It feels hard to believe, but the Miami Dolphins’ quarterback situation is one that many NFL franchises would probably trade for in the year 2020. We still have plenty to learn about young quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and his NFL forecast — but the Dolphins’ quarterback trio of Ryan Fitzpatrick, Josh Rosen and Tagovailoa offers a little bit of everything.
Experience. Youth. Talent. You name it.
But just how good is each component? Ryan Fitzpatrick will enter this season as Miami’s presumed starter — at least until we’re told otherwise. And based on the dynamics of Miami’s quarterback competition thus far in camp, we should have no reason to doubt that Fitzpatrick will indeed start the season as the starter. He’s a middle of the road starting quarterback at this point in time. You can make a strong case he was the AFC East’s best starter last season, particularly over the second half of the season. But the lack of physical talent and the ups and downs of Fitzpatrick’s play will always cap the ceiling. As for Tagovailoa? At least one outlet likes his forecast quite a bit — Pro Football Focus has ranked Tagovailoa as the NFL’s 8th-best backup quarterback for the 2020 NFL season.
The exercise looks to quantify the likely outcomes of each backup quarterback if they’re pressed into action this season, including dispersing odds of performance into several tiers. That’s where Tagovailoa shines: PFF ranked Tagovailoa as the fourth most-likely backup quarterback to finish the season as a top-10 overall starter this season. Of course, Tagovailoa will need to get the call to start at some point for this to materialize. But in trailing only Jameis Winston (New Orleans), Andy Dalton (Dallas) and Marcus Mariota (Las Vegas) on that front, Tagovailoa is in good company despite never taking a snap at the pro level.
We all hope to see Tagovailoa sooner rather than later, but it is more important that we see him only when the time is right. And, if all goes well, he may well live up to the high praise granted to him by Pro Football Focus here.