Throughout the month of July, the LWOS NFL department has been taking a look at the three most recognizable figures for all 32 NFL teams. For this series, only current players are under consideration. Today, our focus is on the Miami Dolphins.
Faces of the Miami Dolphins
Ryan Tannehill
Perhaps no other position in all of sports is as important to a franchise’s future as that of an NFL quarterback. Teams are so desperate to find their quarterback of the future that as soon as he shows just as much as a smidgen of big-time potential during his first few years in the league they’re willing to dole out millions to secure him long-term. Oftentimes, that doesn’t even entail leading a team to a playoff appearance.
Such is the case with Ryan Tannehill. There can be no doubt that he’s shown marked improvement on a year-by-year basis during his three years in the league so far where he’s started every game. That should be glaringly evident when looking at his stats from each season, which you can view below.
2012: 3,294 yards, 12 touchdowns, 13 interceptions, 58.3 percent completion percentage
2013: 3,913 yards, 24 touchdowns, 17 interceptions, 60.4 percent completion percentage
2014: 4,045 yards, 27 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, 66.4 percent completion percentage
This despite the fact he was sacked 139 times during that three-year span, more than any other quarterback. The second closest was Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers with 117. Though they have yet to make the postseason with Tannehill behind center, they are only a game below .500 with him as a starter, which is second-best in the AFC East since 2012.
All of that has led the Dolphins front office to come to the conclusion that they have their franchise quarterback. Even though he had a year left on his rookie deal with an option for a fifth, the Dolphins signed him to a five-year $96 million extension on May 19th. $21.5 million of that is guaranteed money, essentially an $11.5 million signing bonus along with his base salary for 2015 and 2016.
They’ve also attempted to surround him with weapons on both sides of the ball. We’ll go into a certain defensive one later (at least indirectly), but signing tight end Jordan Cameron from the Browns as well as drafting wide receiver DeVante Parker with their first-round pick was geared towards making this team a force through the air. Cameron has struggled with concussions but if he can stay healthy Tannehill will have a formidable option down the middle of the field.
Tannehill certainly has a recent Harvard analytical model predicting the results of the 2015 season on his side. Only time will tell whether or not he’s able to live up to this trust the franchise has placed in him when the games are actually played.
Cameron Wake
The Dolphins made perhaps the biggest splash in free agency by signing Ndamukong Suh to the richest deal for a defensive player in history. That said, most followers of the league still think of Suh as a Detroit Lion considering his exploits with them over the first five years of his career. With that in mind, I’m going with his new partner on the defensive line in Cameron Wake.
The soon-to-be seventh year pro out of Penn State has played his entire NFL career with the Dolphins. In that time, he’s blossomed into an extremely underrated edge rusher that has been a thorn in the side of quarterbacks all over the league. Not bad for a player who went undrafted, was cut by the New York Giants before training camp even started in 2005 and played his first two professional seasons in Canada with the BC Lions.
He currently has 63 career NFL sacks, which is good enough for top 20 in the league amongst active players. In 2010 and 2012, he finished in the top five of the league in the category. Having made the last three Pro Bowls and four in total, Wake has two years remaining on a four-year extension he signed before that 2012 season that pays him a total of $49 million.
Lamar Miller
Lamar Miller is a local product who attended Killian High School in the south Florida area while also playing collegiately for the Miami Hurricanes. The Dolphins drafted him in the fourth round (97th overall) of the 2012 draft. In the three seasons since, his role in the backfield has slowly but surely expanded.
In 2012, Miller appeared in 13 games while making only one start with Reggie Bush as the established back. He finished third on the team with 250 yards rushing. When Bush left for the Lions the following year, Miller made the majority of the starts, though shared a great deal of the work load with Daniel Thomas. He would end up with 709 yards and two touchdowns while Thomas had 406 yards and four touchdowns.
Last season was when Miller truly established himself as the Fins feature back. He started all 16 games, crossed the 1,000-yard mark in rushing and found the end zone nine times total, including eight on the ground. The highlight of his year was a 97-yard scamper against the Jets in Week 17, which was the longest touchdown run in Dolphins history.
His 1,099 yards in 2014 was tenth-best in the league, was the best single-season total for the Dolphins since Ricky Williams in 2009 and was the eighth-best total in the history of the franchise. Miller will be a free agent after 2015 so a repeat of his breakout campaign last year may see him in line for a big payday.
The Dolphins are perhaps one of the league’s most intriguing teams heading into the upcoming NFL season. After two “close but no cigar” 8-8 seasons, the front office has clearly tried to make upgrades while locking up Tannehill long-term. If there’s across the board improvement, this is a team that could be primed for a playoff run.
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