First-year defenders give Dolphins hope
Minkah Fitzpatrick, Jerome
Baker and Raekwon McMillan are showing they’re worth their draft status as Miami readies for Bears.
The Dolphins bet everything on Ryan Tannehill at quarterback, and that would’ve been fine whether he played all year or missed another season due to injury. It’s the in-between that’s going to get them in trouble.
Miami appears to be in that territory now, unsure whether Tannehill can be effective in today’s game against the Bears because of a nagging right shoulder injury. He’s had it for at least a few weeks, but it’s worsened to the point that the team is listing him as questionable for the first time.
The Dolphins, whose season is still very much alive at 3-2, would turn to Brock Osweiler in his absence.
That’s not much of a Plan B considering it’s been three years since Osweiler was a serviceable quarterback in Denver. Last season, after the Texans and Browns couldn’t get rid of him quickly enough, he had five touchdowns, five
interceptions and a 72.5 passer rating in six games.
You can believe that evidence, or you can trust everything Adam Gase says he’s seen on the practice field the last six months or so. He knows quarterbacks if he knows anything, but it’s awfully hard to take his word for it on Osweiler. His highlights since joining the Dolphins are one good preseason game and 10 minutes of garbage time against New England.
The other option is David Fales, who has appeared in three NFL games since entering the league in 2014. He had a head start on Osweiler and still couldn’t win the No. 2 job. The Dolphins also had Bryce Petty and sixth-round pick Luke Falk in camp at times.
Gase insisted all along there was no need to fortify that position with a more proven backup. It looked like he was thinking Tannehill-or-bust, and why not?
If he could get Tannehill playing solidly like he did during Miami’s 2016 playoff run, this team had a chance to surprise people. If Tannehill’s knee gave out for a third year in a row, or there was some other calamitous injury, it’d be time for the Dolphins to grit their teeth through a lost season that would land them a top draft pick and a prime opportunity to rebuild.
Their current situation, though, doesn’t fall into either category. Miami’s 3-0 start validated Gase’s confidence that this team wasn’t as bad as everyone predicted, then meltdowns against the Patriots and Bengals leveled out expectations. While the fan base might despair after those two losses, that’s not how Gase feels.
Realistically, the Dolphins’ potential is to be good, not great. And a good team can make the playoffs if it catches some breaks — like its quarterback staying healthy.
The worst-case outcome is needing Osweiler to play occasionally, or for a brief-yet-important stretch of games, when the team is still fighting to make something of this season. It’s the perfect recipe for another mediocre year in which the Dolphins don’t win enough to be satisfied and don’t lose enough to get a chance at drafting their quarterback of the future.
That’s where they’ve lived for most of the last decade, of course.
If Osweiler plays like he did last year, Miami doesn’t have much shot at beating any quality opponent, and the Bears certainly qualify as such with one of the best defenses in the NFL.
The Dolphins might have to start him, or they could see if Tannehill can play through the injury with Osweiler ready if he can’t. Perhaps they’ll opt to rest Tannehill’s shoulder for more than a week so it fully heals. Any of those scenarios requires Miami to depend on Osweiler for meaningful snaps, which isn’t ideal.
The alternatives to Osweiler and Fales were to acquire a better backup this year — Teddy Bridgewater was available first in free agency then via trade; Josh McCown was coming off a good season, and a few other veterans with more promise than Osweiler were looking for work — or draft someone.
Miami had the 11th pick this year in a draft that ultimately produced five first-round quarterbacks. Unfortunately for the Dolphins, four of them were gone by No. 10. They would’ve had to trade up for someone like Josh Allen — they weren’t willing to surrender a load of future assets for him or Josh Rosen — or trade down and take Lamar Jackson.
An injury to Tannehill wouldn’t be so disheartening if there was a sparkling rookie behind him waiting for his shot. It might even be exciting. This is the opposite.