Ryan Tannehill – August 4, 2018
Saturday, August 4, 2018
QB Ryan Tannehill
(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.”
(How does your speed feel, do you feel fast?) – “Yes. I feel like I did before everything happened, so I feel good.”
(On that bootleg, it looked like you had TE MarQueis Gray but he made a real good block. What was your thought process there? It seemed like a pretty high level of confidence.) – “I just came around the corner and nobody was there. MarQueis was a little bit behind me and I saw the safety coming down, and I said, ‘Hey, if we get that one block then we’ll be able to get even more yards.’ So, it was a split second decision and I thought it was good enough.”
(How important is it to you, that stage in the offense – those bootlegs, those movement plays for you?) – “It’s big. I like having that as part of our game. I think it matches up well our outside run, zone run plays that are going to be a foundation for this offense. You kind of have to have those in order to counteract the outside zones. It’s going to be big for us.”
(You seem to be as athletic with the brace. Does it limit you at all in any way?) – “I wouldn’t say it limits me. It’s a bit cumbersome, but it doesn’t limit me from doing anything. I ran in the offseason with it, did all the drills with it and everything, so you get used to it and it becomes like second nature.”
(Have you thought about a slide approach, because I watched the review film from the officials. You can slide forward and they can’t touch you. Will that alter your decision in any way how you slide?) – “I think there will be more head-first slides, just as the nature of what it is, just being to keep your speed going forward and dive forward. We’ll work on that. We’ll work on the right leg down slides as well as the head-first slides.”
(The pre-snap penalties were something that Head Coach Adam Gase mentioned. When that happens, what are the causes of that and how do you fix it?) – “It’s discipline. Every man has to take it upon himself to listen, listen to the snap count in the huddle, have the discipline at the line of scrimmage to sit in there when you’ve got a speed rusher coming around the edge, and to be able to not anticipate the snap too much and stay onside. It’s an individual thing where every man has to take it upon himself to stay onside and do the little things right. That’s what we’re working on throughout this training camp. We’re running every day after practice trying to get it fixed. We’re doing everything we can and making it a big emphasis, and it’s going to get fixed.”
(Have they talked to you at all on how you’re going to be used on Thursday and are there any butterflies leading up to that first preseason game?) – “We haven’t even talked about it, but I am excited to get back out there and play some real football. As the spring has gone on and as training camp has gone on, every step is feeling really good as far as getting prepared for the season. That’s just the next step as we go, to get hit for the first time – hopefully not get hit for the first time, but I’ll at least have the chance to get hit for the first time. (laughter)”
(What do you feel causes these lapses in focus that lead to the pre-snap penalties?) – “There’s a lot going on. It’s football. It’s a multifaceted game. You have long play calls, you have a lot of responsibilities and adjustments that are made at the line of scrimmage. Every individual man is thinking of his technique, what it’s going to be and what the defender’s technique is going to be. There’s a lot going on. It’s not an easy thing to do, but it needs to get fixed.”
(I’m sure you’re a tough grader. How do you feel like the offense is doing at this point? Do you feel like you guys are where you need to be?) – “I didn’t feel like today was up to our standard. I feel like this week, we’ve had some really good practices, excluding today. We’re pressing forward and continuing to get better each and every day. I don’t feel like today we came out and executed to our level of expectation. I wouldn’t say that we took a step backwards, but we definitely didn’t take a step forward today, so we’re going to have to really hit it when we get back on the field next week.”
(You and TE Mike Gesicki seem to be really hitting it off as far as chemistry goes. Do you feel like this is the first time that you’ve really had this type of connection with a tight end since your days in college?) – “I don’t know. Mike has come on and he’s done a good job for us. He’s hungry, he’s young, he wants to be good, he wants to do the things the right way, he listens and he’s really athletic. That helps him a lot. He’s a playmaker. I saw yesterday, there was a play in the end zone there, and in 7-on-7 today, down the field. He has a lot of athletic ability, he’s really explosive, long arms, long catch radius and he’s going to make a lot of plays for us.”
(You talked a lot about the work you did with the receivers in the offseason, some voluntary stuff. Have you done extra work with TE Mike Gesicki since he’s a rookie and there’s a lot of catching up to do than say WR Danny Amendola?) – “Yes, I think there’s a lot more conversation with Mike as opposed to some of the older guys who have played a lot more football. Just getting the nuances of how I want to see things and he’s hungry to learn, so he’s all ears in those situations and really applying it. That’s the big key is being able to take those conversations that we have and then apply them the next day or whatever the case may be a few days later. So that’s where you’re seeing the big steps come from.”
(Have you been helping him after practice? What have you been doing in the last week or so to help TE Mike Gesicki speed things up?) – “Yes, we’ve had some throwing sessions after practice, just working on the little quick timing things that are big, especially down in the red zone, where the windows are tight and the ball has to come up early. Once you’re on the same page there, you’re going to see it pay dividends.”
(TE Mike Gesicki said he would walk your dog if you asked him, but would you ask him to do something like that?) – “I don’t know about my dog, but my lawn probably needs to be mowed, so we’ll see if he can take care of that this off day. (laughter)”
