Would the Dallas Cowboys or Houston Texans Consider Ryan Tannehill?

I remember watching Brady Quinn sit in the green-room of the 2007 N.F.L. draft waiting anxiously for some team to draft him. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, and It’s been reported for a long time that Ryan Tannehill is likely to go in the top 10 in the draft. But what if the Dolphins and Browns aren’t big fans of Ryan Tannehill. How far might he fall in the draft. During free agency a lot of teams addressed the quarterback position. The Cleveland Browns or Miami Dolphins did not put up much of a fight for Matt Flynn and have publicly stated that they are likely to move forward with Colt McCoy. The Jaguars grabbed Chad Henne to push Blaine Gabbert. The Seahakws added Matt Flynn. The Colts will draft Andrew Luck, and of course the Broncos will move forward with Peyton Manning. The only team, it seems, in need of a quarterback right now in the early portion of the first round is the Miami Dolphins.

It is assumed that the Dolphins will draft Ryan Tannehill at 8th overall, but what if they decide that they would rather move forward one more year with Matt Moore. Where could Ryan Tannehill fall? I still think teams believe he has first round ability so what other teams might consider Tannehill.

I think the next team that might consider Ryan Tanehill is the Buffalo Bills. Though the Bills seem to have complete faith in Ryan Fitpatrick (for whatever reason) I think they would be intrigued by Tannehill’s raw potential. Chan Gailey likes mobile quarterbacks and quarterbacks don’t come much more mobile than Ryan Tannehill who played WR his first two years at Texas A and M because he was beat out at quarterback. Tanehill also has the arm to make all the throws (a better pure arm than Ryan Fitzpatrick). The Bills could afford to spend a draft pick and develop Tannehill under Fitzpatrick for a year or two and unleash him in 2013 or 2014-especially if Fitzpatrick has another average year.

The other team that intrigues me as a possible landing spot for Ryan Tannehill is the Dallas Cowboys. To be honest I never even considered it a possibility until I was perusing through the magazine section in my local grocery store and stumbled upon two NFL draft preview magazines- Lindsey’s Draft Preview and Profootballweekly’s draft preview. In one of the two magazines there was a mock draft which wrote: “Tony Romo is on the down-swing the Cowboys take the Texas product” to be the quarterback of the future.

I find the likelihood of such an occurrence happening unlikely. But it is interesting to ponder what teams might take Tannehill if the Dolphins were to pass on him. If the Dolphins do pass on Tannehill he seems poised for a Brady Quinn/Jimmy Clausen type tumble down into the latter part of the first round. Would the Browns take Tannehill at 21st overall? Or would he just continue sliding down the board.

Another team that could consider Tannehill is the Texas. Matt Schaub will be coming up for a big payday and the Texans might consider drafting the skilled Tannehill and letting him develop this year and leverage themselves against Schaub who might have a asking price the Texas find unreasonable given how many games Schaub has missed since he has become the starter of the Texans. In fact it might be a good idea to have someone as talented as Tannehill in-case Schaub isn’t fully healthy or never returns to full health. Schaub missed five games in both 2007 and 2008. Played in 16 games in 2009 and 2010 and then 10 games in 2011. T.J. Yates is a decent QB prospect, but pales into comparison to Ryan Tannehill.

Let’s assume for the moment that neither the Dolphins nor Browns take Tannehill, what are some teams he could land?

Home/NFL Draft