Yeah, I’m a few hours late on this. But, like Eddie Murphy poeticly once said on SNL when he screwed up on air, “So I messed up, Shutup!”
Yesterday at a press conference, Dolphins coach Adam Gase had a somewhat heated exchange with Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald about who and what Ryan Tannehill is and has been so far in his career.
Adam Gase: The Paradox
As the resident Miami Dolphins guy, I can tell you this is not the fifth time Gase has defended Tannehill. This possibly is the 50th time. I’m just not sure if they make a cool sounding word for 50th like they do like quintuplet.
Gase is quite the paradox. The way he runs his team is the way that most fans want their teams to be ran. He doesn’t put up with nonsense that is easily avoidable, which is to say he doesn’t go for players acting like they’re better than everyone who don’t put in the proper effort. Even if you’re aren’t a tortured Dolphins’ fan like myself, I’m sure you’re aware of their departures this past Summer. Those moves were all about guys who were expensive who were also terrible locker room guys. He replaced them with cheaper and for all intents and purposes guys who are more worried about the name on the front of jersey as opposed to the name on the back of it. So far, that has netted mixed results. 4-4 is a beautifuly middle of the road record that suits the mantra of Miami football that has been around for pretty much my whole football viewing life. I actually think Gase has done a god job this year because he has a 500 ball club with tons of injuries all over the place.
Where Gase represents the other side of the double edged sword is his often mind numbing defending of his QB. Tannehill has been in the league for 7 years. 7 whole years to see what he’s all about. In seven years we all know what he is. He is a middle of the road guy that will have some games where he looks like he took the next step and is trending upward. Then he will have consecutive games where he looks like the truest backup of all backups in the headlights where he appears like a guy who actively is trying to make the dumbest play you can think of.
What Gase Is Dealing With
Gase took the job mainly because he convinced Miami’s owner Stephen Ross that he could turn Tannehill, a former 1st rd. pick and former WR, in case you never heard, into a real deal NFL quarterback. Gase was one of the guys behind Peyton Manning’s good fortune in Denver and even Jay Cutler’s best years in the league with the Bears. So, he’s been dubbed as one of those QB gurus. Ross bought into that reputation and Gase was the guy. Since Gase has gotten to Miami, he has turned the erratic Ryan Tannehill into an older version of the erratic Ryan Tannehill. Basically, nothing has changed since Gase has worked with Ryan. Ryan’s first year numbers under the guidance of Gase yielded a 19-12 TD/INT ratio and they made the playoffs. But, that was mostly due to emergence of Jay Ajayi. He missed the 2017 year due to a knee injury and then Ryan morphed into a better version of himself for 2018 campaign.
If that’s not a money makeover, I don’t know what is. Before Ryan got hurt again this year, he had a 8/5 TD/INT ratio. Classic Van Buren Boys stats where he’s not showing off while also not falling behind. I will tell you that those stats are bit inflated because two of those TDs passes went a combined distance of 12 inches.
Why Defend Him?
As much we all know how average at best Tannehill, Gase knows it even more. He sees him everyday and he looks at all the tape more than anyone else. He knows what he has. But, he also knows that subtly getting away from Tannehill through the media right now only hurts his permanent resident of his “in the hunt” land team. It also shows Ryan and the rest of guys in the locker room that he has their back no matter what. Can that hurt him in the end? Sure it could. But I would bet my soul(again) that Gase will be working with a different QB next year in Miami. Yes, Gase will be back next year because Ross loves him. Tannehill, on the other hand, will not. He’s owed $26m next year and the outcry for someone new either through the draft or free agency will be to much to keep Tannehill. Gase may say that Ryan is his guy, but if you haven’t noticed, he’s not rushing him back to play even though the Brocksmen is his starting QB. Telling the media that Ryan is his guy lets Ryan know that if needs him later in the year that he has his full support.
Just Don’t Do This
I’m all fine with Gase defending his guy even though I believe he knows he won’t be his guy next year. The only thing I hate is when he told Salguero that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and that he and everyone else is all about using results when it comes to judging player performance. Such a cop out to say that just because he’s the coach, that nobody who isn’t a coach has the brain capacity to watch film on their own and see where Ryan or any player is deficient. It’s football, not splitting atoms or figuring out space travel. I think when Ryan panics due to a rush and spikes the ball into his own linemans head causing a pick 6, I and anyone else can say that was a very dumb thing to do without telling me I don’t understand what I saw. And for the part about using this weird thing called “results” as a metric to judge performance, what the hell is he saying? I’m pretty sure in almost all walks of employment that how good you do determines how much money you make. Saying that we can’t use a player’s results as a determining factor in judging what they’re are worth is basically saying that even though Patrick Mahomes is smashing records and dominating the league that that is no reason to think for one second that he is good at being a quarterback. Get out of here with that rhetoric. Hurts my brain, that Gase thought that was remotely a smart thing to say.
Where To From Here?
Miami is 4-4 right now with three games still left against the Bills and Jets so as much as I would love to say that Miami is out of it, they really aren’t. Will Tannehill come back and lead this team to a Wildcard birth or will they fold and Brock Osweiler will be their guy for the remaining games? Tough to say. Flip a coin. I will tell you that Ryan Tannehill will not be the opening day starter next year for the Dolphins no matter how much Adam Gase backs him.
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