The Miami Dolphins hope their young quarterback, Ryan Tannehill, can improve enough this season to lead them to the playoffs.To help with that, the team enlisted the help of the last quarterback to lead Miami to the playoffs in Chad Pennington. (photo: Nathan Rupert, Flickr)
Pennington joined his former team as a "guest coach" for this week of organized team activities, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The two-time NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award winner is advising the young quarterbacks on Miami's roster.
"I'm sharing my experiences a little bit," Pennington, who last played for the Dolphins in 2009, said.
During his 11-year career with the New York Jets and the Dolphins, Pennington was known for his football intelligence as well as his incredible accuracy. His 66.0 career completion percentage is still an NFL all-time high.
Miami hopes perhaps some of that will rub off on their young signal callers.
“Chad’s a good guy to learn from,” Tannehill told reporters, according to the team's website. “He was around the game a long time and still is around the game."
"It’s exciting for me to get to work with a guy that played at a high level for a long time, so any piece of information I can pick up from him I’m soaking it up.”
Tannehill hopes to build on an up-and-down rookie season, increasing his efficiency and cutting down on turnovers, two areas that Pennington excelled at. Miami surrounded its franchise quarterback with some new free agent weapons, raising expectations on the team to make a long-awaited return to the postseason.
As for Pennington, this may be a preview of his future ambitions. The 36-year old most recently did television work for FOX but has hinted at pursuing a career in coaching. In addition to previously mentoring Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, Pennington has worked with draft-eligible quarterbacks for NFL Combine preparation.
Whatever he decides to do in the future, the Dolphins are grateful he took the time to help out this week.
"It's great to have him here," Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin said. "It's good for the players and staff to hear a different perspective on things."
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