In recent weeks, there have been a lot of rumors about the Miami Dolphins selecting a quarterback 11th overall. During a pre-combine conference call on Monday afternoon, NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock said he believes the Dolphins won’t be in the market for a quarterback – at least not in the first round.

However, Mayock thinks the Dolphins are in a difficult spot with starter Ryan Tannehill, but predicts he will be under center for the team in 2018.

“I think the Dolphins are kind of at an important landmark in their franchise. I think it’s Year 3 of that regime,” Mayock said. “They’ve got a QB that’s coming off an ACL, that’s around 30 years old, that has not lived up to his first-round expectation. I think you’re at a point where you’ve had one good year and then one bad year with this group. What’s next?”

Mayock also had more to say about the direction of the Dolphins and Tannehill.

“I’m not sure what the right answer is,” Mayock said about possibly moving away from Tannehill and drafting a quarterback. “I think it would be easier in that building to talk yourself into, ‘We’re not that bad, we’re not that far away. If we can get in and Tannehill can play well, Adam Gase is a very good quarterback coach, blah-blah-blah.’ I think you can talk yourself into that conversation that, ‘If Tannehill’s our guy, it’s not a rebuild. What we need to do is fill in around him and be a better football team.'”

“My gut tells me they’re going to go in that direction. I think it’s difficult to say, ‘OK, if we’re not going to sign a free-agent quarterback, at No. 11, who’s going to be available at that point?’ None of us know. Is it going to be Baker Mayfield? Do you go in a completely different direction and go Lamar Jackson? Do you wait and go in the second round? I think another way to handle this is you take a quarterback in the second or third round, and I can’t even remember what Miami has available.”

Mayock also said he believes the Dolphins could target a quarterback like Lamar Jackson or Luke Falk in the second or third round.

“If one of those guys – a Luke Falk , a Mike White – if they like any of those guys, I think it’s an insurance-policy-to-back-up a Tannehill thing.

“But that’s a long way of saying that they’re at a crossroads,” Mayock said. “I’m not sure what the right answer is, but my gut tells me they’re going to hang with Tannehill.”

Tannehill is coming off a season-ending ACL injury he suffered during training camp last August. The last time Tannehill played in an actual NFL game was on Dec. 12, 2016, when he suffered an ACL sprain against the Cardinals. He would go on to miss the rest of the 2016 season.

The Dolphins have been recently linked to Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield, who jokingly said on an Instagram video last month “#GetMeToMiami.” Also, in some analysts’ mock drafts, the Dolphins have been projected to select Josh Allen or Josh Rosen.

Mayock has Sam Darnold from USC as the No. 1 quarterback in this year’s class. Allen, Rosen, Mayfield, Lamar Jackson and Mason Rudolph round out Mayock’s top-six quarterbacks in the 2018 NFL Draft.

With so many needs, the Dolphins could go in many different directions in this year’s draft. One thing that is likely: The Dolphins will probably draft a quarterback at some point.