The Miami Dolphins’ hunt for a new franchise quarterback has seen no shortage of candidates over the course of the last few months. We’ve seen the Dolphins tied to Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow and Jordan Love to some degree — plus the calls from portions of the fanbase to target Cam Newton in free agency.
Miami’s ultimate decision is assumed to be coming in just a few weeks time — the 2020 NFL Draft opens three weeks from Thursday. Could the Dolphins be turning over any other stones by the time the draft comes around, such as Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts?
Hurts enjoyed a productive and explosive season with the Sooners in 2019, taking Oklahoma to the College Football Playoff in his one and only season in Norman. Hurts’ college career, of course, started in Tuscaloosa with the Crimson Tide — before Tagovailoa unseated him as the team’s starting quarterback in 2018.
To Hurts’ credit, he’s come quite a long way since then. He’s developed more field vision as a passer and his insertion into Oklahoma’s wide open offense allowed him to produce career highs in passing yardage (3851 yards) and passing touchdowns (32). Hurts is a promising athlete, the kind of quarterback who can win outside of structure and seems to always have his composure; even amid chaos and when he’s down on the scoreboard. Those are qualities Miami hasn’t seen at quarterback in quite a while — at least not with consistency.
So how seriously should Miami take the idea of Hurts? His appeal as a personality in the locker room is undeniable; he seems to check quite a bit of the boxes Miami would like. But for all the improvement Hurts has shown, he’s still rough around the edges as a passer. Hurts also provides more general accuracy as compared to pinpoint accuracy. And timing concepts aren’t where he currently shines, so he may face a significant developmental curve just as he’s rounding into form at the college level.
The Dolphins have seemingly done everything in their power to position themselves to draft a high end quarterback prospect. Hurts is someone who probably won’t command first round consideration and, as such, he’s not likely to get the call from the Dolphins. If he ends up sliding to Miami on Day 3, then Miami would be well within their rights to double down. But putting all their eggs in the Hurts basket for the 2020 draft doesn’t seem like a likely outcome.