Ryan Tannehill has surpassed expectations during his rookie campaign.
The Miami Dolphins quarterback has shown plenty of ability on the field. Not so much when it comes to opining on the NFL's playoff picture entering Week 13.
When Ben Volin of The Palm Beach Post informed Tannehill that the New England Patriots would seal up the AFC East with a win over the Dolphins on Sunday, the data confounded Miami's young signal-caller:
"I had no clue until you just said that," Tannehill said.
An excusable offense, but it takes us back to August, when HBO's "Hard Knocks" revealed Tannehill's belief that the Kansas City Chiefs played in the NFC East and the New York Giants were housed in the NFC North.
"I wasn't a huge pro fan growing up; I wasn't loyal to any one team," Tannehill said at the time. "Don't really know the divisions, even really the conferences. I know most of the conferences, but some of those, I really have no clue. And they don't make sense! You have the AFC East, and we're freaking in the bottom of the map. The directions don't make any sense where the teams actually are."
He was but a youth back then. Tannehill probably knows MOST of the conferences by now. Besides, his decision-making on the field already has earned Bill Belichick's seal of approval.
"Tannehill's done a good job, given them some spark," the Patriots coach said, via Volin. "He's really a smart guy. You can certainly see that by the way he runs the offensive team: their audibles, the way he controls the line of scrimmage, gets them in and out of plays."
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.
