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Every team in the NFL has a wild card, and I’m not referring to the playoff spot. 

A wild card in this context is a player that you’re not 100 percent sure about in terms of how effective they will be. In one breath they could be future Pro Bowlers, but in the next breath, they could be relegated to the bench. 

The Miami Dolphins are no different, and they have a couple of players who can easily be considered wild cards. We’ll be looking at said players and what makes them wild cards. 

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

 

Chris McCain, Linebacker

Linebacker Chris McCain steps into a new spot in 2015: starting strong-side linebacker. 

The position was held by Philip Wheeler last season, and Wheeler performed well grading out at 2.6 via Pro Football Focus, which was 17th among outside linebackers. 

The performance wasn’t good enough to justify Wheeler’s large salary, which is why Miami released him in a spending purge this offseason. 

Enter McCain, who graded out at -0.2. McCain would only play 42 snaps on defense in 2014, though, appearing in only seven games. He was used primarily as a pass-rushing specialist in that time, accounting for one sack. 

How well will McCain acclimate to the position? So far so good, but head coach Joe Philbin, despite the praise for McCain, offered words of caution, per Dave Hyde of the Sun-Sentinel:

“I think he’s shown himself pretty well, so far. It’s very early, and we’re just getting guys in and getting them reps.”

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

 

Jamar Taylor, Cornerback

Much like linebacker, the Dolphins have huge holes at cornerback that they hope one of their young guns could fill. 

Jamar Taylor is the most likely youngster to fill that role, as the third-year player is currently first on the depth chart for the role of second starting cornerback. 

Thus far, Taylor has impressed defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle in OTAs, as Coyle said, per James Walker of ESPN.com:

I see a real spark in Jamar the way he’s practicing, but just in his overall mental attitude. He’s confident, he’s determined, he wants to go out and win a job, realizes there is a lot of competition out there within that group. But each and every day he’s performed at a high level. That’s been very encouraging.

Taylor has a lot to prove in what will be his third year in the league. Injuries have limited his playing time in his first two seasons, and while he showed flashes in 2014—thanks to a 5.0 tackling efficiency, per Pro Football Focus—there’s still plenty for Taylor to work on. 

He’s still awaiting his first interception, and quarterbacks had a 93.6 passer rating against him, which had him ranked at 115th among all corners. 

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

 

Ryan Tannehill, Quarterback

The wild card of all wild cards, quarterback Ryan Tannehill. 

The general thought is that the best quarterback to have is one that wins. I’m not a believer in that as football is a sport played by many men on either side, and it was a collapsing defense that kept Miami from the postseason in 2014, not a quarterback that wound up completing 66.4 percent of his passes for 4,045 yards, 27 touchdowns, only 12 interceptions and a quarterback rating of 92.8 while behind an extremely sub-par offensive line.

The whole line aside from Branden Albert can be considered a wild card at this time due to the inconsistent play of Mike Pouncey in 2014 and Ja’Wuan James’ decline over the course of the second half of the season. I didn’t include them due to the fact that James should be better back at right tackle, while Pouncey should be better at center and the guards should perform better as well in 2015, especially if Dallas Thomas isn’t playing.

So why is Tannehill a wild card? Can he repeat or exceed 2014? That much we don’t know. The history of the NFL is littered with quarterbacks who have turned in a great season, but couldn’t do it consistently. The good news is a second year under Bill Lazor means more familiarity with an offense that at times looked cutting edge, while the bad news is the fact that teams have 16 games to look at and prepare for said offense. 

How will this wind up? Unless the Dolphins make the playoffs (or the reason for missing the playoffs can be squarely pointed toward the defense), Tannehill will remain a wild card. 

 

Statistics provided by Pro-Football-Reference unless otherwise noted. 

Follow @thomasgalicia

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