This is really it for Tannehill

Well, here we go again: Writing once more why Ryan Tannehill is the key to another Dolphins season. What is this, six, seven times now? It’s become awkward to write this column about Tannehill, year after year, because every year really looks like his year to prove himself.

Every year something gets in the way, too. Bullygate wrecked one year. Coach Joe Philbin’s belated firing did another. There was the knee injury just as Tannehill had found his good stride with current coach Adam Gase in 2016, and then the re-injury last August that cost him a full season. So this is the year. Funny thing is, I believe it, too. Any issue holding back Tannehill is gone. It’s all on him now. Gase, unlike Philbin, is completely behind Tannehill to the point their careers are happily tied together. The Dolphins even passed on drafting one of the top quarterbacks available because they believed in Tannehill.

For another, there’s Tannehill’s time off. The knee has healed to the degree he says, “At this point, it’s like nothing ever happened.” There’s also the idea that, in retrospect, this 20-game breather can be rescripted in a positive way.

“I’ve grown a lot as a leader,’’ Tannehill said. “I’ve grown a lot as a person, a football player, just because of the adversity I’ve faced. Being able to take a step back and watch from a different perspective and take in that information, file it away, write it down.

“I’ve been going back looking at my notes of things that hit me over the last 16 months, whatever it may be. I’ve just built on that. It’s an experience that, while I’d never want it to happen that way, has been invaluable to me.”

Dave Hyde