Written by Greg A. Bedard at SI.com
Joe Philbin went through it for three-plus seasons. Now it’s Adam Gase’s turn.
Call it the Three Stages of (Ryan) Tannehill.
First comes the honeymoon phase, generally before the season starts. As a coach, you see Tannehill’s size (6′ 4″, 216 pounds), arm strength, athletic ability and his quick motion, and dream about the future and all that you can accomplish with him. No huddle. Zone read. Play-action bombs. It all seems possible on first glance.
In the second stage, the actual games start and things just don’t work out as you envisioned. Something is missing, and the offense flounders. You say to yourself, “Ryan has all these gifts, it can’t be him.” So you find excuses on film—the offensive line, inconsistent drops from the receivers. “We need to play better around him, it’s not all Ryan’s fault, he’s our guy,” you finally declare.
The third stage is when reality sets in: Tannehill, for all his talents, just doesn’t have the instincts for the position. If they ever come, it will be later in his career, like Rich Gannon. But you won’t be around to see it.
It only took five games, but Gase is already elbow-deep in Stage 2 mode and the prognosis isn’t good.
“He’s not coming out,” Gase said this week. “You can ask me 100 times. He’s going to be in there the rest of this season.
“I know when we have 18 drop-back passes (in Sunday’s 30–17 loss to the Titans) and he’s hit or sacked on nine of them, and then the completions we do have, he’s got guys in his face, so I’m supposed to blame him for that?”
Gase is absolutely biased when it comes to Tannehill. The former Bears offensive coordinator was hired so quickly because he told the Dolphins that he could fix Tannehill, their prized possession who last year they made the sixth-highest paid quarterback in the NFL. He counts $11.64 million against the cap this year, and then $20.3 million in 2017 (but the Dolphins can get out). Gase was the quarterback whisperer. He made Jay Cutler a viable NFL quarterback. Certainly Gase could work wonders with Tannehill, who is a much better person and more diligent at his craft.
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