MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Best-case scenario for the Miami Dolphins, Snoop Huntley will play his final 60 minutes of the year this weekend.
The expectation is Tua Tagovailoa returns from injured reserve in time for Week 8’s game against the Arizona Cardinals.
That means Huntley will likely have one last chance to determine whether he goes down in Dolphins’ history as a folk hero or a footnote.
Can Snoop Huntley Get It Done for the Miami Dolphins?
Huntley will make his third (and potentially final) start for the Dolphins Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts.
The Dolphins are 1-1 in his two starts, and while he hasn’t been good in aqua and orange, he’s clearly the best of three flawed options.
It’s been nearly four weeks since Skylar Thompson injured his ribs in his only start, and the fact that the Dolphins gave little thought to going back to Thompson after their bye speaks volumes.
It’ll be fascinating to see which of Thompson, Huntley, and Tim Boyle will be the odd man out when Tagovailoa returns. It’s hard to see the Dolphins keeping all four quarterbacks in their locker room.
But Huntley can lock down the team’s QB2 job for the rest of the season — and keep the Dolphins in the thick of the AFC playoff race — with a strong performance Sunday.
If he does, it’ll be a welcome reversal of his body of work to date.
Among quarterbacks with 50 or more passing attempts this year, Huntley is:
- 36th (of 36) in touchdowns (0)
- 35th in passing first downs (14)
- 35th in success rate (32%)
- 34th in passer rating (67.3)
- 34th in CPOE (-5.3)
- 32nd in yards per attempt (5.5)
- 32nd in completion percentage (60.4%)
- 32nd in EPA per play (-.173)
Huntley Turnaround Coming?
But there’s reason to believe Huntley plays his best football Sunday.
The two biggest slivers of optimism? The Colts are bad on defense (26th in yards per play, 25th in yards per pass). And Huntley now has had a month in Mike McDaniel’s complex system.
“He absolutely knows he knows things, but then there’s extra variables that you learn,” McDaniel said. “… I like to make decisions based upon concrete information and whatever that information is I can adjust.
“Certain things that I can tell he has conviction on throwing or running or doing whatever, you go into it thinking you know, you get a lot of clarity. For all parties involved, it is a night and day difference because we’re working together to improve results day-in, day-out, week-in, week-out. I think Snoop has really done a fantastic job becoming a part of our team in a way where teammates needed him to continue to develop and he has.”
Huntley is clearly taking this opportunity seriously. Last weekend, he summoned the Dolphins’ skill-position players that were in town during the bye for an unofficial throwing session.
He also spent the past week “honing in on the footwork and all the various calls. I’m just trying to recite them to myself and get a great feeling for them.”
Will that extra effort pay off on Sunday? No one can say three days out. But if it does, Huntley will be remembered as a longshot gambit who saved the Dolphins’ season as their QB1 got well.
“It’s been going great and it’s only going to get better as much time as I’m here,” Huntley said. “We’re just going to continue to build off of that. … I’ve got great confidence in my team and especially our coaches. They’ve been prepping me, getting me ready every week, and it’s only going to get better.”