Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Tannehill? Tough call
Gase faces difficult decision when it comes to his No. 1 quarterback
DAVIE — Welcome back to the postseason, Dolphins fans, where your playoff week starts with the visual: Ryan Tannehill walking normally through the locker room Monday.
No limp. No gimp. And no answers from him or medical updates from the Dolphins on just what this means, if anything at all.
It is Tannehill’s job, of course, to work hard, be strong and perhaps even act a little gallant in the face of a left knee injury he suffered Dec. 11, considering the chance for Sunday’s playoff game in Pittsburgh is a first for him.
But it’s coach Adam Gase’s job to swing the gavel here. It’s his role to weigh the physical risk to Tannehill, the financial investment of the team and the future implications( considerfollowing ing a quarterback’s importance) against one big Sunday in Pittsburgh.
Gase, of course, doesn’t need to be told this. He’s made a season’s worth of good decisions this first year and now must make his touchiest to date depending on what a medical update tells him before the team’s next practice Wednesday.
If Tannehill practices, actually runs and throws, then it’s a day-by-day story. With one overriding caveat.
“I’m going to have to feel really good about this,” Gase said.
As he should. As he must. It’s easy to say the safe and easy move is to shut down Tannehill. In fact let me say it: The safe and easy move is to shut down Tannehill.
He sprained his knee’s medical collateral and anterior cruciate ligaments, which, by medical definition, means there was a tear in each. Not a complete tear. But a tear nonetheless.
Then again, Tannehill will always have a tear in the ACL, if he doesn’t have it surgically repaired. He can strengthen muscles around it. He can wear a brace for support. But the ACL won’t repair itself like the MCL can.
Does that matter in this decision? Or does the cautionary tale of the player taken six spots before him in the 2012 draft?
Robert Griffin III didn’t have a similar injury. He suffered a “strained” lateral collateral ligament in his rookie year, meaning it was dangerously stretched. Yet when he was put in the Washington Redskins’ playoff game after four weeks off (same as Tannehill), he was limping before seriously damaging the knee.
The fallout of that playoff game is still falling. It effectively marked the end of Mike Shanahan’s coaching career and of RGIII as everyone knew him. He tried to put back together the pieces in Cleveland this year. He’ll try again next year.
That’s the kind of fragile story that comes with knees and football. It’s one to consider this week. It’s not like the Dolphins are left in desperate straits for Sunday without Tannehill.
Matt Moore has been everything you could hope in his super-sub role. He has a 93.4 quarterback rating in his three starts. Tannehill had a 93.5 rating this year (though 100.9 over his last eight games). Moore is 2-1 as a starter with a big win in Buffalo and a loss to New England that wasn’t his fault.
He completed 13 of 16 passes in Sunday’s second and third quarters against New England. He had the Dolphins in position for a comeback in the fourth quarter until Damien Williams’ fumble ended the day.
There’s another odd option for Gase, perhaps. It’s one Don Shula used when he went to Pittsburgh for a playoff game in 1972. Bob Griese felt ready to come back from a broken leg suffered in the fifth week.
Shula started his sub, Earl Morrall, again that day. When the Dolphins trailed at half, Shula asked Griese on the way to the locker room, “Are you ready?”
Griese led the secondhalf comeback. The Dolphins went on and won the Super Bowl. That’s the kind of decision that plays well in history books and Hall of Fame speeches.
Tannehill isn’t limping anymore. Now comes the next questions: Can he run? Can he throw? Can he do enough when the team returns to practice Wednesday to prove he could possibly play on Sunday?
These answers usually make the decision for coaches. If not, Gase has a doozy to make. Welcome back to the playoffs, Dolphins fans.