The 2024 NFL Draft is complete, but that doesn't mean teams are finished tweaking rosters ahead of the season, even at the all-important position of quarterback. There's also one name in particular who remains unsigned on the veteran market: Ryan Tannehill, the former Pro Bowler and Comeback Player of the Year. It just so happens there's a logical, if unlikely, destination for the former first-round draft pick: the Miami Dolphins.
Technically, the Dolphins are set under center. Pro Bowl starter Tua Tagovailoa is in line for a long-term contract extension. Backup Mike White is due $5.2 million in 2024, making him roughly one of the five highest-paid No. 2 quarterbacks in the NFL. And third-stringer Skylar Thompson has already started three games at the pro level.
Here are three reasons, however, that Tannehill still makes sense for Miami:
1. He's a clear upgrade at a key spot
It doesn't get much simpler than this. Tagovailoa stayed healthy in 2023, but he's entering critical territory: Not only does he still have an extensive injury history, but he's looking to justify his place as the Dolphins' long-term face of the franchise. A year after the rival New York Jets saw their title hopes wasted once Aaron Rodgers went down and the team had no legitimate Plan B, it's imperative the Dolphins take seriously the backup spot.
While Tannehill appears to be a shell of his 2019-20 self, he is vastly more experienced than White, owning a literal 144-game advantage in career starts. In the 11 seasons in which he's played at least one game, the former Tennessee Titans standout has also led four playoff appearances. More than that, he's never played in a supporting cast as talented as that of the current Dolphins, with elite speed at both running back and wide receiver.
2. He's an easy fit for Mike McDaniel's system
In Tennessee, Tannehill experienced career production when he essentially mimicked Jimmy Garoppolo's former role with the San Francisco 49ers: control the ball, lean on the run and hit the play-action shots when they're there. That's not a stretch from what he could enjoy in Miami, where Tagovailoa thrives in a timing-based attack that heavily features McDaniel's stable of speed backs and chess-piece wideouts. It's no coincidence, of course, that McDaniel stems from the Kyle Shanahan tree, which puts more emphasis on the ground game and defense.
To put it even more simply, the Dolphins are a talented offense. They're not exactly built to require a transcendent talent under center. In fact, if they just get consistent competence in that spot, they should be competitive. A Tannehill reunion would satisfy those basic requirements, at least for the backup spot. Is their offensive line a concern? Sure. Which is doubly a concern for someone like Tannehill, who's not exactly an elite mobile threat at this point in his career. But the same could be said for Tagovailoa, whose best work comes from the pocket.
3. There's a built-in connection to Miami
But the Dolphins dumped Tannehill in 2019, you say! They already endured enough of his mercurial availability and production for seven seasons, starting in 2012! Well, yes. But that was a different time. Tannehill was working toward being "the guy" then. Now he's going on 36, almost certainly resigned to his place as a reserve. Where better to accept that fate than back where it all began, in a city he knows well, under a general manager in Chris Grier who actually defended his tenure following the two sides' unofficially mutual split five years ago?
No one would actually perceive Tannehill as a threat to Tagovailoa's job security at this point. And who says a starting quarterback can't return to his old flame in a new role, only to restore the marriage? Nick Foles may be an NFL anomaly, but remember that his historic Super Bowl run with the Philadelphia Eagles came years after the Eagles -- the team that drafted and first started him -- exiled him via trade, then later welcomed him back only as the emergency No. 2 behind a new, more talented face of the franchise in Carson Wentz. That reunion may have felt like an unusual retread at the time, but it worked out pretty well in the end.
