Last time Ryan Tannehill finished a training camp practice was on Aug. 2, 2017, the day before he would suffer a season-ending ACL injury that would later to doom the Dolphins season. Now that Tannehill has completely recovered from his knee injury, the Dolphins could have a return trip to the playoffs in their future after a one-year absence.

When speaking to reporters after practice on Thursday, Tannehill said he realizes more than ever how important the play of quarterback position is to the Dolphins.

“I love feeling that responsibility because I know that I can handle it and I know I have the guys around me that can take it and we can do something special,” Tannehill said. “Being able to captain that ship, so to speak, is a lot of fun.”

Not only did Tannehill miss the entire 2017 season, but he also hasn’t played during the Dolphins last 20 games. An ACL injury in the final month of the 2016 regular season, prematurely ending his year. Then Tannehill completely tore the ACL during the second week of training camp in 2017.

After not selecting a quarterback during this year’s draft, the Dolphins are essentially putting all their faith that Tannehill can perform like the player he was before his injuries. In the Dolphins last eight games in 2016, Tannehill threw for 1,723 yards, 13 touchdowns against five interceptions with a quarterback rating of 100.1 during that span.

Once Tannehill went down, the Dolphins signed Jay Cutler, and the results were mixed. Cutler threw for 2,666 yards, 19 touchdowns against 14 interceptions in 14 games as the Dolphins finished with a 6-10 record. Now that Tannehill is back, the Dolphins could compete for a wild-card spot in an AFC full of questions outside of the Steelers and Patriots.

Even though he has missed the last 19 months due to injury, Tannehill believes he is a different player from the last time he stepped on the field.

“I’ve grown a lot as a person, as a football player, just because of the adversity that I’ve faced,” Tannehill said. “Like I said, being able to take a step back and watch from a different perspective and take in all that information, file it away and write it down. I’ve been going back, looking at my notes of things that’ve hit me over the last 16 months or whatever it may be and build on that. It’s experience that while I would never want it to happen that way, it’s going to be invaluable for me moving forward.”