Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Fins' owner sees long future with Philbin, Tannehill

BY NICK ST. DENIS

Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross will be the first to admit that he's much better served delegating talent evaluation for people more qualified to do so, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have opinions of his own.

Ross, who met with the media Monday, saw his team's 7-9 2012 campaign as a very promising first step of what he thinks can be a successful coaching-quarterback tandem in Joe Philbin and Ryan Tannehill. (photo: Corey Seeman, Flickr)

“[Philbin's] a guy that I think will be here a long time and hopefully bring all those victories that everybody wants," Ross said of his coach, who just finished his first season running the show after spending four years as the Green Bay Packers' offensive coordinator.


“You look back at the season after and you say what was the good and what was the bad? And certainly the good outweighed a lot of the bad here.”

Tannehill started all 16 games as a rookie and was up and down, as expected. But his even-keeled approach to the game seems to be right on par with Philbin's style of coaching and leading.

Ross, while not getting into technical football analysis, said he simply was impressed with Tannehill's smarts and the way he handled the difficult task of being the full-time signal-caller in his first professional season.

“The fact is that we do have and we have the makings of a quarterback that will be here a long time that has a lot of great potential," Ross said.

With Philbin and Tannehill coming in at the same time and Tannehill being a top-10 first-round draft pick, the pair will likely be joined at the hip from here on out. At least the owner hopes so.


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