Ryan Tannehill using his past experience to succeed at QB position

Written by Matthew Cannata | Twitter: @PhinManiacs
At Texas A & M, Ryan Tannehill was a wide receiver in his first two seasons before being put back at the quarterback position, which he played in high school. However, his two years of experience helped him transition back to the quarterback position.

In fact, many agree that because of his experience and understanding of what it's like to be a wide receiver, he can adapt much quicker and fine tune his game to his advantage. 

"I think I can understand what those guys are going through. Obviously I never played at this level (at wide receiver) and don’t have the talent to play at this level (at wide receiver), but just as far as how they can see the game, the things they go through on a down-in and down-out basis as far of seeing the rotation of safeties and leverages maybe helps me relate to those guys a bit more. At the same time, they are doing it at a much higher level than I ever did it or could ever do it. I’m not trying to coach them on specifics, just on overall concepts.”

One of the key attributes he took away from being a receiver though was his ability to run and make people miss in the open field. However, he doesn't necessarily see himself as a running quarterback nor does he think it's necessary to run all the time throughout each game.

“I don’t think [running the ball] it’s a must. At the end of the day, the quarterback’s job is not to run the ball, but to get it to the receivers down the field. It’s definitely an added bonus whenever we can add that to our run game or maybe a scramble, but at the end of the day that’s not the number one job. The number one job is to be able to throw the ball effectively. I’m a quarterback who can occasionally run, I guess. I wouldn’t put a label on myself.”

Tannehill has been a major reason for the recent offensive success of the Dolphins and he explained why he's had that success and what he can do to sustain it moving forward.

“Just making the plays that are there. I think that’s the biggest thing is putting our team in a position to win, taking advantage of the matchups we get, throwing with good accuracy and ball location, getting the ball out on time, keep the chains moving. At the end of the day, a quarterback’s job is to put points on the board. I think we’ve gotten better as a unit doing that as the season has gone on.”

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