Tannehill
gery, a process in which he was always ahead of schedule, Tannehill has completed 31 of 50 passes for 266 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions.
This isn’t about numbers, though. The more important thing is that he’s looked right. Tannehill has been mobile in the pocket, fast-paced, poised under duress, in rhythm with his receivers and highly accurate. In other words, everything the Dolphins lacked with Jay Cutler and friends playing the position last year.
“One positive was our tempo,” left guard Josh Sitton said after the Baltimore game, highlighting an issue that has exasperated Gase for two years. “We were getting up and getting lined up for the calls. Ryan was pushing the tempo real hard. After a big play we were getting up fast. That’s what we want to do; that’s what this offense is based on.”
As far as numbers that are relevant, consider that in his first year under Gase, Tannehill put up the best eight-game stretch of his career. That’s a big enough sample size to be optimistic going forward.
He completed 69.1 percent of his passes, averaged 215.4 yards per game and had 13 touchdowns against five interceptions for a 100.1 passer rating. That’s 15 points higher than what he registered his first four seasons and, even factoring in his early struggles in 2016, his 93.5 rating that year was a career high.
The Dolphins went 7-1 in those games, by the way.
The problem this year is more likely to be everything around him. In last week’s game, he completed 14 of 17 passes, but the result was a meager 7.1 yards per connection.
He can’t do it on his own and it’s unrealistic to demand that he be the kind of receiver-elevating quarterback that Aaron Rodgers is, so he’ll need this host of speedsters at the skill position to turn safe passes into big gains. Kenyan Drake, Albert Wilson and Jakeem Grant have to be that kind of weapon for him, and Kenny Stills and DeVante Parker must be enough of a threat to open things up for them.
He can’t do it without a tight end, which is what the Dolphins have been asking him to figure out since Charles Clay left after the 2014 season. Now the hope is that second-rounder Mike Gesicki’s basketball-style athleticism will be an immediate answer, even though — like almost all rookies — he’s going to need more time.
He can’t do it without the offensive line buying him enough time to let something come together. Neither of his starting tackles played up to their potential last season, and the Dolphins made a cost-cutting move at center by dropping Mike Pouncey in favor of Daniel Kilgore.
And even if all those things work out in Tannehill’s favor, none of it will matter much if the defense doesn’t hold up.
Tannehill has been with the Dolphins since 2012, and this is the first time they go into a season without anyone worrying much about him. Overwhelming? No. But dependable? Yes.
It’s going to be a solid season for Tannehill, and solid quarterback play is something to aspire to if you’re the Miami Dolphins.
The question is whether enough things around him go right for that to mean anything.