The Dolphins support the naming of Ryan Tannehill as their starting quarterback, but a number of players learned the news on television or via social media.

Davone Bess heard the news on the NFL Network, Jake Long watched it go by on ESPN's scrawl and Anthony Fasano saw it on Twitter.

"It caught me off guard," Clyde Gates said about seeing that Dolphins coach Joe Philbin had informed the media of the decision after Monday's practice but had not told the team as a unit. "I'm not surprised (at the decision). I was surprised (by the way Gates learned the news). I said, 'Oh. That's how I have to find out.' But it's all good."

Philbin initially only told the team's quarterbacks on Monday about his decision.

"I didn't want to make a big deal about it," Philbin said. "I had talked to the quarterbacks when we had told David Garrard that he was going to be the starting quarterback (when the first depth chart came out prior to Garrard being injured). We certainly didn't make any announcement to the team in that regard. There's a lot of jobs that are open for competition right now. . . . I really didn't think about (telling the entire team about Tannehill winning the job). I didn't do it before, so I wasn't going to do it now."