QB Tannehill looks on target in return
MIAMI GARDENS — Let’s talk about three plays. That’s enough. We could talk about more than that, if you want, because the Miami Dolphins’ first preseason game Thursday night was a festival of first impressions, as well as a carnival of clumsiness, like preseason always is.
There was the play, for instance, 2018 first-round pick Minkah Fitzpatrick made up for being a step late by knocking a completion to Tampa Bay’s Chris Godwin into an incompletion.
There was the play rookie running back Kalen Ballage hurdled a Tampa defender in a display of athleticism only to drop the ball on the ground as he did in a display of what better change.
None of those are the central three plays to take from this game, though. They were the first three plays of the game. There was quarterback Ryan Tannehill, in the moment, and there’s no counting how many days he envisioned this meaningful moment in this meaningless game.
On the first play, Tannehill rolled to his right, as if to show everyone his repaired knees is fine. He saw his man, Kenny Stills, working his way across the middle of the field. Tannehill waited for him to come open. And waited.
The whole blessed Dolphins nation was watching Thursday night — or at least, bless their hearts, the die-hards scattered across Hard Rock Stadium still closely watching this team.
But, again, that’s another matter for later. The matter at hand Thursday was Tannehill returning to this field for the first time in 19 months and finding receiver Kenny Stills on that first pass for 15 commendable yards.
And throwing to running back Kenyan Drake for 7 yards on the next play.
And then Stills again for 5 yards on the third play.
And that’s it. That’s the three plays that mattered most this night. They could have stopped the night right there, and everything the Dolphins wanted to accomplish would have been a defined success.
It would have been preferable to stop everything right there, too, COMMENTARY when the preseason slop started to come on play No. 4 with a holding penalty on tackle Ja’Wuan James.
And later Tannehill missed receiver Danny Amendola downfield.
And missed Ballage on a short pattern.
And rookie Jason Sanders missed a 53-yard field goal to end what was a classic preseason drive by a first-team unit. You take from it whatever you want. And the manner it ended wasn’t the headline to Thursday.
Tannehill’s return was. His completing those first three passes of the night was (and, actually, a fourth straight, 5-yard completion after the James’ hold on that drive). If this team goes anywhere this season, it starts with his enjoying the kind of play when he first injured his knee near the end of the 2016 season.
He enjoyed Thursday as he continued his tour of what was taken from him. In that context, even the first preseason game mattered and his smiles on the sideline said so.
“I think probably more appreciation than I normally have for a (first preseason) game,’’ he said. “I didn’t make it to this point last year. It was a long rehab process, and everything it took to get back to this point. I think more appreciation for every second that I was out there and just enjoyed it a little more.
“It was kind of constant. I was just soaking it all up, soaking up every moment that I could. Enjoying it. I knew what it was like not to be out there and have to struggle through missing a whole year. Definitely didn’t take any moment for granted.”
Does he have to be better, as those final two passes showed? Sure. But that wasn’t the story of the night. Those first three passes were.
It’s easy to get sidetracked by the other stuff this time of year, easy to start believing that the depth of receiver matters in a big way or great team camaraderie can overcome most anything.
Then you look at last year, and you realize if you don’t have a quarterback you don’t have a prayer. The Dolphins have a prayer now. It remains to be seen where it all goes from here, considering a lot of other questions remain up in the air starting with who’s behind Tannehill.
Did David Fales move ahead of Brock Osweiler? Maybe. And the defense? It got shredded on the opening drive by journeyman quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. The kickers? Something tells me the Dolphins will be in the market for one before the season opener.
There, too, was the resurrection of the national anthem protest as Stills and newcomer Albert Wilson took a knee during its playing while Robert Quinn raised a fist in the air. That will be an ongoing topic everyone’s dug in on.
The new topic Thursday was Tannehill. He completed four of his six passes on his lone series for 32 yards. It wasn’t anything to hang a shiny star on. But it was a fine first step back, just as the first preseason game should be. Just as his return needed.