Rebuilding process begins in South Beach

The Miami Dolphins have certainly seen brighter days in the football sense. But with the 2012 NFL Draft now nothing but a memory, it looks like the ‘Fins are set to rebuild their franchise to bring it back into the upper echelons of the league.

When a team rebuilds, the focus normally is on the quarterback position. Any competitive football team needs a good quarterback, and Miami’s drought at the position has been well-documented.

They haven’t boasted an elite signal-caller since Dan Marino in the 1990’s, and when you think of great quarterbacks, guys like A.J. Feeley, Joey Harrington, Chad Pennington and Chad Henne just don’t come into the equation.

But the Dolphins may have finally found their man.

With the eight overall pick in the Draft, to the surprise of very few, they took Texas A&M quarterback, Ryan Tannehill. A QB as well as a wide receiver in college, Tannehill’s stock rose dramatically leading up to the Draft, landing him a spot for discussion concerning top-ten prospects.

There were rumblings that the Cleveland Browns could decide to draft Tannehill, but instead took Alabama running back Trent Richardson at third overall and Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden at number twenty-two. Whether Cleveland’s interest was genuine, or just another Draft smokescreen, we don’t know.

But I digress. With Tannehill now officially a Dolphin, the question looms: will he be the starter in 2012?

The rookie has Matt Moore, who replaced the injured Henne in 2011 and did a solid job of it, and former Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback David Garrard, who didn’t play last season due to a back injury, to compete with.

It’s a big decision to make. Do they throw him into the deep end from the get-go, or do they give him time to sit behind an experienced starter and develop further?

Jacksonville did the former with Blaine Gabbert last season, and the results were… not positive, let’s just say. A prime example of the latter is the curious case of Aaron Rodgers. Drafted twenty-fourth overall in 2005, the Green Bay Packers sat Rodgers behind the legendary Brett Favre for three seasons until Favre made his tumultuous departure and Rodgers took over. Since then, he has been one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

But Matt Moore and David Garrard are not as good as Favre was. And one major factor in Tannehill’s favour is the Dolphins’ offensive coordinator, Mike Sherman, who coached Tannehill at Texas A&M. Tannehill will be comfortable with the playbook that Sherman is bringing to South Beach, and that could well land him the starting job.

There’s a more important question than whether Tannehill will start in 2012, though. And that is if he will be the leader that Miami has longed for, and win Superbowls.