Under Gase, Tannehill emerging as a leader
Jason Lieser: Dolphins coach has treated his chief quarterback as a partner, giving him clout and letting him learn to command.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When Adam Gase took over as Dolphins head coach in January 2016, he knew all the supposed knocks on quarterback Ryan Tannehill.
He deemed many of them inaccurate before he even settled into his office, seeing plenty he liked about Tannehill on film. The more time he spent with him, the more he believed his new quarterback had been the victim of false narratives — he can’t throw the deep ball, among others — and Gase relished the chance to scoff at the media when Tannehill put together the best stretch of his career that first season together.
But there was one myth about Tannehill that took a little more digging to dispel. There was widespread perception that he was too soft-spoken to lead, too timid to take charge and not a
good enough player to earn the respect of the locker room. As Gase got to know him in those first few months, he saw the opposite.
He saw a quarterback who just needed a nudge toward being bolder, and the ever-defiant new coach was the man to empower him.
Gase is a guy who answers every criticism with his chin out and never thinks he’s lost an argument. He began steering Tannehill toward that type of mindset in one of the first conversations they ever had. Tannehill didn’t need to go full-Gase — there’s not enough room in the organization for two of those — but it’d help to take at least a step or two in that direction.
He’s been finding that edge this season, and everyone can hear it in his voice now.
“The more confidence you get as far as games under your belt, time spent with the guys, time in an offense, dealing with all the bull crap that you deal with in this profession, at some point you’re like, ‘Screw it. I’m going to be me and do everything I can to win and if they don’t like it, then oh well,’ ” Tannehill said this week. “I think that’s part of it.
“Part of it is Gase and the support he has for me and the confidence he gives me to go out and be me and lead the way I want to lead.”
As the Dolphins entered their second preseason game Friday at Carolina, Tannehill did so with a clearer grasp than ever that this is his team.
There were signs of that back in 2016, and crystalized for the team last year when it saw what life was like without him. Appreciation of Tannehill is at an all-time high within the organization after a year of plodding along with Jay Cutler.
Gase says he doesn’t care a ton about story lines and what the public thinks, but he’s been enjoying this one. He feels like he’s already been proven right.
“Whoever you are, just be that guy,” Gase said, recalling the first time he and Tannehill discussed it. “I think he’s done a good job with that. He’s at the point of his career where all of the things that people look at, stats and all of that stuff — He just wants to win. If there’s anything standing in the way of that then he’s going to address it. He’s not going to be shy about it. He’s going to bring it up. I don’t think he’s afraid of confrontation.”
That’s been more evident this offseason, starting with player-run passing workouts that Tannehill initiated early and continuing with his statement during organized team activities that he’s taking a more assertive role in holding teammates accountable.
“The way we’re going to win here is by everyone being accountable, myself included,” he said in June, taking a different tone.
“If a guy makes a mistake once then you might let it go. If he makes it again, that’s when I have a problem.”
Such a problem arose at the beginning of this week, when Tannehill had had enough of rookie Kalen Ballage’s missteps and kicked him out of the huddle after failing to pick up a block. Charles Harris raced in for the sack, which didn’t matter much during a non-contact situation on the practice field but would’ve surely demolished Tannehill in a game.
It wasn’t so significant that Tannehill chewed out a fourth-round pick who’s still finding his way. It’s that he finally has the authority to take such an action and know that everybody will back him. His teammates let him go. Gase said publicly it was the right move — because that’s probably what he would’ve done.
The longer the Gase-Tannehill relationship lasts, the more we’re certain to see Tannehill adopting parts of his coach’s personality to various degrees.
It helps that Gase has had his back at every turn, shutting down the conversation immediately in 2016 when fans were chanting for Matt Moore and further emboldening him this season by touting him as the unquestioned leader of the team.
Tannehill would never say it, but it was harder to lead when Joe Philbin never seemed totally sold on him, discouraged him from improvising and didn’t mind leaving him wondering about his job security.
Gase has treated Tannehill more like a partner, giving him coach-like clout when it comes to running the huddle and orchestrating the offense in those critical final seconds before the snap. Perhaps that’s what Tannehill needed all along and it’ll prove to be the key that unlocks what the Dolphins saw when they drafted him.
That’s what to watch for from Tannehill in the preseason games and, to some extent, when the real games start next month. It’s not about the numbers. It’s about command. And he’s looks like he’s coming into his own in that aspect of the job.