Kelly: Difficult to explain why Zach Wilson was Miami’s choice as Tua’s backup | Opinion
Is Zach Wilson ready, willing and capable of playing captain-save-a-team?
Of all the moves the Miami Dolphins made in the first two days of free agency — adding two veteran offensive linemen in James Daniel and Larry Borom, who have started 111 NFL games, letting safety Jevon Holland leave for the Giants and swapping him with a cheaper option in Ifeatu Melifonwu, and re-signing a couple role players in Quinton Bell and Elijah Campbell — that’s the transaction that has me scratching my head.
Miami’s 2024 season got derailed because the Dolphins didn’t have a decent backup quarterback behind Tua Tagovailoa, and on Tuesday, the second day of free agency, we’re still wondering if that’s the case after Miami’s agreed to sign Wilson to a one-year deal that has base salary of $6 million, and incentives that can take his 2025 earnings up to $9 million.
Why WIlson over more established NFL veterans such as Jimmy Garoppolo, who knows Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel personally from their time together with the San Francisco 49ers, whom he led to 38 wins, but took $2 million less to stay with the Los Angeles Rams?
Why not Josha Dobbs, who just came off a season with the 49ers. Dobbs agreed to a two-year deal worth $8 million with the New England Patriots, and got $2.2 million less in guaranteed money than Wilson received from the Dolphins?
Why not Daniel Jones, Marcus Mariota, Gardner Minshew, Jameis Winston, or Jacoby Brisett, more established NFL starters, quarterbacks who happened to still be searching for employers in free agency’s first week?
Hell, if the team wanted to go younger, why not Trey Lance or Mac Jones, other former first-round selections?
Lance happened to be picked one spot behind Wilson in the 2021 Draft, and knows San Francisco’s offense from his two seasons there, before he was beat out by Brock Purdy and eventually traded to Dallas. And Jones, who has a 20-29 record as a starter the past four seasons, was Tagovailoa’s backup at Alabama.
Instead, Miami pulled the trigger on Wilson, making him the franchise’s first free agent signee of 2025, and paid him handsomely for it. So there has to be a conviction and Wilson from McDaniel, offensive coordinator Frank Smith, or quarterback coach Darrell Bevell.
And I’m talking about the type of conviction that you need in order to put your job — and possibly NFL future — in someone else’s hands because that’s ultimately what the Dolphins have done going with Wilson.
The former BYU standout selected second overall in the 2021 Draft will need to keep this franchise float, winning at least half the games he’s called on to start as Tagovailoa’s break in case of emergency replacement, just to save everyone from being placed on the firing block by owner Steve Ross, who has made it clear when he decided to retain general manager Chris Grier and McDaniel hours after the season finale that the status quo in Miami will cost people their jobs.
That’s a lot of faith, and trust to place into a 25-year-old who can only be best described as a reclamation project.
But just imagine what happens if McDaniel and his staff, who already rehabbed Tagovailoa’s career when they arrived in 2022, can polish up Wilson and make him look like a decent, respectable, maybe even dangerous NFL quarterback the way Minnesota rehabbed Sam Darnold’s career.
Repairing one NFL quarterback (Tagovailoa) is special, doing it a second time makes you a quarterback whisperer, and coaches with that reputation will always be in demand.
So maybe this is part of McDaniel’s master plan to rebound once his time in Miami has concluded, which will likely be decided based on how his team performs this upcoming season.
Wilson makes some sense for Miami because the talent is obviously there.
Quarterbacks don’t become the second overall pick without possessing elite traits, and a ton of upside. Wilson has a cannon for an arm, a quick release and better-than-average mobility.
He’s started 33 of 34 NFL games he played for the Jets in his first two seasons, so he’s not green behind the ears.
He might have only delivered a 12-21 record, and completed just 57 percent of his passes, throwing 23 touchdowns and 25 interceptions, but the passing game wasn’t New York’s only problem during his tenure.
The Jets earned the second overall pick in the 2021 Draft by being bad.
And the 2024 flameout season Aaron Rodgers, a first ballot Hall of Famer, just produced for the Jets is proof that Miami’s AFC East revival is still bad.
Wilson’s somewhat familiar with Miami’s offense because of his three-year tenure as a starter with Jets, which ran a similar west coast scheme to what McDaniel runs based on his background as a Mike Shanahan protege.
Wilson spent last year being coached by Sean Payton in Denver, who rivals Kansas City coach Andy Reid as the NFL’s best quarterback groomer, and he had an impressive 2024 preseason.
That means Payton and his staff have likely helped the 25-year-old iron out some wrinkles in his game.
Oddly, he was labeled a “Boom-or-Bust” prospect by some draft evaluators, and clearly he busted, otherwise he wouldn’t be signing a one-year deal to be a backup.
Wilson, who was compared to Jake Plummer in the draft process, has a gunslinger mentality, and that’s something most coaches crave, and often believe they can harness.
McDaniel and staff better find a way because history says they’re betting their careers on it.
