Your Miami Dolphins hit the practice field today for the opening of training camp for a whole new season of suck. Thus far, Matt Moore (aka THE PUPPET) has taken the first-team reps, while David Garrard is leading the second stringers.
Conspicuously absent from the proceedings is first-round pick QB Ryan Tannehill, who remains unsigned. But general manager Jeff Ireland told ESPN football blogger James Walker that things are progressingly progressive while they progess... or some such shit.
"He's obviously not here, so we're obviously not done yet," Ireland said. "I think progress is being made. It's progressing, communication is ongoing on both sides. ...We will not discuss the details of the negotiations in public."
Tannehill is one of three first-round NFL picks yet to sign with their respective teams. But Ireland seems to be confident a deal will get hammered out soon.
The concern here would be, the more practice and meeting time Tannehill misses, the less time he'll have to learn the playbook, get in sync with his receivers, and generally get a feel for things. But the Dolphins' offensive coordinator Mike Sherman used to coach Tannehill at Texas A&M, so that should help him catch up as soon he gets into Davie.
ESPN has former Jets/Chiefs coach Herm Edwards writing columns for them now for some reason, and he says that Miami should start Tannehill NOW:
"Miami finished 6-10 overall and 3-3 in a tough AFC East last season. After a rough offseason, the Dolphins drafted Tannehill in the first round at No. 8 overall. If they drafted him that high, he'd better be their franchise QB. Right?"
Well, that's the hope, Herm. So, yes, let's throw the future of the franchise into the meat grinder of what has been a craptacular football team. What a fantastic idea! Oh. There's more? Go ooonnn....
"The real question is: How much better is Matt Moore going to be than Tannehill?" Are the Dolphins going to win two more games with him? Maybe go 8-8? What does that accomplish? They are rebuilding. They might as well find out what they have in Tannehill now."
The hope is obviously that Matt Moore is not better than Tannehill. Because if he is, we're fucked. But the fact that the Dolphins are supposedly an 8-8 team with a decent veteran like Moore speaks volumes of both how bad the Fins are and how vapid Herm Edwards is.
No need to rush Tannehill. Hell, there's no need to have him play a single down this year during the regular season. The Dolphins are in a perfect place of crappiness/mediocrity/shove a litter of kittens into a pillow case and punt it off a bridge bad to kill a young quarterback's confidence. So what the hell is the rush?
Oh but, he's supposed to be the franchise, so he should shine as the starter in his very first year, whether the team sucks or not!
You know how many times that's happened in Dolphins history outside of Dan Marino's first year? None. That's happened none times.
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