Commentary | Forget the competition, Dolphins need to find better backup quarterback options

You know when you’re bidding your hands in Spades, the card game?

Most players announce to their partner how many books they can bring in, and then declare their possibles.

If we took this approach to address the Miami Dolphins’ quarterbacks situation we’d view Tua Tagovailoa as a strong book, especially based on the growth we’ve seen the past two seasons and this camp, but I’m not certain we could even count Mike White and Skylar Thompson as possibles.

We’ve excused both quarterback’s mediocre training camp to the lack of NFL caliber weapons they’ve been working with, especially when Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle and Jonnu Smith aren’t practicing, and Erik Ezukanma, Anthony Schwartz and others aren’t practicing because of injuries.

And while that’s fair, it’s also a convenient excuse because this is the worst I’ve seen Miami’s backup quarterbacks play since the Brady Quinn’s cup of coffee in training camp with the Dolphins back in 2014.

Quinn was awful, but that’s the only way we can describe what we’ve seen from White and Thompson since OTAs back in April.

And that’s troubling because if something happened to Tagovailoa that sidelined him for a month or so, which has been the case for most of his career with last season being the lone exception, can either of those quarterbacks keep the season afloat?

My answer to that question wouldn’t be no, it’d be a “hell no,” which is why the Dolphins should have quarterbacks on General Manager Chris Grier’s list of positions that need to be upgrades.

“I’d hesitate to make any sort of grandiose judgment. There’s opportunities to compete and when you have those left before you make decisions you let those play out,” McDaniel said after the game.

Thompson took the bulk of the second team snaps in last week’s 17-10 win over the Atlanta Falcons, replaced Tagovailoa on the second drive of the game, and played well into the third. But he failed to impress on either showing.

Against the Commanders he completed 8-of-15 passes for 61 yards, which produced an abysmal 63.5 quarterback rating.

White replaced Thompson in late in the third and was 11-of-20 for 116 yards to close out the game. His best pass was a 35-yard completion to Ezukanma, but he was sacked three times during his snaps.

“[I’ve got to] just keep doing what I’m doing, keep chopping wood. If you start looking too far into the future, that’s when you start to get kind of in your head about things and all that good stuff,” White said. “This is year seven in the league [so] that’s what I’ve learned. Once you start worrying about the other stuff, you’re behind the eight ball.”

The fact White replaced Thompson again is important to note because it hints he’s behind him on the depth chart, especially since Thompson spending the past two weeks leading the second-team offense most days.

That’s a changing of the guard considering White, a five-year veteran who came to Miami last offseason after spending four seasons with the New York Jets, spent all of last season as Tagovailoa’s primary backup.

“We’ve been intentional with our opportunities we’ve given Skylar,” McDaniel said. “He’s made some plays but has some stuff he knows he can get better at. You’re trying to make sure that we can balance out the opportunities for Mike.”

Let’s not act like finances hasn’t opened the door for Thompson because it likely has since releasing White would trim $3.5 million from the team’s payroll.

But this shouldn’t be about saving money. This battle for the No. 2 quarterback role should be about finding, and empowering a quarterback who can put this team in position to win games if something happened to Tagovailoa.

“I’ll be another very important week of practice, and another game we’ll let this play out,” McDaniel said. “There have been pros and cons with everyone’s play.”

Thompson is carrying a 58.0 passer rating heading into next week’s preseason finale against Tampa Bay, and White possesses a 56.3 passer rating for his work. Coincidentally, they’ve both thrown 34 passes the past two games.

While not every team has a Tyrod Taylor (the New York Jets), Jameis Winston (Cleveland Browns), or Jimmy Garoppolo (Los Angeles Rams), most teams at least have a youngster they believe will blossom into something decent with time and a respectable investment.

That hasn’t been the Dolphins in years, not since Tagovailoa started the season working behind Ryan Fitzpatrick in his rookie season.

Nobody’s talking about finding the next Brock Purdy, who coincidentally was selected after Thompson in the 2022 NFL draft. Finding the next Joshua Dobbs, who produced a 3-9 record as a starter for the Arizona Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings last season, should be the goal.

While I’ll acknowledge we haven’t seen Thompson’s upside, are we certain his game has improved much since we saw him lead the Dolphins to the postseason in 2023 by pulling off a win over the New York Jets, and putting together a respectable showing in a playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills in a stretch of games where Tagovailoa was sidelined by a concussion?

The Dolphins clearly have a decision to make, especially if they plan to stop carrying three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster, which a new NFL rule that elevates the practice squad quarterback up for the game day roster allows.

At this point the Dolphins should be shopping for an upgrade, even if that means giving Ryan Tannehill a call and seeing if he’d be willing to accept White’s $3.5 million, and sign up to be the backup for a franchise he led for more than half a decade.

Maybe a quality veteran gets waived as a maneuver to save money, or there’s some young quarterback in need of polishing that Miami can poach on the waiver wire.

Something has to be done because potentially leaving this playoff caliber team in White or Thompson’s hands would be a massive misdeal, one that would force us to throw all the cards in.