Dolphins ‘fear Ryan Tannehill will need season-ending knee surgery’

The news following Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill’s knee injury on Thursday has been up and down all day. One report indicates that the MRI results show no new structural damage while the next report says the results are inconclusive and the team is still trying to figure out what to do next. Now comes the latest from ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington.

“The Miami Dolphins now fear quarterback Ryan Tannehill will need season-ending knee surgery,” the jointly authored article starts. Tannehill avoided surgery last year when an injury to the same knee caused him to miss the end of the season. At the time, multiple doctors, including sports surgeon extraordinaire Dr. James Andrews, recommended Tannehill simply rehab, rest, and get stem-cell treatments. Now, surgery may ended up being needed.

If Tannehill had the surgery last year, he would still be in rehab now, and would likely miss most, if not all, of the 2017 season, so even if he needs surgery now, there would not be much difference between the two timelines.

Schefter and Darlington add that surgery has not been ruled a necessity as of yet, with the potential that Tannehill could rest and rehab for the next six to eight weeks in an effort to play this season. The Dolphins, they write, “recognize they might have to step in and recommend the surgery that Tannehill has avoided since he initially injured the knee last December against Arizona.”

It is sounding more and more like Tannehill will miss the 2017 season.