Jay Ajayi hints Ryan Tannehill will have more control
By Tyler Olson
If 2nd year running back Jay Ajayi is trying to get on quarterback Ryan Tannehill’s good side, he’s doing a great job.
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In a recent interview conducted by the NFL Network, Ajayi is quoted saying he’s excited to see Tannehill “blossom and really dominate this year”.
If you’re a Dolphins fan you’ve waited a long time for Tannehill to finally come into his own and take control at the NFL level. We thought it’d happen when Mike Wallace came to town but that two-year experiment was a failure. Then we thought he’d take his play to the next level before this last season.
Again, another disappointed fan base.
To be fair, under former head coach Joe Philbin and offensive coordinators Mike Sherman and Bill Lazor the former Texas A&M Aggie was never given full control of the offense. Greg Jennings said it himself that the previous coaching staff “babied” and “handcuffed” Tannehill, preventing him from making very minute changes at the line of scrimmage.
Once Philbin and Lazor were both fired after a dismal week four loss to the New York Jets in London, interim head coach Dan Campbell promoted quarterbacks coach Zac Taylor to take control as offensive coordinator.
We saw changes right off the bat. Tannehill was given more freedom at the line of scrimmage and Miami was given a spark of hope for the rest of the season after two dominating performances against the Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans.
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Sure, Tannehill struggled throughout the middle of the season. I won’t deny that. Over the course of the last nine games he only threw 11 touchdowns. Not acceptable from a franchise quarterback.
With that being said he took care of the ball at the same time, throwing only three interceptions during that same span of time.
Now there’s a new staff in town and head coach Adam Gase is ready to make a change. A change that can take Tannehill from being that middle-of-the-grain decent quarterback to franchise leader.
When Gase was hired he was quoted saying Tannehill will be given more freedom. But will he really?
Ajayi, the man expecting to take over the reigns as the starting running back, has already seen a change in the offense, proving Gase is sticking to his word.
"“Seeing how he’s been able to work with coach (Adam) Gase and seeing what he’s been doing on the line of scrimmage, just being able to make those different calls and things like that, it’s been really cool to see and I’m excited to see him blossom and really dominate this year.” Jay Ajayi via Tyler Dragon of nfl.com"
It still isn’t easy to believe until us fans can see it in action but Ajayi’s endorsement that Tannehill is gaining a grasp on the system and implementing audibles on the field can have us excited to see what he can do this season.
Training camp is only 15 days away. That’ll be our first real opportunity to gauge exactly where Tannehill is as far as progression goes within the new offense and exactly how much freedom he’ll really have.