Miami Dolphins face another rookie quarterback. Here’s how they’ve done against them

This Miami Dolphins defense - the masters of disguises and deception and creative blitzes - loves facing rookie quarterbacks.

And they’ll get one Sunday in Mac Jones, the Patriots’ rookie quarterback who has been very solid, albeit not spectacular, this season, with 21 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and a 92.5 passer rating that ranks 17th in the league.

(Tua Tagovailoa, conversely, is 20th at 89.8.)

Here’s the good news: During Brian Flores’ three-year tenure, the Dolphins have held rookie quarterbacks to an 85.2 passer rating, with four touchdowns and three interceptions and 218.4 yards passing per game.

Miami is 4-1 in those games, with the only loss to Trevor Lawrence and Jacksonville.

But here’s the worrisome part from a Dolphins standpoint: Of the five rookie quarterbacks to face the Dolphins under Flores, Jones had the best game against them, completing 29 of 39 passes for 281 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions in a 17-16 Dolphins win in the opener.

Jones had a 102.6 passer rating in that game.

The Dolphins lead the league in blitzes, so it’s not a surprise that they tend to flummox rookie quarterbacks. But the Dolphins sacked Jones only one.

In their four other games against rookie quarterbacks in the Flores era, the Dolphins sacked Justin Herbert twice last season, Lawrence twice, Zach Wilson six times this season and Ian Book eight times on Dec. 27.

Dolphins linebacker Jerome Baker explained the difference between facing a rookie quarterback and an older one:

“Older quarterbacks, they have confidence. They expect the guys – the receivers – to run a certain route the way they practiced or however they have it. They just have that energy that they know exactly what’s going on on the field and they expect it to be how they expect it to be. I guess that’s the main thing.

“A lot of young quarterbacks – once you throw a lot of pressures and a lot of different looks at them – I’m not going to say they act strange, but their eyes start to wander a lot. They start to think they know everything, they’re trying to point everything out when sometimes it’s simple. But that just comes with any job. When you’re a young guy or you’re new to a job, it’s hard to compete with the older veterans. Over time, those young guys will grow up and they’ll figure it out.”

Here’s how the Dolphins fared against the four rookie quarterbacks besides Jones:

▪ Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert completed 20 of 32 passes for 187 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, equal to an 86.3 rating, in a 29-21 Dolphins win in October 2020.

▪ Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence completed 25 of 41 passes for 319 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions, which computes to a 93.4 passer rating, in Jacksonville’s 23-20 win in London in October, snapping the Jaguars’ 20-game losing streak.

▪ In a 24-17 Dolphins win against the Jets last month, Zach Wilson completed 13 of 23 passes for 170 yards, with no TDs or interceptions equaling an 80.0 passer rating.

▪ And in a 20-3 Dolphins win against the Saints, Ian Book completed 12 of 20 passes for 135 passes, no touchdowns, two interceptions and a 40.6 passer rating.

NOTABLE

The Dolphins did not make any roster moves on Saturday, meaning defensive backs Noah Igbinoghene and Sheldrick Redwine will finish the season on the COVID-19 list and Patrick Laird, Malcolm Brown, Will Fuller and Jason McCourty will end the season on injured reserve.

▪ In an unusual move, CBS on Friday switched dozens of cities and parts of 16 states from the Jets-Bills game to the Dolphins-Patriots game in the 4:25 p.m. slot on Sunday.

CBS declined to offer an on-the-record explanation, but the network’s programming folks presumably figured out that the Dolphins game, on paper, is a better game to send to some of the regionally-neutral parts of the country that had been set to receive Jets-Bills instead.

CBS’ main game in the 4:25 p.m. window, Tampa Bay-Carolina, will be missing lead voice Jim Nantz, who’s in COVID-19 protocols.

Here’s my Friday piece explaining the Dolphins’ two most likely paths this offseason - trading for Deshaun Watson or sticking with Tua Tagovailoa - and how each would work from a cap standpoint.

This story was originally published January 8, 2022 at 5:22 PM.