The hoped for second coming of Dan Marino will have to be put on hold until Ryan Tannehill and the Miami Dolphins can hash out the ‘offset language’ issue of his pending contract. Tannehill was the only player out of 90, who did not attend the first practice of training camp on friday, and has officially missed his second day of practice today. This is clearly not a sky is falling situation, but it is a bit discouraging for a couple of reasons.
First of all the delay in signing Tannehill’s 4 year $12.6 million contract, is because of the ‘offset language.’ In laymen’s terms the Dolphins do not want to have to guarantee Tannehill’s entire 4 year contract, in case of the off chance of them cutting him before the end of his 4 years. Basically if a player is cut before his 4 year contract is up, and is signed by another team, the original team does not want the player double dipping by making two salaries. On the surface this is a reasonable request for any team. However, the one small thing that bothers me is that, even though the Dolphins organization is addressing this as a business issue, they are still inadvertently saying they are afraid Tannehill may not be on the team in 4 years. Honestly, the Dolphins insistence on demanding that the ‘offset language’ be included in the contract, is showing that they have a hint of doubt about his possible future with the team. Of the players that were drafted in front of Tannehill, 6 have signed their contracts, and not one of them has the ‘offset language’ in their contract. Those 6 teams are evidently saying, “we drafted you this high and we have faith that you will be successful and apart of our team for the next four years, and to prove this we will go ahead and guarantee your 4 your contract no matter what. And if there is the slim chance of you not being with us for the full years, we are still willing to pay your entire salary, because we believed in you from the start.”
Obviously the phins drafted Tannehill as high as they did because they believe he can be their franchise QB, but it seems a little petty and thrifty for them to squabble over a few million give or take. Tannehill is definitely in the plans for this season and hopefully next season he can win and earn the starting job, so at worst case he would be cut in his third year, if he were cut. So to squabble with their potential franchise QB over maybe $6 million just seems absurd. It is not like this team has not wasted money on underperforming players in the past. In this situation, the Dolphins should be the ones to man up and say, “you know what Ryan, we will guarantee the entire 4 years, because we know you will be our QB for the next 10 years, now suit up and go get ’em.”
The one thing that is irritating about Tannehill’s side in the dispute, is that he is losing valuable time with his teammates. At the end of the day he is still a rookie, and it is only human nature for veterans on the team to feel like, “shit this young buck needs to stop making demands and come out here and practice with the rest of us.” Being apart of a football team in the past, I know from experience that training camp is the best time of year to form and solidify strong healthy bonds with fellow teammates. Fortunately, Tannehill has a very good grasp of the offense already, but he is playing the most important position on the team, and now is the time to prove to his teammates that you can and will be a leader of men.
Sportsbook gambling fans can bet their phins season tickets that this contract quarrel will have a happy ending, but lets just hope no psychological damage is done. Hopefully the Dolphins will come to their senses first and end this before the end of today, so the rest of the phins news nation can worry about what really matters, like winning football games.