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Will Ryan Tannehill’s Deep Ball Be Improved in 2015-16?

Ryan Tannehill Miami Dolphins

One of Ryan Tannehill’s biggest issues in his first three years in the league has been his deep-ball accuracy. Over the years, the media has portrayed Tannehill to be near the bottom of the league in throwing the deep ball, that was with one of the biggest deep-ball threats in Mike Wallace.

Tannehill has done everything this offseason to show that he has improved at the long ball. Even though it is only training camp, people are starting to notice the success he is having.

While these three tweets are all from the same day, Tannehill has been on fire all camp. What has changed in just one year?

Well, not much actually. One of the most overhyped narratives was Tannehill’s deep-ball accuracy. He has never been bad at it, but actually right around the league average.

Through his career, Tannehill has had a 44 percent completion percentage, but that dropped about 20 percent when targeting Wallace. This doesn’t mean that it was all on Wallace, but his below-average hands and route running didn’t help the team.

Not only was Wallace inconsistent in Miami, but in Pittsburgh as well. Add in Brian Hartline, Charles Clay, and Brandon Gibson and there hasn’t been much to work with down the field.

The Dolphins have decided to improve their receiving core by bringing in Kenny Stills, Greg Jennings, DeVante Parker, and Jordan Cameron. Not only do these guys fit Tannehill’s skill set, but they make for a better receiving core than the group from 2014.

For instance, Stills led the NFL in catch rate on passes over 20 yards (64.3 percent) last season, 10 percentage points higher than second place. Stills also had the fourth overall highest catch percentage in 2014, while fellow Dolphin Jarvis Landry was third.

If healthy, Cameron will offer Tannehill something he has never had, a threat over the middle and a massive red zone target. These two are already on the same page as Cameron had two touchdowns in Miami’s first scrimmage.

This group offers so much for Tannehill to work with, giving him the potential to be a top-ten quarterback in 2015. So while Tannehill may have worked on his deep ball, it is important to remember that he was never bad at it.