With Donald hitting

chenyan94 · Verfasst am: 11.10.2018, 10:28 Titel: **With Donald hitting**

Ryan Tannehill dropped back to pass and the pocket quickly collapsed Luke Kuechly Jersey , making it just like old times.

An onrushing end merely waved as he went by because Wednesday's drills involved no contact, which spared Tannehill a blow. Instead, he scooted away on his reconstructed left knee toward the sideline and encountered a linebacker, who also pulled up at the last moment.

The hits will come soon enough, but for now Tannehill is healthy and optimistic about leading a turnaround by the Miami Dolphins.

He's practicing this week for the first time since a torn left ACL in training camp ended his 2017 season before it began. A serious injury to the same knee forced him to miss the final four games in 2016, meaning he hasn't played in nearly 18 months.

"It was a long year, some dark times," Tannehill said, speaking publicly for the first time since he was hurt last August.

Tannehill has received medical clearance without limitations and isn't even wearing a knee brace this week, although he plans to wear one in games.

"It's purely to prevent what started the whole train wreck," he said.

Tannehill said his return to practice stirred painful memories of watching workouts last year while sitting inside the team complex, his injured leg in a brace and propped on a chair.

"It feels amazing to be back out there," he said. "It has been a lot of work to put a helmet back on and step on the grass again. I was just telling the guys, I can remember sitting in the cafeteria looking through the glass like a little kid that's not allowed to go outside and play."

Also back were linebacker Raekwon McMillan and cornerback Tony Lippett, both of whom missed the entire 2017 season because of injuries. The entire roster was on hand John Miller Jersey , although 35-year-old running back Frank Gore was on the field only briefly and won't be involved in drills much this spring to keep him healthy.

Tannehill, a starter since his rookie season in 2012, has never played in the postseason. But he and the Dolphins are optimistic he can regain the form he showed in 2016, when he enjoyed the best stretch of his career and helped put the team in playoff contention before his injury.

"I feel like I kind of went on a run there," Tannehill said. "I felt like I was finally starting to play really good football, being in command of the offense and understanding what we were trying to accomplish with every play call."

With Jay Cutler as an emergency replacement for Tannehill, the Dolphins slipped to 6-10 last year. Gase is so confident about Tannehill that they didn't draft a quarterback last month.

"It's great to have him back out there," Gase said. "As long as we don't have a setback, I feel good. We're in a good place. I've seen him move around just as well as he ever has."

Newcomer Josh Sitton, a four-time Pro Bowl guard, offered an endorsement of his new QB after just two practices together. Sitton took particular note of one strike Tannehill threw.

"He rolled out after a play action and was running to his left," Sitton said. "I thought, 'That's pretty impressive.'"

Tannehill didn't miss a game in his first four NFL seasons, enduring 212 sacks behind a leaky line without serious injury. He said he's not worried about his knee holding up, and won't be thinking about it on the field.

The knee probably won't be tested with contact until the preseason in August.

"I'm never eager to get hit Evander Kane Sharks Jersey ," Tannehill said with a chuckle. "I'd be sadistic. But I don't think about it any different than I would any other season going into a new season. It's a physical game, and I love that."

As the simmer becomes a slow boil on the Khalil Mack trade chatter, one unlikely suitor has been sucked into the stew.

In tweets sent out nearly simultaneously, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media and Albert Breer of SI.com flag the Bears are potential destinations for the 2016 defensive player of the year.

The text of the tweets is eerily similar. Tweeted Breer at 8:15 a.m. ET: “One team that other teams are keeping a close eye on in the Khalil Mack trade talks: The Chicago Bears. They鈥檝e been quiet, but they have attractive capital.” Said Rapoport, at the exact same minute: “One team to watch in the Khalil Mack sweepstakes: The Bears. They have been undercover, but others in the mix are watching them and waiting. Would be a big move.”

The untrained eye would claim that the person who posted the second tweet stole the idea from the person who tweeted it first. But that’s not how it works. Sources who are hoping to spread a message or start a narrative or, in this case, engineer a major trade will send out text messages to multiple reporters at the same time. Some reporters will flat-out cut and paste the text message; others will at least paraphrase.

Regardless, it happens. And the Breer-Rapoport bang-bang tweets are smoking-gun proof of it.

So here’s the real question: Who’s putting out the word that the Bears are quietly pursuing Mack? Surely it’s not the Bears. Maybe it’s the Raiders. More likely, it’s Mack’s camp.

With Donald hitting the jackpot, Mack undoubtedly wants the same. And if the Raiders can’t or won’t give it to him, there’s a new urgency to get someone else to give Mack that kind of money. It happens only if a trade can be engineered.

What better way to do that than to inject as many teams into the public conversation as possible? Especially those that have tried to stay out of it.