Tag: Skylar Thompson

Dolphins not making ‘premature’ starting QB decision for Week 4

A “competitive advantage” is one of the reasons Mike McDaniel doesn’t want to name his Week 4 starting QB just yet.

Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel has an idea of how the team’s quarterback situation will develop over the next few days, but he’s not ready to name a starter against the Tennessee Titans quite yet.

“I have in my mind how I think it could play out; however, it’s a little premature for a multitude of reasons and the very last being the competitive advantage,” McDaniel told reporters Thursday afternoon.

With Tua Tagovailoa on injured reserve, the Dolphins turned to third-year backup Skylar Thompson to start in Week 3. After struggling to lead the Miami offense down the field, Thompson eventually exited in the third quarter with a rib injury.

McDaniel told reporters that the “pretty painful” injury could limit Thompson’s effectiveness Monday. The Dolphins also have former Baltimore Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley, who was signed last week, and Tim Boyle, who took over for Thompson late in the game in Week 3.

While the Dolphins may be inclined to wait as long as possible to announce their decision to keep the Titans guessing, it seems that Huntley is the favorite to take the reins in Week 4.

When asked about the 2022 Pro Bowler on Tuesday, McDaniel raved about the progress Huntley has made in a limited amount of time.

“I’m very, very encouraged,” McDaniel said. “I think we — Chris [Grier] and his staff in conjunction with the coaching staff — we targeted him for a reason. … He’s steadily working every day and I can see him gain the confidence of his teammates, as well.

“You can tell he’s cut from the right cloth and the game isn’t too big for him. So [I’m] very encouraged with his progression.”

Huntley, 26, has started nine games in his NFL career and has eight touchdowns with seven interceptions. He also started a playoff game against the Cincinnati Bengals in 2023 and threw two touchdowns and one interception, but the Ravens lost, 24-17.

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Mike McDaniel says no QB decision made yet for Week 4

Mike McDaniel says there’s still “a lot of stuff on the table,” but he anticipates a quarterback decision being made pretty quickly.

The Miami Dolphins haven’t made a decision about which quarterback will start in Week 4, and head coach Mike McDaniel isn’t ruling out any plan, at this point.

Skylar Thompson, who started for the Dolphins in Week 3 suffered a rib injury in the 24-3 loss, and his availability for the upcoming Monday night matchup against the Tennessee Titans is up in the air.

“As Skylar progresses, I think that leaves variables more vague,” McDaniel said Tuesday. “I think we have an important 48 hours to kind of see where he’s at, and then also to get in front of the rest of the quarterback room, and talk with them, talk with coaches, talk with some of the players, to get them as most comfortable with the varied uncertainty.

“We’ll just have to take it a day at a time. There’s a lot of stuff on the table.”

Thompson completed 13 of his 19 passes for 107 yards in the loss and was sacked five times before exiting in the third quarter. He was replaced in the game by Tim Boyle, who completed seven of 13 passes for 79 yards.

The Dolphins also have Tyler Huntley on the active roster, who they signed off the Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad last week. With Huntley only a few days into his tenure with the Dolphins, he was listed as an inactive emergency third quarterback Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks.

“Fully knowing that it was going to be difficult this past week for a guy getting there on Tuesday to feel comfortable leading the offense,” McDaniel said. “At the end of the day, we just thought — quarterback affects a lot of players, down in and down out — that Tim [Boyle] was the better option [than Huntley] for that moment, on that day.”

But that decision doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be Boyle ahead of Huntley again when the Dolphins take on the Tennessee Titans. McDaniel said it’s a “possibility, for sure” that Huntley steps into the starting lineup.

Whatever decision Miami makes, don’t expect the team to take its time deliberating. McDaniel said the Dolphins are “probably going to have to make a decision before we’d like to” so that the starter has a chance to maximize their practice reps as they prepare for the opportunity.

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Adam Schefter says Dolphins should call Broncos about QB Zach Wilson

With Tua Tagovailoa on IR and Skylar Thompson injured, the Dolphins need help at quarterback. Perhaps the Broncos could offer Zach Wilson?

After placing Tua Tagovailoa on injured reserve, the Miami Dolphins will not have their starting quarterback available for at least four games. The first game without Tagovailoa did not go well as Miami fell to the Seattle Seahawks 24-3, and fill-in QB Skylar Thompson suffered a ribs injury.

The next man up in Miami is Tim Boyle, and they also recently signed Tyler Huntley. The Dolphins’ best option might be an outside option (no, not Tom Brady).

During an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show on Monday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter listed three quarterbacks that he believes Miami should consider targeting in a trade.

“I’d call Denver,” Schefter said, “and I’d say, ‘What would you want for Zach Wilson?'”

Schefter also suggested Russell Wilson (Pittsburgh Steelers) and Dorian Thompson-Robinson (Cleveland Browns) as potential trade candidates for the Dolphins. Schefter made it clear that he was not reporting that contact had been made, but merely that he thinks Miami should be making calls.

The Broncos opted to carry three quarterbacks on their 53-man roster this year: Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham and Wilson. Denver’s brass has made it clear that the team views Wilson as a player who will start in the NFL again in the future, but he’s currently the third-string quarterback on the Broncos’ depth chart.

Denver acquired Wilson from the New York Jets in exchange for a sixth-round draft pick this spring. If Stidham is poised to remain as Nix’s backup this season, the Broncos should consider sending Wilson to Miami. If the team can get a higher pick than what it cost to acquire him, or if they can land a player from the Dolphins who could contribute right away, sending Wilson to Miami could be a smart move for Denver.

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Now what? Dolphins have no solution for their quarterback woes

Skylar Thompson’s rib injury makes an already awful quarterback situation for the Dolphins even muddier.

In the Miami Dolphins’ 24-3 loss, quarterback Skylar Thompson, who was starting in the place of Tua Tagovailoa, suffered a rib injury that ended his day in the third quarter. After the game, coach Mike McDaniel called it a “pretty painful” issue and said that the team will have more answers about its severity Monday.

Regardless of what further tests show, it doesn’t look like the Dolphins can’t afford to have Thompson in the starting lineup any longer.

The third-year passer looked overwhelmed by the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday and struggled to get the Miami offense on track. After starting his day with a 22-yard pass to De’Von Achane, he didn’t record another 20-yard play all game. In fact, he only threw one pass more than 20 yards past the line of scrimmage and it wasn’t even close to his intended receiver.

Thompson was eventually replaced in the game by Tim Boyle, who fared better with 79 yards on his 13 pass attempts. But are the Dolphins really going to start Boyle, a sixth-year passer with four touchdowns and 12 interceptions in his career? Tyreek Hill doesn’t sound opposed to the idea.

“I like Tim Boyle, man,” Hill said Sunday after the loss. “He came into the huddle with a certain swagger about himself. It was different. Every quarterback has a different demeanor about themselves. With Tim, there’s something about him. He came in, we got it going a little bit and it was special.”

It’d be understandable if Dolphins fans, who just last year watched Jévon Holland return a Boyle interception 99 yards for a touchdown, aren’t as convinced.

So is Tyler Huntley the answer? The Dolphins signed him off the Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad, but listed him as an emergency third quarterback Sunday as he’d only been on the roster for a few days leading up to the matchup.

While Huntley has a (dubious) Pro Bowl nod under his belt, he also has just eight career touchdown passes with seven interceptions in 20 games and nine starts.

Perhaps McDaniel could find a way to utilize Huntley’s mobility to jumpstart the Dolphins offense, but temporarily redesigning the Miami offense to accommodate his skills may be too much to ask.

There are other options on the free agency market and the Dolphins could hunt for a passer in a trade. But the team isn’t going to find much if its simply looking for a temporary band-aid to hold down the fort for a few more weeks until Tagovailoa returns.

And that leads us to the likeliest solution: the Dolphins probably won’t do much of anything.

Miami’s 2024 hopes are tied to Tagovailoa and their list of bad options at quarterback are the same options they’ll try to squeeze some wins from in the next few weeks.

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Seahawks suffocate the Dolphins 24-3, improve to 3-0

Seahawks suffocate the Dolphins 24-3, improve to 3-0

For only the eighth time in franchise history – and first since 2020 – the Seattle Seahawks have started the season 3-0 by defeating the Miami Dolphins 24-3 at Lumen Field. It was a rather sloppy, penalty-filled affair from both teams, but in the end the Seahawks took care of business against a team missing their top two quarterbacks.

Seattle erupted to 17 points in the first quarter, scoring on three of their first four possessions. But after that, the gunpowder for fireworks clearly ran out. Their next six possessions went as follows:

  • Missed field goal
  • Punt
  • Punt
  • Punt
  • Punt
  • Punt
  • Interception

The Seahawks did manage to finally break through and ice the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Seattle, backed up at their own two-yard line (more on how they got there, shortly), engineered a 98-yard drive on 11 plays which was capped off by a 10-yard scamper from running back Zach Charbonnet. It was not a sharp performance from the Seahawks, but their offense did more than enough to take advantage of the steller day from the defense.

Why were the Seahawks in need of having to go 98 yards? Because the defense had stopped Miami on 4th down at the two-yard line. In fact, it was the second time Seattle prevented the Dolphins from doing anything in the red zone. Macdonald’s defense suffocated the life from a severely depleted Miami team. Backup Skylar Thompson was knocked out of the game, forcing emergency third stringer Tim Boyle to step into action. Predictably, he did not make much of an impact.

The Dolphins had 12 possessions. Of those 12, six ended in punts, three were turnover on downs, a missed field goal, a made field goal thanks to an interception setting them up in the Seahawks red zone, and a sack to end the first half. Miami was 1-for-12 on third down, and had a whopping 205 total yards on 56 plays.

Seattle maintains their perch atop the NFC West with their 3-0 record, but will face their biggest test of the season in Week 4. The Seahawks will head back to Detroit for the third-consecutive season to play the Lions, who will await them on Monday Night Football.

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Skylar Thompson suffers chest injury in Week 3 vs. Seahawks

Skylar Thompson suffered an injury in the third quarter and was replaced by Tim Boyle.

Miami Dolphins quarterback Skylar Thompson suffered a chest injury and was ruled out from returning to a Week 3 game against the Seattle Seahawks.

Thompson, 27, appeared to first suffer the injury when he was sacked by Seahawks linebacker Tyrel Dodson in the third quarter.

While Thompson returned to action on the next drive, he went down on minimal contact from the Seahawks’ Derick Hall and exited the game. At the time of the injury, Thompson had 13 completions on 19 attempts for 107 yards. Dodson’s sack was the fifth of the game for the Seahawks.

Thompson made the third regular season start of his career Sunday after Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa suffered a concussion in the team’s Week 2 loss against the Buffalo Bills and landed on injured reserve. Thompson spent all of 2023 on Miami’s practice squad.

The next quarterback for the Dolphins is former New York Jets quarterback Tim Boyle, who was signed from the practice squad Saturday. Miami also has former Baltimore Ravens passer Tyler Huntley, but he is listed as an emergency third quarterback and is only eligible to play Sunday if Boyle is also injured.

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Seahawks expect quick-strike Dolphins to slow down with Skylar Thompson

Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald expects Skylar Thompson to “keep the ball a little bit longer” than Tua Tagovailoa.

No team got rid of the ball faster in the passing game than the Miami Dolphins in 2023. According to PFF, Tua Tagovailoa averaged just 2.25 seconds per pass attempt last season, the quickest in the NFL among starters.

That’s a standard the Seattle Seahawks aren’t expecting to continue with Skylar Thompson taking the reins for the Dolphins on Sunday in a Week 3 matchup.

“He’s willing to keep the ball a little bit longer than Tua,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said of Thompson on Wednesday. “Tua was playing really, really fast and the ball comes out pretty quickly on time, on target. [Thompson]’s got the same ability to do those things, but I’d say the ability to also — if you add the extended play to that element — that’s something you have to account, probably more so than with Tua.

“There’s not a huge sample size. It’s been a long time. You’re talking about a couple years of growth from he started last in a playoff game.”

Thompson took over for an injured Tagovailoa last week when the Buffalo Bills already had a 21-point lead and the game was largely out of hand. But he threw 14 passes and averaged 2.40 seconds on those attempts. While slower than Tagovailoa, that number still would’ve ranked third among starters last season.

It was a similar rate in preseason when Thompson averaged 2.44 seconds per pass attempt.

But when Thompson last started a game, it was a different story. The then-rookie quarterback averaged 2.92 seconds per throw in 2022 (3.04 seconds on all dropbacks) and paid the price as he got sacked four times in the Dolphins’ playoff loss to the Bills.

Most indications are that the Seahawks shouldn’t expect that version of Thompson on Sunday. Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel says the third-year quarterback is a “different man” than he was two years ago.

While a drop-off from Tagovailoa is to be expected, it’s probably safe to assume that the quick-strike Miami offense will try to stay true to itself and try to get the ball out fast, even if it has Thompson at the wheel.

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Skylar Thompson is ‘different man,’ has earned trust, says Mike McDaniel

“It might be the same name on the jersey, but you’re seeing a different man.”

When Skylar Thompson takes the reins for the Miami Dolphins, beginning this week with a road game against the Seattle Seahawks, it won’t be the first time the team turned to the former seventh-round pick to lead the way.

During his rookie season in 2022, it was Thompson who was tasked with saving the Dolphins’ season after Tua Tagovailoa suffered multiple concussions that eventually ruled him out of the team’s regular season finale and postseason run.

While Thompson did enough to win a field-goal-fest against the New York Jets in Week 18, he couldn’t do enough to beat the Buffalo Bills in the playoffs. Thompson finished the 34-31 loss with only 18 completions on 45 attempts with one touchdown and two interceptions.

On Wednesday, Mike McDaniel said Dolphins don’t expect to see the same quarterback this time around.

“The confidence that the team has towards Skylar is real and it’s earned and it’s based upon thousands of hours that, as a backup quarterback, most people don’t see,” McDaniel said. “He has ran our plays in a walkthrough setting probably more than anybody on our team.

“I mean, he’s done that for a calendar year, incessantly. And the results are: there’s a broader chest in the huddle. There’s more conviction. … When you’re watching in 2024, it might be the same name on the jersey, but you’re seeing a different man.”

Miami players have similar expressed confidence in Thompson.

“We’re confident in his ability,” Dolphins receiver Jaylen Waddle said Monday. “He plays with a lot of swag out there, so it’s going to be fun. I’m excited. … I think he’s prepared for the moment.”

In relief of Tagovailoa against the Bills in Week 2, Thompson completed eight of 14 passes for 80 yards.

The Dolphins also signed Tyler Huntley off the Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad and placed Tagovailoa on the injured reserve.

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Around the NFL: Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa on IR, will miss Week 3 vs Seahawks

Dolphins’ QB Tua Tagovailoa on IR, will miss Week 3 vs Seahawks

Some unfortunate, but entirely expected, injury news broke on Tuesday afternoon. After suffering his fourth diagnosed concussion since 2019 last Thursday against the Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has been officially placed on the Injured Reserve list.

Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel declined to give a timeline for Tua’s return last week, but was quick to state he didn’t “see how (Tua) would play in the next game” which will be this coming weekend in Seattle. Now, McDaniel’s words have been confirmed. Tua will miss at least the next four games, including the Week 3 showdown against the Seahawks.

In Tua’s place will be backup quarterback Skylar Thompson, who completed 8-of-14 passes for 80 yards against Buffalo when he took the field for Tua. Miami did bolster their quarterback room by signing former Ravens Pro Bowl (yes, this is somehow accurate) quarterback Tyler Huntley, who was signed off Baltimore’s practice squad on Monday.

While Huntley is now a Dolphin, McDaniel was quick to affirm this is a move meant to back up Thompson, not compete with him to be the starter.

Although the loss of Tua is a considerable one to a Miami team with eyes on the postseason, this roster is still more than talented enough to challenge Mike Macdonald’s defense. Seattle struggled defensively on the ground against the considerably less deep New England offense, showcasing a vulnerability that still exists. By virtue of playing on Thursday night, the Dolphins also had extra time off to prepare Thompson for the starting role.

I fully expect another competitive game for the Seahawks this coming Sunday.

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Skylar Thompson is ‘next man up,’ but Dolphins will add a quarterback

Mike McDaniel says the Dolphins started working last night to determine which quarterback they’ll attempt to add.

Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel expressed confidence in third-year quarterback Skylar Thompson, who is set take the reins of the offense with Tua Tagovailoa in the NFL’s concussion protocol. The coach did say, however, that the Dolphins will add another passer to the mix soon.

“The team and the organization are very confident in Skylar,” McDaniel said Friday. “There’s a reason he was our backup quarterback. That being said, we will bring in someone, we’re just evaluating the pros and cons for the different situations, and getting through all of those possibilities to do the best thing for the team. But as it stands today, I’m expecting that Skylar is the next man up.”

Thompson, a 2022 seventh-round pick, made two regular season starts and one postseason start as a rookie, but spent all of last year on the Dolphins’ practice squad. On Thursday night, he got his first regular season action in nearly two years in relief of Tagovailoa and completed eight of 14 passes for 80 yards.

“We played with Skylar as a rookie with the season on the line, and found a way to win an elimination game and go toe-to-toe with [the Bills] in a playoff game and he’s a much better player than he was then,” McDaniel said Thursday night after the 31-10 loss. “Those are things that the team feels. I think guys really believe in Skylar. I have the utmost confidence in him.”

Still, the Dolphins’ decision to immediately scour the quarterback market suggests the team doesn’t envision Tagovailoa making a speedy return from his concussion.

Among the free agent options are Ryan Tannehill, C.J. Beathard, and Blaine Gabbert. It’s also possible players like Jimmy Garoppolo or Carson Wentz could be had in a trade.

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