The Miami Dolphins hired Adam Gase to help develop Ryan Tannehill into an undisputed franchise quarterback, but the new head coach doesn’t want anyone to expect a miracle.
Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald notes Gase said the gunslinger’s progression won’t happen overnight.
“It’s not going to be like all of a sudden in two weeks we’re going to be like, all right, I got it. It’s going to take the entire spring. It’s going to take training camp. It’s going to take regular-season games. This is not going to be one of those things where I’m going to have a great feel for him right away. We’re going to have to go through a little bit of a process. There’s going to be bumps in the road, but that’s football.”
The initial reaction might be, “But Tannehill has already had four years!” He’s also never had a coach of Gase’s caliber.
By all accounts, ex-Dolphins coach Joe Philbin failed to connect with Tannehill and essentially refused to test and utilize his entire skill set.
Additionally, Miami brought in Mike Sherman — Tannehill’s head coach at Texas A&M — to be the offensive coordinator immediately after drafting the quarterback, which stunted his early development as well. Sherman stayed inside the zone he felt Tannehill was capable of executing.
Neither of those problems should repeat with Gase, who worked with Peyton Manning on the Denver Broncos and Jay Cutler on the Chicago Bears.
Still, expectations should be tempered for a couple months, let alone the first year. Gase is even trying to prepare NFL viewers to anticipate a process before Tannehill shows significant improvement.
Everybody wants to win now, but development doesn’t happen overnight.