With the spotlight on the success of rookie quarterbacks Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III and Russell Wilson, fellow rookie quarterback Ryan Tannehill quietly had a solid rookie season for the Miami Dolphins.  The Dolphins drafted Tannehill No. 8 overall in the 2012 draft.  While his success went largely unnoticed by the national sports media, the Dolphins were well aware they had found their quarterback of the future.

Tannehill put up moderate numbers in his rookie season.  He threw for 3,294 yards, 12 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.  This was good enough to lead the Dolphins to a 7-9 record and second place in the AFC East.  Despite his moderate success, Tannehill went through his share of rookie growing pains.  The Dolphins are hoping he can build on his success and eliminate some of his rookie mistakes.

The Dolphins will look to accelerate Tannehill’s development by adding better talent at wide receiver.  An improved receiving corp. should help the Dolphins close the gap on the division champion New England Patriots.  In the NFL it is no secret that the road to the top starts at the quarterback.  For the Dolphins this means Tannehill must improve.  Let’s take a look at a few areas the Dolphins' signal-caller could improve upon.

Turnovers

Any time a quarterback’s interceptions are higher than his touchdown passes, things need to improve in a hurry.  While his numbers were not terrible, there is definitely room for improvement.  To go along with his 13 interceptions, Tannehill also had nine fumbles.  Some of the fumbles were caused by blown blocking assignments, nonetheless this number must get better next season.

Decision Making

This goes hand in hand with turnovers.  One of the traits of a great quarterback is good decision making.  For the most part Tannehill did well in this area but as expected, he had his share of poor decisions.  Tannehill must improve on his decision making if the Dolphins are to have any success next season.

Batted Balls

The achilles heal of Tannehill’s rookie season was the high number of batted passes. Tannehill has a tendency to lock in on one receiver.  This makes it easy for a defender to follow his eyes and bat the pass.  Adding a pump fake now and then could go a long way.  As the season progressed Tannehill’s swatted passed declined, a trend Dolphins coaches hope continues.

Improve Accuracy

The key focus for the Dolphins is for Tannehill to improve his accuracy.  As the Dolphins look to put better receivers around Tannehill, head coach Joe Philbin wants Tannehill to improve his accuracy.  Tannehill completed 58.3 percent of his passes last season, there is still work to do on the young signal-callers accuracy.

Faster Tempo

The Dolphins like to run an up-tempo game plan.  For the most part they did it quite well last season, but it was not good enough for the Dolphins coaches.  The Dolphins have been working with Tannehill on improving his game tempo.  This will improve as Tannehill becomes more comfortable with the offense and the speed of the NFL.

Much of Tannehill’s development will come with experience. The young quarterback was playing wide receiver at Texas A&M only three years ago.  In time he should evolve into a top-level passer.  Dolphin’s coaches hope this happens sooner rather than later.  If Tannehill can catch up to his fellow rookie class mates, the quarterback class of 2012 could go down as one of the best quarterback classes since 1983.