Last year, the Dolphins didn’t need to use their backup quarterbacks. The year before, they did.
This year, they’ll need to have someone ready to go, in case Tua Tagovailoa is injured. So, between Mike White and Skylar Thompson, who will it be?
Coach Mike McDaniel says it’s currently too close to call.
“It’s neck and neck, and far from me even thinking about who’s going to win that job,” McDaniel told reporters on Wednesday, “and I think that’s a compliment just because they’re both developing very well. And I think that one of the tricky things are solving the problems of preseason games in terms of you want to get guys opportunities, but they’re also playing with different players and against different defenses that your corresponding play calls are different. So how do you make the opportunities as equal as possible?
“Well, for me, I try to create a scenario where they get to work with the same players that are blocking and the same players that are receiving routes or getting handoffs. That’s a little tricky because you can’t just play, there’s a lot of position battles that need to be settled outside the quarterback position. So to do that, for me, the best compromise is trying to get guys some rhythm, some ownership of the game to see how they respond to ebbs and flows, but then also trying to get them in similar opportunities with their teammates. So the best of both worlds, a lot of times, for me, is getting guys opportunities in several games, but then making sure that in those opportunities, that a rhythm is established, that they have enough time to play and that’s kind of really the way I look at it. It’s abstract, like most things, but you’re trying to problem solve so you can give guys an opportunity to win the job, because it’s not for me to settle, it’s for them.”
Last year, Mike White won what McDaniel calls a “pretty close race” over Thompson, a seventh-round pick who started a playoff game in Buffalo as a rookie.