The comparison was obvious from the moment Ryan Tannehill inked his new contract.
The quarterback became the second young signal-caller that Dolphins executive vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum signed to a large deal before his contract expired. The previous: Mark Sanchez.
The Sanchez deal with the New York Jets turned out disastrously and partially propelled Tannenbaum's firing after the 2012 season. That Sanchez contract, however, didn't make the executive gun-shy this time around.
"The easy decision would have been to say, well, I extended a quarterback early in his career, so let's not do that here. But I think that would have been selfish of me, moreso than what's the best decision for the Dolphins," Tannenbaum told The MMQB's Jenny Vrentas. "We felt like this was a very reasonable bet to take. When you are doing an extension, it's not about comparing Ryan to Sanchez, it's much more about aspirationally, what do we want our program to truly be about?"
The Dolphins signal-caller is more talented than Sanchez, and in offensive coordinator Bill Lazor's QB-friendly scheme, Tannehill showed immense promise and should only improve with a new cast of offensive talent around him.
The Dolphins not only added Ndamukong Suh's ginormous contact in Tannenbaum's first season in Miami, he also re-made the pass-catching corps, adding Kenny Stills, Jordan Cameron and DeVante Parker as well as extending center Mike Pouncey.
"I didn't come down here to work on my short game," Tannenbaum quiped.
The question entering the season is whether all those changes will be enough to finally overtake the Patriots in the AFC East.
The latest Around The NFL Podcast welcomes Jeff Darlington to discuss minicamp stories, and Conor Orr calls in for the debut of a new segment. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.
