FanPost

Ryan Tannehill Theory- Not Mike Sherman's QB

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

So I had a revelation a few days ago when I was looking at the college career and realized something that totally changed what I thought about the Ryan Tannehill- Mike Sherman relationship. Tannehill was not recruited by Mike Sherman. He was recruited by Dennis Franchione who ran more of a spread offense.

Texas has been a bit of breeding ground for QBs in recent years as they have a lot of 7 on 7 leagues there apparently and they can throw the ball pretty much year round.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/page/10spot-12week3/list-texas-qbs-keeps-growing-adam-schefter-10-spot

So anyways, back to the revelation. Mike Sherman brought the West Coast Offense to Texas A&M. Tannehill went from red-shirting his freshman year to being buried at 3rd string on the depth chart. He was converted to WR as Sherman recognized his athleticism and did not want to see it go to waste. Tannehill performed as a WR. He finally got his chance to start his Junior year. He even somehow convinced a West Coast Offense man to install a bit of the spread offense(most specifically the read option) into the West Coast Offense. It was his junior year when he first started that Jeff Ireland felll in love with Tannehill as a QB.

He thought about Bill Parcells' rules for drafting a QB and Tannehill did not meet a major rule. . he was not a 3 year starter. I feel like that contributed to him getting a head coach who would be able to convince Mike Sherman to come be the offensive coordinator. After all, why wouldn't bringing a QBs college head coach to install the exact same offense you ran in college make the transition to the NFL easier? The answer is simple. Mike Sherman was not his college coach. Sure he coached him and reluctantly played him at QB when he clearly beat out the competition.. but he never FULLY believed in him.

Tannehill took his precious West Coast Offense and simplified it to where it could be run in a spread offense style. If you went back and listened to early interviews it was clear what the plan was to have 80 plays per game. He was all behind it... until it didn't work immediately. As soon as it failed he returned to what he knew.... the plain vanilla West Coast Offense that he and Philbin knew. In addition when it didn't work, it was just more proof to Sherman that Tannehill's modified West Coast Offense could never work in the NFL. When NFL defenses figured out the Go/ Go-Go trick it was further proof that Tannehill didn't know anything at all and that he could never be an NFL QB. Every time something didn't work or Tannehill made a bad throw it was proof that Sherman was right all along... There was no way that Tannehill had a shot with his college coach.

How much of a shot do you think Tom Brady would have had if the same head coach that had him splitting time with Drew Henson? Would it have helped his transition to the NFL or hurt it? He would have constantly been looking for a better QB and every single mistake Brady made would have validated his point that he was not the guy.

This perception spread to Philbin. This kid was after all trying to make changes to their traditional west coast offense(how dare he). If he had an idea and it didn't work it was more proof. Tannehill never had the ability to change the plays at the line of scrimmage and in some cases couldn't even change protections...something that I am sure contributed to the blood in his urine.

After 2 years in the NFL they brought in Bill Lazor. Lazor worked with Chip Kelly for a year, so his offense had elements of a spread offense, but it was not entirely spread. As a offensive coordinator though coming in, you know the starting QB has not been allowed to change plays or protections even though he has started for 2 years in the NFL. How do you suddenly trust this kid to do all of that if even his college head coach couldn't trust him to do that... Even firing him, what interim head coach is going to tie his cart to a QB that even his college head coach didn't believe was capable ot doing anything himself?

Greg Jennings said it. He was babied in Miami. But why? Is he really not capable of changing protections or switching to a different play? Re-watching the Gruden QB Camp start to finish with Tannehill had a totally different feel for me in light of recent revelations about Philbin whining for a shiny new QB and all the rest of the dysfunction that was evident in Miami.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of The Phinsider's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of The Phinsider writers or editors.