DAVIE, Fla. — Amid debate over Ryan Tannehill‘s long-term future in Miami, coach Adam Gase expressed plenty of emotion as he vehemently defended his injured starting quarterback.
“The first three games he played pretty good,” Gase said, responding to a reporter’s assertion that Tannehill hasn’t been better in 2018 than previous seasons. “You’re asking me that question and you don’t even know what you’re talking about. It’s hard for me to defend anything when you don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t. I’ve watched the film. I sit there. We evaluate the scheme we’re asking him to do and he does a good job on it.”
Tannehill’s status as the Dolphins’ franchise QB has been in question for years, but the topic hit the fan this week when he was ruled out for the fourth consecutive game with a shoulder injury.
Gase said Tannehill, 30, isn’t close to reaching his ceiling as a quarterback, citing “rare qualities that you can’t find in a lot of guys physically.”
Tannehill is 3-2 as a starter this season, completing 66 percent of his passes for 8 TDs, 5 INTs and a 92.9 passer rating. Brock Osweiler has very similar numbers over his three games as a starter (1-2 record).
Tannehill hasn’t played since getting injured in a Week 5 loss at Cincinnati.
As of this Sunday, Tannehill will have missed 24 of his past 29 starts, including playoffs, dating to the end of the 2016 season.
Gase took exception to a reporter’s mentioning the results Tannehill has produced on the field over his six-and-a-half seasons in Miami.
“That’s how you look at things. Everything is results to you,” Gase said. “We’re going through a process because that’s what it is. That’s what the season is. It’s about trying to get guys to trend upward. We were headed in the right direction. We hit a speed bump with New England. Then Cincinnati, he was playing well and then we lose our left tackle and we make two bad decisions.”
Gase has long been supportive of Tannehill, and he’s been adamant that Tannehill will be the Dolphins’ starter when he’s healthy no matter what Osweiler has done and will do as the fill-in starter going forward.
Tannehill is 40-42 as a starter over his career. He has made the playoffs once — in 2016, when he was injured in December, and Matt Moore filled in for the final three regular-season games and Miami’s loss in the wild-card round.