Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
On sturdy shoulders
With Tannehill doubtful, Suh must pull more than his weight.
DAVIE — Matt Moore is emerging as a much stronger candidate than Ryan Tannehill to be the Dolphins’ starting quarterback Sunday’ for their wild-card playoff game at Pittselse’s,” burgh, according to coach Adam Gase.
“Unless something changes drastically here in the next two days or three days,” Gase said Wednesday of Moore, “he’s going in this thing the starter.”
But Gase again left the door open for Tannehill, who was walking around on the practice field Wednesday wearing a knee brace but didn’t practice.
“We’ve got a little ways to go,” Gase said of Tannehill, who is recovering from two sprained ligaments in his left knee. “I don’t want to rule him out yet. I want to see him try to get out and do something.
“But if he’s not ready to go, we’re not going to just put him out there and put him in harm’s way.”
Gase said Tannehill could play Sunday after just one day of practice.
“His knowledge of the offense is above everybody Gase said during a conference call with Pittsburgh reporters. “But really, for me, it’s all about, how’s he going to move when he gets bodies
around him and be able to be evasive?”
Gase almost drew the line at Tannehill playing Sunday without any practice this week.
“I think that would be hard for us to do,” he said. “I need to see him move around with traffic around him, how his escapability is.
“A lot of his game has been movement throughout his career, and then all of a sudden to throw him back there and say, don’t move, and if anybody gets close to you, go down, that’s not really an option for us. It’s not his style of football.
“We have to make sure that we feel comfortable with the way that he’s moving around. Really, at the end of the day, you have to be able to protect yourself, and so much of his game is movement.”
Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin said there’s not a major difference in Miami’s offense with Tannehill or Moore, so the Steelers’ preparations aren’t affected.
Tannehill hasn’t practiced since spraining the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee Dec. 11 against Arizona.
Wednesday, he watched the quarterbacks going through drills and offered tips to wide receivers as they ran routes, something that’s become a common sight at practices over the past week or so.
Gase said the team is in uncertain territory concerning Tannehill.
“It’s really a big gray area right now for us because [doctors] can’t necessarily say, ‘OK, we’re good to go, and just see how it goes along through the week,’ ” Gase said. “[Tannehill] has to kind of tell us how does it feel, how do you feel moving around?
“It’s a big gray area, because for him to articulate a lot of these things ... because he’s trying to figure out, ‘What am I supposed to be feeling like?’ ”
Moore said the situation has been taxing on Tannehill.
“He’s going crazy,” Moore said, exaggerating slightly.
Gase confirmed that the situation is hard on Tannehill.
“He’s frustrated, because he wants to try to help, he wants to do anything he can to be a part of this, but at the same time I have to be smart with what we’re doing moving forward,” Gase said.
“I don’t want any setbacks, I don’t want to jeopardize, whether it be his career, next season, put him in a position to where he can’t defend himself on the field against a defense that’s playing really well right now. We have to be smart as an organization.”
Gase has said he’ll be the one to make the final decision on whether Tannehill plays against Pittsburgh, but it also sounds as though he’ll put a lot of trust in Tannehill’s opinion.
“I have a lot of confidence in him being able to tell me, ‘I can’t do it this week,’ ” Gase said. “When he hits that point, he’ll tell me that. ... I want to see what happens [Thursday], if we end up getting him out there. If we don’t, then we move on to the next day.”
Moore said he’s unaffected by the uncertainty.
“I’m preparing like I have the last couple of weeks, and that’s all I can do,” he said. “There’s enough to worry about with Pittsburgh, so that’s where my focus is.”