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The Miami Dolphins held their third day of practices today, the first practice in full pads. However, it was the arrival of eighth overall draft pick Ryan Tannehill that stole the show on Sunday. After practice, Tannehill met with the media. Here is a transcript, as provided by the team, of his remarks
(On how it feels to have completed his first training camp practice) - "It felt great. It's been a long past couple of days for me, and I just wanted to get out there; join my teammates, be with the coaches. So to finally be out there and to compete on the field felt great."
(On the length of time he was away from the facility) - "Well I came up here Wednesday morning and threw with Chad (Johnson) and a couple of other guys. So until last night, I got up here a little after 11 o'clock last night, So I guess that was about 2-3 days, but it was a long 2-3 days."
(On if he was working with Chris Weinke while he was away from camp) - "Yeah I went up to Bradenton just to get out of the area and stay working out. I wanted to keep working; I didn't want to lose conditioning and not being throwing the ball. So I went up there where I could work out and stay in shape and try to get better as much as I could."
(On if he felt his time in Bradenton helped to keep him from falling too far behind the other quarterbacks) - "I definitely don't feel like I fell behind as far as fundamentals, throwing the ball, conditioning or physically. You definitely want to be here. You want to see the rush, go through the rush and be with your teammates and get the timing down. You can't replicate that somewhere else; you have to be here for that. As far as physically, I don't feel like I missed anything."
(On if he feels like he is in the hunt for the starting job) - "I feel like I'm in it. Maybe I am being naïve, but the coaches haven't given me any indication that I'm not, so I'm going to go out there every day and do my best to get better every day and hopefully win the job."
(On how he would evaluate his first practice) - "I didn't think it was too bad. I still have some things to work on; being a little better with my feet, stepping up into the pocket, being faster in my drops. I thought it was a good starting point and I am excited to get back out there tomorrow and get a little better."
(On the receivers he was working with in Bradenton) - "Just some GA guys. No pro guys were there. It was all about just getting repetitions, throwing the ball, working on your feet and doing some drills, so it helps that."
(On if he expects his practice snaps to increase during training camp from OTAs) - "Yeah I think they (coaches) are going to work me in a little bit more. I'm not 100% sure on that, but leaving the spring that was the indication. I think that we're going to catch me back up to speed, because I've been gone the past few days and take it from there."
(On if he thought he would miss any training camp practices due to contract negotiations) - "Well I definitely wanted to be here. I wanted to be with the team; I didn't want to hold out, it's just not my style. I want to be here and I want to compete. It was a long two days, like I said, just sitting around and waiting. I was competing but there was some down time where I was sitting around tapping your foot saying ‘let's get this thing done.' At the end of the day, I feel like we worked out a good deal for both sides."
(On how much sleep he was able to get last night) - "Well I left here about 12 o'clock, and by the time I got home and showered it was about 12:30 a.m. I got up at 5:30 (a.m.), so that's about five hours."
(On if the speed of practice was faster than he expected because of the players wearing full pads) - "The rush is a little different.When they're wearing pads, the d-line is coming off a little quicker, there's a collision, so the pass protection is a little bit different. I feel like, David (Garrard) was talking about it; just the pressure they got was a little bit more today than they got the past couple practices because of the pads being a different element, but it's a fast game."
(On how he sped up his decision making process on the field) - "Working in the off-season. Working with receivers, watching film, juts trying to get the ball out faster. It's a faster game, and you have to have fast decisions, fast feet, and get the ball out on time."
(On his new-found understanding of the term "off-set language") - "Way too much (laughing). Hopefully it will be a null point in four years, but you never know."
(On the other rookie's hairdos) - "That's part of it; I was like ‘when am I going to get mine.' I'm not excited or trying to get one, but if it happens, it's part of it."
(On who he was working out with during the break between minicamp and training camp) - "A lot of the guys that are here. You know Davone (Bess), I was working with Davone and Chad (Johnson). LA (Legedu Naanee) came out; Clyde (Gates) came out, Charles Clay. There were a bunch of guys that came out. I was in and out of town, but when I was in town I called a bunch of guys and whoever could make it came out."
(On if he was in town the entire time between minicamp and training camp) - "Not the whole time. I took a week and went to St. Lucia for our (he and his wife, Lauren) honeymoon. I never got to take it since I got married in January, so I took a week and then I was here pretty much after that."
(On David Garrard and Matt Moore helping him catch up on the offense he missed during the first two practices) - "Yeah they did great. It's a great room. They're two great guys and I had some questions coming in looking at the script this morning but I was able to ask both David and Matt ‘hey what's this, what's the look on this?' and they caught me up to speed."
(On the Hard Knocks cameras following him around) - "It's crazy (laughing). I honestly forgot about the whole Hard Knocks thing last night, and I get up to the building and I guess I kind of dipped them because they were out at a different entrance and I came in the front, and I didn't even try to. But I get in the locker room and I turn around and there was like eight guys with cameras, and I was like ‘whoa!' It's definitely different, but I'm going to make the best of it."
(On if the cameras add any pressure) - "No pressure, it's just a different element that's usually not there."
(On if he was getting frustrated during the contract negotiations) - "I wasn't frustrated with him (his agent, Pat Dye), but the situation was tough. Like I said I wanted to be out here, I wanted to be in camp, but I also wanted a fair deal. I wanted to feel like I was being treated like the guys drafted around me were treated. It was a balancing act. I wanted to get into camp, but (also) get a fair deal and just find a point that both sides were comfortable with."
(On what it was like dealing with the contract negotiations on his birthday (July 27) - "Well I was hoping to get it done because it would have been a great birthday present. Unfortunately it had to happen one day later, but it's a business. At the end of the day, this is a business and now that I've got the business aspect of it out of the way for the next few years, I'm ready to go out and play football."