Ryan Tannehill 'Not in the Running Right Now' for Miami Starting Quarterback Job

When Ryan Tannehill was drafted eighth overall by the Miami Dolphins, most expected 2012 to be his redshirt year. The early word from the team instead had Tannehill in the thick of the starting quarterback position battle.

Tannehill was even creating a little buzz because he knew the Miami offense better than David Garrard or Matt Moore (which wasn't that surprising since Dolphins offensive coordinator Mike Sherman was Tannehill's coach at Texas A&M).

Two months later, Tannehill appears to be right back where we had him on the night of the draft—not ready to start...yet.

Brian Biggane of the Palm Beach Post reports that Tannehill is "not in the running right now" to start because of his "untimely" mistakes, especially when throwing into traffic. Biggane does add a "for now" to his statement that Tannehill's "apprenticeship" will continue as the No. 3 quarterback, but there are other reasons to think he isn't going to contend to start in training camp.

The team gave Tannehill the first snaps with the starters on the third day of minicamp, after Garrard and Moore led off the first two days. But Omar Kelly of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel compared Tannehill to a "green tomato."

According to Kelly, Tannehill is still struggling mightily with the speed of the NFL game, saying, "It is abundantly clear to everyone watching his practices that the game’s moving too fast for him." 

Kelly writes that Tannehill is "either holding the ball too long, taking a would-be sack, not recognizing the blitz and being flushed out the pocket late or throwing it too early and being off the mark," and that he advocates the "slow cooking" approach to the rookie's development.

Tannehill admitted that the speed of the program is something to get adjusted to, but that he's also doing better every day.

As Tannehill's mind speeds up, the best plan for the Dolphins to manage his arrival on the scene as a starting quarterback seems to be to slow down.