Tannehill Turning It Around with Strong Early Training Camp Performance

Ryan Tannehill started out ahead of Matt Moore and David Garrard this spring because of his familiarity with offensive coordinator Mike Sherman's scheme from their time together at Texas A&M. But his trajectory basically went downhill from there.

At the team's minicamp, Omar Kelly of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that Tannehill was having trouble adjusting to the speed of the game. And Brian Biggane of the Palm Beach Post reported that he was "not in the running" to start at quarterback heading into training camp.

Just a few days into camp, though, Tannehill has reversed that course. And when I talked to Kelly today, he told me to not rule Tannehill completely out of the starting quarterback battle.

Tannehill got a late start to his first NFL training camp after a very short holdout, but according to the Associated Press (via Yahoo! Sports), he was impressive in his first practice.

Ben Volin of the Palm Beach Post echoed that sentiment after two days of practices, saying, "it’s been hard not to notice how good Tannehill has looked throwing the football."

Kelly also told me that, every day, Tannehill has been making at least one throw that only the NFL's elite quarterbacks can make.

This enthusiasm is tempered by the fact that Tannehill is facing the backups on defense. Even head coach Joe Philbin qualified his praise with "for a rookie," according to Volin. Still, the Dolphins will take any good news about their franchise quarterback that they can get, and they're getting a good amount in the first week of training camp.