Ryan Tannehill’s return to Hard Rock field brief and eventful, sort of
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins scrimmage on Saturday saw the return of quarterback Ryan Tannehill to the Hard Rock Stadium turf in over a year. It was good and bad.
When Ryan Tannehill took the field on Saturday it was the first time he stepped on to the Hard Rock Stadium turf in pads to play since a week 13 injury in 2016. Obviously the media had a lot of questions for Tannehill.
Tannehill’s scrimmage was brief to say the least. There was little expectations for him to practice long given the timeframe of the scrimmage and the fact that he is the franchise’s starting quarterback.
Stats were unofficially kept, mostly by those in attendance but Tannehill’s short day produced a 3 for six outing for 22 yards. One of those was a 12 yard strike to Danny Amendola.
The stats are not on fire and while they seem to be pretty bad the reality is there isn’t much to read into them. It was a quick series of work and was situational in all likelihood. A chance to get him on the field.
Tannehill however did impress on one play. He pulled the ball down and ran up-field for a 16 yard run that was aided with a block by tight-end MarQueis Gray. The scramble drew some questions for the media afterwards and Tannehill said he felt great.
"(Was the scramble significant for you?) – “I’ve been doing it for a few weeks now, and even in the spring, so it’s not significant. It does feel good to be out back on the grass and back in Hard Rock Stadium for the first time in a long time. I don’t think our performance on offense was up to our standard of what we want it to be; but as far as coming out here for the first time in a long time and to be back on the grass and back to doing what we do, it felt good.” – MiamiDolphins.com"
The scramble is the first real sign that Tannehill has faith in his knee and isn’t afraid to turn up-field with the ball and take off. That is a big part of his game. It’s not likely that he will be asked to do a lot of that throughout the season but Gase may take some of the shackles off at some point.
Tannehill told the media that the bootlegs is important to him. He said that he “like’s that part of our game”. As for the brace, he called it more cumbersome than limiting. He will wear the brace all year but it apparently isn’t keeping him from doing what he is good at.
Dolphins fans can see him on Thursday night for what will likely be one series at most when the team hosts the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Hard Rock Stadium.