QB or NOT QB – Miami’s Backup Passer Woes

QB or NOT QB – Miami’s Backup Passer Woes

The first pre-season game is in the bag, and over the next 24 hours, the Dolphins coaches will be reviewing the film, a process that began on the flight home last night. There are plenty of takeaways; notably, the performance of the first-team offense on that opening drive was cause for encouragement moving forward. Right guard Jonah Savaiinaea , rookies Will Kacmarek and Caleb Douglas all put down solid reps, and Malik Willis flashed the accuracy, mobility, and arm strength he’s teased early in his career.

The counter to that was how bad the depth of the roster looked, albeit that shouldn’t come as a shock to those of you who’ve been following the team closely.

The biggest concern for me was how poorly the backup quarterbacks played. It’s just anathema to any idea of success should the worst-case scenario transpire, and Willis get hurt for any length of time. As I wrote on Thursday for the site, it’s been hard to find a player who’s had a worse training camp than Quinn Ewers . And he backed that up with a miserable showing in Landover, going 1 of 8 and throwing a pick, which probably should have been more had the Commanders defense been a little more alert. He presented third-stringer Cam Miller with an opportunity to take the #2 spot, which he immediately failed to grasp, going 3 for 11 and throwing two more picks.

The whole thing was a disaster.

There is a significant cause for concern about the position, and General Manager Jon-Eric Sullivan will almost certainly be looking to upgrade because moving forward with either Ewers or Miller feels impossible.

Of course, options are limited. And one of the underlying problems is that there simply aren’t enough good starting quarterbacks in the NFL, so having a competent backup is extremely important, and you cling to those guys as tightly as you can.

Looking around the league, there are a handful of possibilities. Whether Anthony Richardson would be in play should he be released by the Colts remains to be seen, but whatever you think of him, his game shares some similarities with that of Malik Willis. Elsewhere, Gardner Minshew in Arizona, Aidan O’Connell in Las Vegas, Carson Wentz in Minnesota, and Bailey Zappe in New York are four names worth keeping an eye on, although the latter had two picks in his first four throws for the Jets last night, one of which was returned for a score.

There are also some trade possibilities. Tyson Bagent in Chicago is well regarded, although it would take a leap of faith to think the Bears would part with him, given Case Keenum and rookie Miller Moss would be the remaining back-ups. Will Levis in Tennessee could lose out to Mitch Trubisky as the primary back-up to Cam Ward and could be prised from the Titans. The Eagles have turned down trade requests in the past for the well-regarded Tanner McKee, but with Jalen Hurts, Andy Dalton , and rookie Cole Payton, they could be persuaded to part company. However, if that isn’t an option, then the veteran Dalton might be. Similarly, in Pittsburgh, it may be that the Steelers feel that Will Howard could be the odd man out behind Aaron Rodgers, Mason Rudolph , and rookie Drew Allar. However, the former Ohio State National Champion has played well this off-season and looked poised against the Packers on Thursday night. But it’s impossible to think Mike McCarthy’s men will move forward with four QBs.

The other two names worthy of some consideration are 34-year-old Jimmy Garoppolo, who spent the past two seasons with the Rams but was released in March and has stayed NFL ready. He would bring a veteran savvy to the locker room. The other is Desmond Ridder, who has struggled as a pro, but it’s worth noting that when Jon-Eric Sullivan was in Green Bay, he was part of the front office that signed the former Cincinnati passer.

Whoever it is that they choose to bring in, it’s hard to see the Dolphins having both Ewers and Miller on the roster on opening day, and it wouldn’t be a shock if they both were moved on, albeit there’s very little time for someone to pick up an offense that was installed months ago.