Ryan Tannehill – December 12, 2018
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Wednesday, December 12, 2018
QB Ryan Tannehill
(How does the ankle? Do you feel much discomfort just walking around?) – “It’s been better. I’m encouraged by how it feels. It’s gotten better every day and actually moving around today at practice, some of the swelling was worked out of it. I definitely feel encouraged by where things are at.”
(I know it’s all about winning. Obviously that’s by far goal number one. With that said, your personal growth and what you’ve put on the field in terms of passer ratings, you’ve now risen to a category you’ve never been at before. Are you aware of that? Are you aware of your stats? Is that remotely meaningful to you?) – “The goal is just to constantly improve. Something we’re always working at every position here is just growing. Learning from your past mistakes, growing and with where I’m at in my career, I feel like I should be playing my best football. (Head Coach Adam) Gase is constantly pushing me. (Offensive Coordinator) Dowell (Loggains) and (Quarterbacks Coach) Bo (Hardegree) are constantly pushing me. Yeah, I think I’m playing solid football. Obviously I still have room for improvement and want to keep pushing myself to keep playing better.”
(This team has been so different at home and on the road. Any idea why? We all know it’s hard to win on the road.) – “Yeah. That’s the NFL. Obviously it’s something that we need to improve upon. We haven’t played up to our standards on the road. We had a couple of opportunities but we haven’t been able to finish it off. It’s definitely something we look forward to correcting this week.”
(What’s the neatest thing to happen in the 72 hours since Sunday in terms of anyone you heard from? A friend in your past or someone you haven’t heard from in years saying ‘Hey, about that play?’ Has there been anything neat like that the last three days?) – “Nothing too crazy. A lot of people reaching out. A ton of text messages but nothing too crazy.”
(How many times have you watched the play?) – “Not that many actually. I watched it … I didn’t see it … Well, I saw it after the game on a little short clip of it. Then I watched it on Monday and I don’t think I’ve seen it since. But it’s something I’ll never forget, for sure.”
(What’s the thing that struck you the most watching the replay?) – “Probably Ted (Larsen) being down the field and making the block. I think that obviously was crucial for the success of that play. You don’t really expect a lineman to be that far down the field hustling and making a play. I think that definitely is what jumped out the most.”
(What can you say about C/G Ted Larsen and that play that he wants zero credit for that? He wants to just be remembered as somebody doing his job and making that play unfold.) – “I think it speaks to his competitiveness and never giving up. Just keep fighting and try to make something happen. I think the guys did a good job of trying to keep the thing alive. You think it’s going to be one of those things where it’s a pitch, pitch, pitch and the ball is going across the field; but thankfully ‘K.D.’ (Kenyan Drake) was able to get around a few guys, had a couple of big blocks there – Danny (Amendola) kind of chipped a guy and then Ted finished him off – and ‘K.D.’ was able to hit the crease. Guys just kept fighting and ended up making a play.”
(When you took that brief nap at the center of the field after the game, was that exhaustion, exhilaration, relief, disbelief? Was it everything?) – “(laughter) I don’t think I can put my finger on one emotion there. I think it all kind of hits you at once. From where you’re at before that play, seeing them march down the field and watching the clock tick away, it’s just a sinking feeling you get. Then knowing you have one shot with minimal probability that something is going to happen, to be successful and have that 1 percent or 0.1 percent play pay off is pretty incredible. It kind of just all hits you at one moment. Everyone was going crazy in the corner and I was still hurting, so I didn’t really want to get caught up and bumped around in that melee over there. (laughter) Yeah, I just kind of collapsed.”
(I interviewed Doug Flutie 22 years after the Hail Flutie play. I asked him how often does it come up and he said once a day minimum, even then. Has it sunk in that people are going to be coming to you, whatever years from now, and saying ‘Hey, that game in Miami against New England?’ Has that sunk in?) – “Not really. I’m not really worried about that right now. Honestly, I’m just trying to turn the page and get ready for Minnesota. It was a pretty high high there and a lot of hoopla around it; but at the end of the day, we still have a lot of work to do in this season and we have to be able to turn the page and move forward to Minnesota. I think guys have done a really good job of that today. I expect that to keep going throughout this week. I think after the season is over, then we can take a look back and reminisce.”
(Is it difficult to turn that page? It’s understandably such a buzz in the wake of what happened.) – “Not for me. I think that’s to a man how every guy handles it. I still see so much out there for this team and what we can accomplish. All focus is on Minnesota and whatever we can do to get ready for that game.”
(What has RB Kenyan Drake meant to the offense?) – “He’s been huge. He’s a playmaker. We saw it last year. We saw it some his rookie year. We saw it in preseason in Carolina. You see any play can go the distance with that guy. We feel good about splitting him out. He’s got the speed to get on the edge. We kind of move him on some fast-motion type stuff and try to use him to misdirect the defense. And he can run the standard downhill running plays. He’s huge. He’s basically a utility knife in the backfield that we can put in a lot of different places and use to create matchups that we like.”
(You talked about the emotions of what happened on Sunday. Can that help with the confidence of this team, to overcome even the greatest of odds knowing at this point that we’re trying to make the playoffs?) – “Yeah, I think you can use a moment like that to solidify and really come together as a team. I think this team has done that throughout the course of the year. (We’ve) really stuck together through thick and thin, believed in each other (and) trusted in each other. But when you have a moment like that, that can really be the significant moment that unifies the team completely. Only time will tell, but I kind of felt that when it happened. I felt it in the locker room. You can kind of feel it in the building. But there’s still a lot of work to do. We have to use that as a springboard to finish off the season.”
(How do you feel about the team’s playoff chances?) – “I honestly don’t know what’s in the future for this team. I know we have a game on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings and we’re going to have to win that game. All focus is purely on Minnesota and doing whatever we can to come out with a win.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase said he was shocked that you came back, given how the injury looked. How much pride do you put on your toughness and coming back in situations like that?) – “I love competing. I love being on the field. I love being out there for my guys. If there’s any possible way that I can be out there with my guys and compete and lead them, then I’m going to do it. It’s not about proving a point or anything like that. It’s about leading the offense and trying to go win a game. That’s ultimately what it comes down to.”
(Maybe the five games you missed or at some point recently, what is that mood like when you walk into the training room and see so many of your teammates that have been injured or done for the season? What’s that feeling like? Is it disappointment? Are you kind of looking to see if you had these guys, what would the season be? What’s it like when you see those guys in the training room?) – “It’s tough. You care about everyone that’s on this team. To see the pain … I’ve been there. I was there last year. I was there a bit earlier this season. It’s frustrating. Sometimes it’s hard to wrap your mind around where you’re at and it’s just kind of tough to believe. You try to be encouraging and try to support them as much as you can. You can’t play the what-if game because it’s just going to get you nowhere. You just try to be as supportive as you can and as encouraging as you can and that’s about all you can do.”
(The Vikings, as you’ve probably heard, changed their offensive coordinator yesterday. Back in 2015, you went through something somewhat similar when offensive coordinators changed late in the year. What do you remember about that transition? Was it rough as a quarterback or was it a seamless thing?) – “Well, any time you have change like that, it’s kind of chaotic. There’s two ways you can respond. I’ve seen teams rally around the decision and I’ve seen teams go the other way. We don’t know what we’re going to get, but it doesn’t really matter. We have to go out and play our game and execute our calls. If we’re able to do that, then we’ll be happy with the result.”
(It came out this week, your sponsorship with Regenexx, that you decided to use stem cells in the Grand Caymans. What led to that decision and is that something you talked to with other players?) – “Yeah, I know some other players who have done it. It’s something I did I think two years ago. It’s like a time warp in football season. Every week feels like a year but then it goes by so fast. Anyways, it was a decision I made a while back. I looked at doing the stem cell thing when I first hurt my knee in 2016 and was looking into all of the different choices that were out there. In the U.S., you aren’t able to concentrate and grow the cells and in the Caymans, you are. So that was the reason that I went with Regenexx. They have the ability to take it from three million to like three-hundred million cells. So you have a lot more cells that you can use. Through one aspiration, you can use them on multiple treatments. That was the reasoning for that.”
(Did you ask if it was an option for the shoulder after you first sustained that injury?) – “Yeah. We looked into every avenue.”
(Was it determined that wouldn’t help the capsule injury that you had?) – “It just wasn’t the right fit for the right time. I was trying to do everything I could to get back. We did do some other alternative treatments but didn’t make it to the Caymans.”
(It seems like that’s something unique. Is that something you had personal interest in or is it something you kind of learned about just through looking around?) – “Well, I have a little bit of a medical background. I was pre-med in college, so I’ve always been intrigued by medicine and what’s out there. Through the whole process of getting injured in 2016, doctors decided I wasn’t having surgery, so I really started digging on what I can do to help myself as much as I can. Stem cells was one of the avenues that I found. I kind of went down that road and found Regenexx and it’s been really good for me.”
(What do you make of what RB Brandon Bolden did in that game on Sunday?) – “Brandon came up huge for us. He’s a guy who has played well for us on special teams all year long. He’s a veteran guy. Obviously coming from New England, he’s played in big games. He knows how it’s done to get to the dance. He’s always out there working. He’s a fast guy, obviously. You saw he’s big; he’s strong. It’s fun to kind of weave him into the offense a little bit and get him out on the field and kind of use some of his abilities. He did a good job of getting vertical. You saw the speed on the outside and then down on the goal line, he had good vision to cut it back and get around the outside, then had the strength to get in the end zone. He’s definitely a guy who has been big for us all year on special teams but it was really cool to see him get some burn on offense.”
(WR Brice Butler, in the short time that he’s been around, what does it seem he does well?) – “Brice has been good for us. I think you see on the touchdown catch he had, he has really long arms, great range and good size. He’s a guy who can use his size to his advantage. He can kind of get defenders on his back and extend his arms and make plays. He definitely brings a little bit of a different aspect compared to guys like Jakeem (Grant) or Albert (Wilson) or Danny (Amendola). It’s a good changeup for us. He’s done a good job of learning the offense and kind of fitting in right where we need him to be.”
(Your offense has changed obviously because of personnel from early in the season. Would you say it’s a different philosophy on offense at all from then to what you try to do every week now?) – “I think we talked about this a couple of weeks ago or after the Bills game, just what the identity was. Yeah, we’ve kind of had to change and shift and maneuver throughout the year on who is in the game and who is available. One guy goes down and it kind of shifts a little bit. Another guy goes down and it shifts back the other way. It’s not easy. It’s not easy to do but you have to give credit to Coach Gase and his ‘evil genius’ mind of just figuring out ways to keep the advantage and keep moving guys around, and use guys to the best of their ability.”
(You mentioned your pre-med background. Have you thought about doing medicine after you’re done?) – “Not really. Obviously in the offseason, I think about what I’m going to do after (football) a little bit; but honestly, I don’t put that much thought into it because I feel like I have a lot of football left in front of me and I want to do everything I can to win football games. I’ll cross that road once I get there.”
