Challenger for Ryan Tannehill? Are Dolphins really infatuated with QBs?

The Miami Dolphins have been linked repeatedly to quarterbacks throughout the offseason, especially now as the NFL Scouting Combine comes to a close. The smoke around Baker Mayfield and the Dolphins seems to indicate there is a fire there, and the more we hear about it, the more it seems like a raging blaze with Dolphins head coach Adam Gase in the center of the inferno.

On Monday, Peter King released his weekly MMQB article, and the second point of the article was all about the Dolphins’ quarterback infatuation, and what it could mean for incumbent starter Ryan Tannehill:

Beware, Tannehill. Miami, picking 11th in the April draft, is looking hard at quarterbacks, and several people I spoke with here think it’s likely they’ll go quarterback in the first round. Word already leaked that Miami officials will dine with Baker Mayfield the night before his March 14 pro day. The night before a pro day is prime time for teams interested in a player, and the Mayfield camp surely believes Miami is a strong contender to pick him. So what of Ryan Tannehill? In the immortal words of Bill Parcells, “I can only go by what I see.” Tannehill has missed the last 19 Dolphins games with injuries. By opening day this year it will have been 21 months since Tannehill played football. Adam Gase needs a challenger for Tannehill, and he needs him now.

It seems like everyone is talking about how the Dolphins will draft a quarterback in the first round. Maybe they will. Maybe someone can and will challenge Tannehill. But, when was the last time you heard this much about a team being locked in on a position - or a player in the case of Mayfield - when they were picking 11th and it is only late-February, early-March? I still feel like there is way too much smoke here.

I could be wrong. Maybe Miami really is all in on Mayfield. But, why would they let it leak? Why would they make it this obvious? We are not talking about the 2008 Draft, where the Dolphins could let anything they want leak, because they were picking first. Now, there are ten teams picking in front of Miami who can either select Mayfield - or any of the quarterbacks - or the team could trade the pick to another team, who would pick a quarterback in front of Miami.

There could be a challenger coming for Tannehill, but something about all this talk of quarterbacks in the Draft makes me believe the Dolphins are looking somewhere else. Adding a quarterback in the Draft makes sense. Adding depth behind starter Tannehill - depth that can push him - makes sense. Does allowing so much information about the player they “want” leak this early make sense?