Regular-season game week is here. Who starts at quarterback for Miami Dolphins and why
It’s Labor Day and I wish you all a happy holiday, but for the Miami Dolphins there is work underway.
Although players are not practicing Monday, coaches are working on polishing the game plan that’s already mostly set for the regular-season opener at New England on Sunday.
Dolphins coach Brian Flores will speak with reporters in the morning and is expected to announce Ryan Fitzpatrick is the team’s starting quarterback for the first game.
But regardless whether Flores makes the announcement or not -- and he’s not been eager to let the public and former New England boss Bill Belichick know his feelings until now -- it would be a stunner if the Dolphins don’t go with Fitzpatrick as the starter and instead open the season with rookie Tua Tagovailoa as the starter.
[Update: Flores indeed announced Fitzpatrick as the starter. He said it was not “ground breaking news.” He mentioned one reason this decision was made is there were no OTAs, no camps or preseason to allow for extended competition.
“In a year like this with limited – no OTAs, no minicamp – limited training camp or modified training camp, we just felt like that was the best decision for the team,” Flores said. “He’s done a good job through the course of training camp and he’ll be out there.”]
So Fitzpatrick started the first game of 2019. Started the last game of 2019.
And he’s starting the opener at New England in six days.
Amazing, isn’t it?
Fitzpatrick’s status with the Dolphins has been an epic tale of the unexpected.
You’ll recall the Dolphins signed Fitzpatrick in March 2019, three days after trading Ryan Tannehill. But before they added Fitz, they first tried instead to sign Teddy Bridgewater and possibly Tyrod Taylor. Those two vets rebuffed Miami.
So Fitzpatrick was something of a fallback option.
And if you thought at the time Fitz had a good future in Miami, recall what Dolphins general manager Chris Grier said about his new quarterback at the time:
“We understand and Ryan knows too that he’s not a long-term solution for any team,” Grier said that March of 2019.
Except something strange happened between March 2019 and today.
Ryan Fitzpatrick captured the heart of fans, earned the respect of his coaches and Miami’s personnel people, and has become the leader in the Dolphins locker room.
And all this happened even as the Dolphins worked to replace Fitzpatrick.
The Dolphins last year traded a second- and fifth-round pick for Josh Rosen to perhaps be their forever quarterback. He washed out as, ahem, some expected. And Fitz was better.
The Dolphins drafted Tagovailoa with the No. 5 overall pick in this year’s draft, and he hasn’t yet gotten his chance to prove he’s the future. But listening to Flores speak of the rookie, it sounds like he’s currently the option only if the need arises.
“I think if he had to go in, I think he’d prepare himself and do the best he could,” Flores said Saturday. “Obviously he’s shown improvement and right now I would say he’s – he’s shown a lot of improvement.
“If he had to go in and play, that’s how it’d be. Now a rookie playing early on, we may have that at some other positions and if that were the case, then that’s what it would be. But I don’t like to speak in hypotheticals. I know everybody else does, but that’s where we’re at.”
The Dolphins don’t need to speak hypothetically. Because Tagovailoa doesn’t have to go in.
The Dolphins have Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick knew from the moment he signed he was Miami’s bridge quarterback. He’s said he’s comfortable with that role, which eventually will lead to Tagovailoa as Miami’s starter.
But the span between Fitzpatrick and Tagovailoa doesn’t have to be crossed yet. At least the Dolphins don’t believe so.
They’re comfortable with Fitz. Probably more than comfortable.
Because the Dolphins will go to New England this week hoping, planning, wanting to win. And they’ve decided Fitzpatrick as their starting quarterback gives them the best chance to do that now.
Why is that?
▪ Because Fitzpatrick, starting his 16th season, understands defenses better than Tagovailoa who has never played an NFL game.
▪ Because Fitzpatrick, who played in offensive coordinator Chan Gailey’s offense for five years in Buffalo and with the New York Jets, has spent a lot of time speaking up in meetings to help Tagovailoa understand the system. But while Tagovailoa has been a good learner, there’s no doubt Fitzpatrick is still the teacher and the rookie is still a pupil.
▪ Because Fitzpatrick brings juice that Rosen never brought and Tagovailoa has not yet manifested. When he’s in the huddle, stuff works better. It happens faster. The expectations from some other players are higher.
Juice.
So Fitzpatrick has been a pleasant, pleasant surprise on the field. And in many other respects, he’s been exactly what the Dolphins expected when they signed him 18 months ago.
“I think for that position, having a guy that’s respected for his leadership and what he’ll do in the locker room is very important, and also if that guy is going to be the bridge in the next year or two for the other guy as a mentor, it’s important he understands that,” Grier said prophetically in March 2019.
“Ryan is a perfect guy to be a mentor for a young guy, just to show leadership and how to be around guys and how to relate to people. It was very important and that’s why Ryan was a guy we targeted.”
This story was originally published September 7, 2020 at 12:00 AM.
