Tannehill Growing Impatient With Injury

The Tennessee Titans quarterback has not experienced any setbacks in his recovery but was not healthy enough to play in either of the last two games.

NASHVILLE – As the number of games lost to an ankle injury grows, Ryan Tannehill’s patience is headed in the other direction.

The Tennessee Titans quarterback said he has not experienced any setback since he was injured during an Oct. 23 victory over the Indianapolis Colts. Even so, he admitted to a certain level of frustration with the pace of his recovery to date.

“It’s not something that gets better overnight,” Tannehill said Wednesday. “It’s definitely testing my patience and has up until this point. And it’s still doing so.

“So, just trying to stay patient with it. Doing everything I can to help it heal as best it can, and [I’m] excited to get back out there at some point.”

Tannehill has missed the last two games, a 17-10 victory over the Houston Texans and a 20-17 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. His status for this week’s contest against the Denver Broncos at Nissan Stadium is to be determined.

One thing that could factor into the decision on whether or not Tannehill plays against the Broncos is that the following contest, at Green Bay, is a Thursday night contest (Nov. 17), which will allow minimal recovery time after a Sunday game.

The nature of the injury is such that Tannehill almost certainly will be at less than 100 percent when he does play.

“I think it’s something I’m going to be dealing with for a while,” he said. “… It’s just got to get to a point where I can go do my job effectively and be able to run the offense, move around enough to not be a statue in the pocket and not put myself or the ball in harm’s way by not being able to move.”

Tannehill was a limited participant in two of the three practices (Wednesday and Friday) that led up to Sunday’s game at Kansas City. He sat out the other day (Thursday). That was more than he had done the previous week, and he was listed as questionable.

Tannehill traveled with the team and took the field during pregame warmups but only played catch briefly before he returned to the locker room. During the game, he was on the sideline where he was available to rookie Malik Willis, who replaced him, and other members of the offense.

“The week was tough,” he said. “Just heading into (Sunday), [I] didn’t really know how things were going to turn out. But I had tried it several times throughout the week to know it was going to take a big step forward on Sunday [to be able to play].”

Instead, he has had to be satisfied with small steps. At least those, he said, continue to come.

“It starts in between 6 and 6:30 in the morning and I’m here until 7-7:30 at night,” he said. “Included in all that time is meetings, is rehab, is practice – or whatever my version of that is as part of my rehab process.

“… It’s getting better day by day. But [I’m] definitely seeing the progress now. So, that’s exciting.”