehill has continued the path of inconsistency that was carved when he had two losing performances in two of the biggest games of the season in 2013. Tannehill's first three games of 2014 left him rated under 80.

While Tannehill has suffered the largest volume of drops from his receivers in the NFL, and passer rating is a bit of a flawed stat, Tannehill's inconsistent throws throughout the first three games of the season shows up in the stat sheet and the win/loss column.

Fortunately for Tannehill and Dolphins fans, we may see an upswing on Tannehill's play. Tannehill, in the midst of questions about whether his starting spot was in jeopardy, put on a masterful performance against a defensively-confused Oakland Raiders team in London. Tannehill completed nearly 75% of his passes and finished with a 109.3 passer rating in his best game of the season.

Sunday, Tannehill will have an opportunity to start a string of winning performances. The Dolphins need Tannehill to perform well in this next stretch of games as many will likely be shootouts. Games against the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, San Diego Chargers and Detroit Lions all come within the next five weeks. All four of those games could be shootouts, which means Tannehill would need to be the cause of victory.

Tannehill will need play well for each of these games in order for the Dolphins to pull out a victory. In fact, Tannehill needs to string together some admirable starts in order to simply keep his job long-term and prove inconsistency is not his calling card.

Improving his third down play and redzone efficiency will pay huge dividends in Tannehill's quest for consistency.

Tannehill has all the tools to be an excellent quarterback. He has everything working in his favor now-- an innovative offensive coordinator, a slew of weapons and an above average offensive line. It's up to Tannehill to consistently make good decisions and precise throws to have his team in a position to pull out a victory every Sunday.

Tannehill must not only start a path of consistency Sunday, he must start of path of being consistently good.

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