The Miami Dolphins will likely have Tua Tagovailoa back at quarterback against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, but who will serve as his backup was a mystery as the team prepared for its first practice this week.
The only candidate who likely won’t have a chance is Tyler Huntley, who coach Mike McDaniel said will almost certainly be unavailable due to a shoulder injury.
Beyond that, we could look at Skyler Thompson, Tim Boyle or even rookie C.J. Beathard, who was signed to the practice squad on Wednesday.
“I just want to see how the guys play this week,” McDaniel said before practice. “Snoop, I don’t think he’s going to be available this week. So based on how I see Skylar working, how I see Tim, and how I see CJ. (I’ll make) a decision based on that. In our current situation in this case, there’s no ‘I have The correct answer is “pre-determined. I will monitor and adjust but for now we are evaluating and we will do that on the training field today.”
It’s been exactly a month since Thompson suffered a rib injury against the Seattle Seahawks in his first game with the Dolphins since the 2022 playoff game in Buffalo.
Considering that Thompson has been with the team the past three seasons and beat out Mike White for the No. 2 job in training camp, the fact that McDaniel doesn’t stamp him as the guy isn’t really a good look. This really should be a case where McDaniel declares Thompson the backup if he’s healthy enough to go — and this is where we’ll point out that while he remains on the injury report, he was a full participant for all three days last week.
The lack of that kind of announcement is a sign that McDaniel isn’t completely comfortable running the offense, which brings us back to the Dolphins’ failure in the offseason to properly address the backup quarterback position.
Both Boyle and Beathard are familiar with the Dolphins’ scheme, Boyle from his time with Green Bay and Beathard from his time with McDaniel in San Francisco, but Beathard figures to leapfrog Boyle in the pecking order and perhaps take his spot on the active roster at some point because he’s got a better resume. In the NFL.
Despite his familiarity with the system, Beathard could still be viewed as a long shot to be the No. 2 quarterback on Sunday, and if he gets the nod over a healthy Thompson, that would be a big statement in itself.
The bottom line is that it would be a surprise — and another bad look — if anyone other than Thompson ends up being Tua’s backup on Sunday, provided Tua actually starts and Thompson is actually healthy.
