Joe Philbin speaks on evolution of Ryan Tannehill since 2012

Written by Matthew Cannata at 6:15 PM EST | Twitter: @PhinManiacs

Ryan Tannehill entered the NFL in 2012 as the first overall pick for the Miami Dolphins and since then, his progress has been steady. At the same time though, his play has raised several questions with numerous people, including coaches, wondering if he can be the franchise quarterback of the Miami Dolphins.

 “Everybody’s developmental curve is a little bit different,” Joe Philbin said. “I would say this about Blake Bortles, if I’m not mistaken, you guys opened up the preseason against Tampa Bay. I watched the kid play in that game because we played Tampa Bay the next week and I thought to myself, ‘Geez, they’ve got a real fine prospect right here.’ The kid I think is going to be an outstanding player in the league and he’s doing some good things already.”

This year, Tannehill battled with adversity when Joe Philbin created a quarterback controversy in the week leading up to the game in London. However, Tannehill bounced back very well and Philbin is proud of the way he did so.

“You want the players, as the season progresses, you want to see improvement and development out of everybody at all position. You want the units to improve. Again, I think that’s the encouraging thing about our football team the last few weeks is I think we improved in a lot of different areas. Certainly, his performance has helped that. Some of the guys around him, their performance has helped that. I think it’s good. I think he is playing well and we are looking forward to him playing well again.”

Now, Tannehill has embraced the read-option and has been making huge strides in the past six quarters. In addition, the coaches have been letting him thrown on the move a lot more often and Tannehill doesn’t mind it. For example, the touchdown pass to Dion Sims against the Bears was a great move by Tannehill extending the play and making things happen.

“Yeah, it was a big third down for us. He was actually in protection and the check down, so I went through my progression. It got cloudy over the middle, bought some time in the pocket. He leaked out late and it was uncovered. So that was the last guy on the progression. I think if you study different guys, I think just in my experience some do throw better on the ball on the move than others, sure.”

Tannehill will have a chance to continue his impressive performance against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Playing another great game for 60 minutes will surely push his name into the conversation with the rising stars in the NFL.

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