MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Tua Tagovailoa, the Miami Dolphins‘ starting quarterback, will spend this week meeting with concussion specialists to determine when (if ever) it’s safe for him to resume his career.
Skylar Thompson, the Dolphins’ backup quarterback, will spend this week taking short, painful breaths after suffering a rib injury in Sunday’s atrocious loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
But even if Thompson were fully healthy, head coach Mike McDaniel would be under heavy pressure to make another change at the position after the unacceptable work Thompson put on tape in Seattle.
Thompson, whose longest drive Sunday was five plays, had his shot. Now it’s time for Tyler “Snoop” Huntley to get his — even if he’s been with the team for just eight days.
Miami Dolphins Must Start Snoop Huntley vs. Seattle Seahawks
“There was definitely some results that were not what we were expecting [in Week 3],” McDaniel said Tuesday. “But it doesn’t matter how you feel. Your job is to take whatever it is, however unexpected, and figure it out. I think that’s where we’re at.”
The short-term answer likely is Huntley — who has his own flaws, to be sure. There’s a reason he wasn’t on a 53-man roster when last week began.
But the Dolphins must know that they have no shot with Thompson. Huntley gives them hope, and that’s about all a team that seems poised to play its fourth different quarterback in as many weeks can ask.
McDaniel said that going with Huntley as QB1 next Monday against the Tennessee Titans “is a possibility, for sure” and that the team would spend the next couple of days deciding to start Huntley, an injured Thompson, or Tim Boyle.
Our sense? The decision has already been made, even if the Dolphins weren’t ready to say it out loud.
Miami managed three points, gained just 205 yards, and failed on 11 of 12 third-down tries with Thompson and Boyle under center Sunday. The Dolphins have zero touchdowns in their 14 drives since Tagovailoa got hurt.
But beyond the numbers, the aesthetics of their offense have been terrible. They simply haven’t looked like they know what they’re doing, and Thompson’s panicked demeanor has been a big reason why.
“It’s frustrating because we know we’re better than what we put out there,” Dolphins receiver Jaylen Waddle said. “But I think it’s good for us. I look at the last two seasons, or since Mike been here and going to the first three weeks, we had a whole bunch of hype and all this crazy stuff with all this media attention.
“It’s only the third week, and our back is up against the wall, so we’re going to see what we made up pretty early. See what the team got.”
Snoop Huntley’s Scouting Report
What Miami has in Huntley is a quarterback who has appeared in a Pro Bowl (albeit in a fluky way) and a playoff game.
Huntley’s career stats — eight touchdowns, seven interceptions, 64.6% completion percentage, and a 79 passer rating — are pedestrian. But they’re way better than those of Thompson and Boyle.
Plus, Huntley can also create with his legs in a way no Dolphins quarterback has under McDaniel.
The Dolphins, assuming they go forward with Huntley for at least the next three games, would be foolish to try to fit a square peg in a round hole. They should lean into what Huntley does well — namely, read-option running plays — even if it means rewriting entire pages of their playbook. But McDaniel suggested Monday that that won’t be necessary.
“Within the framework of the offense, there’s typically some of those principles that are put in intentionally for the preseason and that’s something that was built within the offense back from 2012,” he said.
“Actually owed to [former Washington QB] Robert Griffin III on that one. And so that’s kind of the art of the illusion of complexity. Can you add some stuff? The only way that you can is there has to be some overlap into what you already do.
“Just because you don’t go in and completely change from Ground Zero, everything you do has to be within your verbiage and ways that they’ve learned how to identify people and who you’re reading and all that. I think there’s a balance.
“You add some stuff that feature a player if it’s worth it. Something that can fit within the framework of the other stuff that players do, how to block it. And then how can you bridge some of the stuff that people have done in the past to what you’re going to do this week? It’s a fine balance. It’s not an exact science.”