Ryan Tannehill Comments on Player Cuts, Pocket Presence, Offensive Line

Quarterback Ryan Tannehill has seen a lot of the turf and plenty of struggles as his Miami Dolphins have gotten off to a 1-4 start in the early portion of the 2016 season.

On Tuesday, the team made some changes by cutting starting offensive linemen Billy Turner and Dallas Thomas, per Adam H. Beasley of the Miami Herald.

While speaking with the media Wednesday, Tannehill said the moves grabbed the attention of the rest of the roster, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.

"I think it sends a pretty clear message," he said. "Obviously, it's a tough part of the business. [They are] guys that you spend a lot of time with—good people—but it sends a message to everyone on this team that, 'You've got to get your job done, or we're going to find somebody who can.'"

Tannehill has been sacked 17 times this season, which is tied for the second-highest total in the league. Six of those sacks came during a Week 5 loss to the Tennessee Titans, who had just six sacks in their first four games of the season.

Under that kind of pressure, the fifth-year quarterback is off to one of the worst starts of his career, as he's thrown for just 1,272 yards with six touchdowns and seven interceptions. In each of the past two years, Tannehill has thrown just 12 interceptions, a mark he's on pace to obliterate this season.

He wasn't afraid to critique his offensive line Wednesday, per Florio:

"

It's tough whenever you don't have a chance to even really start your progression, or if you do, to get to [the] number two [progression]. There's no chance of that. It makes it tough. It makes it tough on everyone. The receivers have to be able to get open quickly. I think several of those were on third down situations, so it's tough to get to the open guy if you don't have time. ... You have to have time to move. If your eyes are downfield and you're looking at one [and] you get hit from behind, it's tough to move at that point. As a quarterback — as a guy who has the ability to move — I feel like I need to be able to escape the pocket some and get out of harm's way.

"

However, Tannehill placed some blame on himself as well, saying he needs to find a way to get out of the pocket quicker while getting rid of the ball before the pressure gets to him.

Miami's rushing game isn't getting much support from the offensive line, either. Having already experienced time without starting running back Arian Foster (hamstring), the Dolphins rank 29th in the league with 362 yards on the ground.

With an offense struggling in all aspects of the game, a quarterback calling out his offensive line might not help him make any more friends in the locker room.

Stats courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com.