Dolphins’ play-caller assesses quarterback battle one week into training camp

The unofficial stats and the eye test both suggest that Ryan Fitzpatrick is ahead of Josh Rosen one week into Dolphins camp.

The allocation of first-team reps supports it.

And yet, the Dolphins refuse, for now, to go along with the growing narrative outside the building.

The latest example: When this Miami Herald reporter asked Dolphins offensive coordinator Chad O’Shea if Fitzpatrick has indeed been consistently better than Rosen.

“I don’t know,” O’Shea responded. “We evaluate those guys daily. There have certainly been things they’ve both done well. There have been some areas of improvement. ... That’s true of all positions right now. We walk off the field, we evaluate these guys. We watch every bit of film, including the individual drills as a staff.

“We’re on top of the evaluation and we’ll stay real close to that,” he continued. “But there’s a long way to go. And it’s a competitive situation. And they’re both working hard to be great teammates and help our football team.”

Neither was particularly good Sunday, the Dolphins’ fourth straight day of practice under an unrelenting sun. Rosen had some accuracy issues while Fitzpatrick botched a snap. The passing game in general was spotty.

But the overall trend line, at least to outside observers, remained unchanged — with the necessary caveat that it’s still very early in the process and the team hasn’t even had its scrimmage yet, let alone a preseason game.

“I think the quarterback competition has been competitive,” O’Shea said. ‘We’ve asked both of those guys to come in and improve daily. I believe that we have. There’s areas that they both need to improve in. There’s areas where they’ve done really well in. So, I think right now, it’s competitive. Right now, all positions are competitive on our roster.

“I don’t think anything right now is set in stone,” he continued. “There’s no starters. There really aren’t.”

Fair enough. But there is a first team and a second team. And at some point, Rosen will need to get work with the first-team offensive line and skill group for the Dolphins to fairly evaluate that.

That day is coming, O’Shea suggested.

“They’ll both have opportunities to work with our entire offensive group,” he said.

When? That remains unclear.

One are in which Rosen has impressed: His classroom acumen and attitude. He has worked hard to shed the rep that he’s a tough player to coach, and it shows.

“Josh has been excellent,” O’Shea said. “Since Day 1, he’s come in here and done a good job learning the offense. He has accepted our offense, embraced what we do. Obviously, he has a familiarity with other systems, but he understands this is the system we’re going to run here. He’s been excellent in the meeting room, he’s tried to do on the field what we want him to do and like it is with him, it’s a work in progress. All positions are working to improve, and he’s no different.”

Other interesting things said by O’Shea during his first news conference since the spring:

▪ Defensive tackle Christian Wilkins has gotten some snaps on offense, O’Shea confirmed, reprising a role he played at times at Clemson.

“It’s great to have Christian,” O’Shea said. “We’ve worked with him on the offense today, but all players will have the opportunity to create their role based on what they can do. And the more you can do here, they more you’re going to help the team.”

▪ After coaching from the field during games as the Patriots’ wide receivers coach, where will O’Shea call plays from? He wouldn’t say.

“We have some time before the first game and we’ll see what works best for us,” he said.

▪ He was similarly coy about the team’s plan at running back. Kenyan Drake and Kalen Ballage are both sure to see the field a lot, but will there be a rotation by series or down and distance?

“Whenever you’re talking about a rotation, that means you have some depth at the position,” O’Shea said. “So that’s what excites me.”

This story was originally published July 28, 2019 at 1:33 PM.