What the Dolphins are getting with new backup QB Mike White. The pluses, minuses, metrics
Here’s the good news with new Dolphins backup quarterback and Davie University School alum Mike White: He can be exceptional on any given afternoon. He can make throws into tight windows.
He’s tough; this is a guy that played through five broken ribs at one point last season. Teammates love him. He has two of the best games by a backup quarterback in recent NFL history — in 2021 against the Bengals and 2022 against the Bears.
Here’s the bad news: He had the lowest passer rating last year of any of the top dozen or so available backups, and his career numbers overall are unimpressive. His deep ball metrics have been very poor. He has 13 turnovers in eight NFL appearances. And he’s not especially mobile.
White has a 75.4 career passer rating, 8 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He’s 2-5 as a starter, including 1-3 for the Jets last season. His QBR was third lowest in the AFC last season. You could say that the stats don’t do him justice.
But there’s also this: Among NFL quarterbacks with 100 pass attempts last season, the four lowest passer ratings were produced by Miami’s Skylar Thompson (who had a 62.2 rating and will try to push White) and three 2022 Jets — Zach Wilson (72.8), Joe Flacco (75.2) and White (75.7).
White’s two-year contract with Miami is essentially a one-year deal that guarantees him $4.5 million - low by backup QB standards. The second year of the deal is non-guaranteed, and there are $8 million in incentives.
The Dolphins spoke to quarterbacks with more starting experience, but weren’t inclined to pay 1A money for a QB, according to an agent of a higher quality backup who spoke with them. “They allocated less on the position than we were looking for,” the agent said.
White had one excellent game in four starts last year, going 22 for 28 for 315 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions in a 31-10 win against Chicago.
He was decent in a loss to the Bills (27 for 44 for 268 yards, no TDs or picks, 78.6 rating), but the Jets scored only 12 in that eight-point defeat, and he sustained rib injuries that day after taking several hard hits.
He left the game twice but returned both times and later checked into a Buffalo hospital as a precautionary measure. So give him credit for playing through the pain.
He threw no TDs and two interceptions in losses to both Minnesota and Seattle.
In the Vikings game, the week before sustaining the rib injuries against Buffalo, he was 31 for 57 for 369 yards but those two turnovers and no TD passes in a 27-22 loss. He did make several impressive throws in that game, and the Jets nearly pulled off an upset, thanks in part to White.
In the Seahawks game, he attempted to play through the rib injuries sustained against Buffalo and struggled (23 for 46 for 240 yards and the two picks and a lost fumble) throughout that 23-6 loss.
In 2021, he was exceptional in his first NFL start (37 for 45 for 405, 3 TDs, 2 INTs) in a win against the Bengals on Halloween. He joined Cam Newton as the only quarterbacks to throw for more than 400 yards in their first career start.
He also was the first QB since 1950 to pass for at least 400 yards and at least three TDs in his first start. He was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week.
But he was dismal in a blowout loss to the Bills two weeks later (24-44, 251, 0 TDs and 4 INTs). So there are major peaks and valleys with him.
The Jets say they coached him to improve his footwork after that Bills loss in 2021, and he had some good moments last year after replacing an ineffective Zach Wilson.
“He’s really good at doing his job, he gets rid of the ball, he gets it where it needs to get to,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said after White led the Jets to his only win in his four starts last season, against Chicago.
Overall, the Jets averaged 21.7 points in his seven starts over two years — which would have ranked 15th in the league among all NFL teams last year and not that far behind Miami’s 23.4 scoring average in 2022.
White gets rid of the ball fairly quickly and has the proverbial high football IQ. He took nine sacks in his four appearances last season.
Former Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said White is a “tough, resilient dude. He has ice in his veins. Just the way he goes about his business every single day, he’s not going to be too up, he’s not going to be too low. He’s just going to keep battling for his teammates.”
But… PFF last year rated him the 32nd-best quarterback, tied with Houston’s Davis Mills and barely above benched Carson Wentz.
We mentioned the passer rating, among the worst in football the past two years.
And there’s this disconcerting stat: White was one of the league’s worst deep ball passers during the past two years. On passes thrown at least 20 yards in the air, he completed 9 of 25 for 207 yards, two touchdowns, five interceptions and a 53.6 passer rating, per Pro Football Focus.
Tua Tagovailoa, conversely, was one of the league’s best deep ball passers over the past two seasons, completing 44 of 84 throws of 20-plus-air-yards for 1516 yards, 11 touchdowns, four interceptions and a 117.6 rating.
White was the Cowboys’ fifth-round pick out of Western Kentucky in 2018 and was Dallas’ third-string quarterback that year before being cut before the 2019 season. He joined the Jets soon after, spent 2019 on their practice squad, then appeared in games for them the past two seasons.
So here’s the glass-half-full view: In five career starts before the rib injuries against Buffalo, White was very good in two of them and OK in two. He’s a gamer who plays through pain and his leadership skills are admirable. By all accounts, teammates rally behind him.
The glass-half-empty view: His passer rating was the lowest of the most prominent backup quarterbacks on the market this month, and he has struggles with the deep ball.
Considering what Mike McDaniel extracted out of Tagovailoa, perhaps he can raise White’s game -- or at least make it more consistent. But if Tagovailoa is injured and White struggles, the Dolphins can justifiably be questioned for not allocating more money to sign a higher-quality backup (Taylor Heinicke, Gardner Minshew, Andy Dalton).
This story was originally published March 13, 2023 at 5:44 PM.
