You always prefer to see a player show up on the injury report early in the week and then progressively get better as the next game approaches.
When someone pops up later in the week, it’s troubling because there’s so little time left for the injury to resolve itself. That’s doubly true when it is your starting quarterback, so those in South Florida are forgiven if they’re a little bit concerned about the Dolphins offense right now. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill made an appearance of Friday’s injury report with a thumb injury.
It’s not known when or how Tannehill injured himself, although fearful hearts should be calmed a bit by the fact that Tannehill is listed as probable for Sunday’s game against the Bengals. Tannehill is coming off a monster performance with 431 passing yards against the Cardinals and his first four weeks have provided a fair amount of evidence to support Miami’s decision to make him a first-round pick this spring.
They might need him to put up another huge passing day this week with the news that cornerback Richard Marshall will be sidelined by a back injury this weekend. Marshall’s absence leaves Nolan Carroll as the likely starter across from Sean Smith, although Carroll also missed practice time this week with an Achilles injury. He’s listed as probable, but a flare-up could leave the Dolphins reliant on Jimmy Wilson and R.J. Stanford.
While they’ll surely take that over any serious injury to Tannehill, they’d probably most prefer not having to make such a choice at all.