The Miami Dolphins plan to continue investing in Tua Tagovailoa as the team’s starting quarterback, but the franchise appears to be shopping around for a capable backup who fits the offense new coach Mike McDaniel intends to install.
And it seems as if the team is leaning towards adding a veteran quarterback instead of drafting a youngster to be groomed for the future or to potentially challenge Tagovailoa, a 2020 first-round pick who has led Miami to a 13-8 record the past two seasons, for the starting job.
“I’ve never seen in the history of the NFL [a team] having two on the roster,” McDaniel said Wednesday at the NFL scouting combine, referring to Tagovailoa and former CFL standout Chris Streveler, who was signed last week. “You want a player that helps.
“When you’re looking for a No. 2 quarterback you want him to benefit the starting quarterback,” McDaniel explained, addressing how the backup quarterback typically assists the starter, helping him prepared for the week’s opponent from a film study, and game breakdown standpoint. “You want to empower him with how they approach the daily game-plan responsibilities, and how they develop when you’re training in the offseason. But you also want a guy who can win games when the starter goes down.”
The Dolphins typically take three to four quarterbacks to training camp, and carry three on the roster during the season, with one of them being a practice squad quarterback. Jake Luton was Miami’s practice squad quarterback at the end of the 2021 season, but the the Jacksonville Jaguars signed him to a futures contract last month.
Last offseason Miami let Ryan Fitzpatrick leave as a free agent, and he signed on to become Washington’s starter.
The Dolphins gave Jacoby Brissett an incentive-laden one-year deal that was worth $5 million last season, and he ended up starting five games because of a rib and hand injury that kept Tagovailoa sidelined in the first half of 2021.
In those starts Brissett led the Dolphins to a 2-3 record while completing 62.7 percent of his passes, throwing for 1,283 yards with five touchdowns and five interceptions. He was sacked 19 times, and had a 78.1 passer rating, which ranked him 28th in the NFL last season.
The Dolphins could prioritize re-signing Brissett, a former Palm Beach Dwyer High standout. But the interest must be mutual and the money offered has to appeal to Brissett, who has started 37 games in his six-year career.
McDaniel said the team will add “the best player we can find, in whatever avenue.”
That could possibly be a draftee, but we’ll know more about that depending on how Miami addresses the position in free agency, which begins on March 16.
Andy Dalton, Tyrod Taylor, Teddy Bridgewater, Marcus Mariota, Mitch Trubinsky, Colt McCoy, Brian Hoyer, Chase McDaniel, Trevor Siemian and Nick Mullen, a 49ers former backup quarterback while McDaniel was in San Francisco, are the better of the NFL backup options this offseason. Most have been NFL starters at one point.
However, some of them might prefer a team that gives them opportunity to compete as a starter, and the Dolphins are seemingly not providing that opportunity.
New York Jets quarterback Mike White and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins are restricted free agents, which means teams could place an original round, first- or second-round tender on them, committing between $2.4 million (original round) and $5.5 million (first round) tender on them to retain their services or have the right to match an offer from another team. Both are young quarterbacks who possess some upside. Whether or not their teams have placed a restricted tender on them is unknown at this time.
Streveler, who won the 2019 Gray Cup championship with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, spent the majority of the past two seasons with the Arizona Cardinals, playing in seven games before he was released in November. The Baltimore Ravens signed him to their practice squad and then he joined the Dolphins this offseason, the week after McDaniel become head coach.
San Francisco general manager John Lynch, who openly acknowledges his team is listening to trade offers for Jimmy Garoppolo, stressed that every team needs to have two capable starting quarterbacks because of the injury concerns and the COVID-19 landscape, which means a positive test could sideline a player for one to two weeks.
“That position is so critical. Everything goes into it. Everything is magnified at that position,” said Lynch, who traded two first-round picks and a 2022 third rounder to the Dolphins for the No. 3 pick they used to select Trey Lance last year.
“Lot of times you have to make projection from college to the NFL because the game is played a little bit differently. There are different levels of competition. So many things go into it. But the importance of that position just makes your decision so critical. Takes a lot of hard work and good fortune to hit on the right guys, but when you do it can do wonders for your team.”
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