Andrew Luck knows he’s the starter in Indianapolis and Robert Griffin III knows he’s the starter in Washington. But the third quarterback taken in this year’s NFL draft, Ryan Tannehill, says he doesn’t know if he’ll start at any point this season in Miami.
Asked by Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio if he thinks he’ll start any games during his rookie season, Tannehill said he isn’t sure.
“I don’t know,” Tannehill said. “They haven’t told me anything. I’m just going to go in and compete. That’s what I want to do every day, go in and compete. . . . I want to play, but I don’t think they’ve really spelled out their plans for me.”
Tannehill is nowhere near as NFL-ready as Luck or Griffin, and probably not as ready to start right away as the fourth quarterback drafted, Cleveland’s Brandon Weeden, either. But Tannehill does have one advantage over every other rookie quarterback in the league: He’s playing in the same offense as he was in college because his coach at Texas A&M, Mike Sherman, is the Dolphins’ offensive coordinator. As a result, Tannehill says he knows the playbook already.
“I know the majority of it -- I knew the majority of it going in,” he said. “The majority of the offense, the majority of the playbook, is really similar or exactly the same as what we did at A&M.”
What Tannehill doesn’t know is whether he’ll be using that knowledge on the field, or holding a play sheet on a clipboard while standing on the sideline and watching Matt Moore or David Garrard.