When former Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel wrapped up the 2025 season while still holding the job, he said the Dolphins would have competition at quarterback in 2026.
After McDaniel benched former franchise quarterback Tua Tagovailoa for rookie Quinn Ewers with three games remaining and the 2025 team eliminated from playoff contention, McDaniel’s sentiment seemed to mean Ewers would be part of that competition.
McDaniel’s not with the Dolphins anymore, and neither is the general manager that drafted Ewers last April, Chris Grier.
The team hired Jon-Eric Sullivan, from the Green Bay Packers, to be its new GM on Friday and is in the midst of a coaching search for McDaniel’s replacement.
Do the organizational changes for Miami mean changes for Ewers’ standing going into 2026?
“I’m behind this organization,” Ewers said after the Dolphins’ season-ending loss to the New England Patriots in Foxborough. “It’s the team that took a chance on me and it goes all the way back to when I got drafted. They took a chance on me in the draft and then they took a chance on me the last three weeks of the season, so I got full trust in whatever decision they want to make.”
It would stand to reason for the new GM-coach combination to have Ewers be part of a starting competition through the summer ahead of the fall season. Given the salary cap situation the Dolphins will be in this year, as Ewers is entering his second season on his four-year rookie contract, he provides a cheap option with potential for a franchise that will be strapped for cash.
Miami is bound to either have a $99.2 million or $67.4 million dead cap hit this year if it releases Tagovailoa, depending on if it’s designated as a pre- or post-June 1 move.
A key factor for Ewers is the offense that will be in place once a new coach comes in and formulates his own staff.
McDaniel’s system was friendly to Ewers because it was vastly similar to what he ran in college at Texas under coach Steve Sarkisian. A scheme built under the same concepts of the Mike and Kyle Shanahan coaching tree would bode well for Ewers.
Among the six known candidates being requested for interview as of Monday afternoon, the three who are current defensive coordinators — the 49ers’ Robert Saleh, Rams’ Chris Shula and Packers’ Jeff Hafley — all could hire an offensive coordinator to run a Shanahan offense, given the teams they’re coming from. Among the other three, with offensive backgrounds — ex-Ravens coach John Harbaugh, ex-Browns coach Kevin Stefanski and Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak — Stefanski might be closest.
Whoever it is, the new Dolphins coach would inherit Ewers with three seasons left on his contract. The hope for the seventh-round pick could be that he turns into what Brock Purdy has been for San Francisco.
Ewers finished the 2025 season with three starts. In his four appearances as a rookie, he went 1-2, completed 55-of-83 passes (66.3 percent) for 662 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions.
“I thought I did a good job of, I think, No. 1, responding to challenges all three weeks,” Ewers said after the Patriots game. “It’s unfortunate whenever the season doesn’t end your way and how you want it to end, but I thought I did a good job of kind of rallying the guys around me and kind of continuing to fight.”
Before the Dolphins parted ways with McDaniel, he and his staff of offensive coordinator Frank Smith, quarterbacks coach Darrell Bevell, senior passing game coordinator Bobby Slowik and others were developing Ewers.
“The expectation isn’t to be the final product,” McDaniel said at season’s end of the young passer. “The expectation is to go play the game, be able to lead the troops and make some plays while you do that, each start growing. I thought he did a great job each and every start adding to the lessons learned while on the sidelines and then, while under center, I thought he did a good job competing, made some plays that are difficult to make.
“The game is definitely not too big for him. He’s a competitor that guys play for.”
Ewers showed leadership skills for a young quarterback in his starts. Beyond his arm talent, he had glimpses of mobility that allowed him to extend plays or even scramble for a key first down when needed.
As Tagovailoa’s time in Miami appears done, under a different regime and as he himself said he would welcome a fresh start elsewhere, Zach Wilson also goes into free agency after he was passed up for Ewers when Tagovailoa was benched. The Dolphins also signed young quarterback Cam Miller in the final week of the season.
Ewers left the finale in New England early with a knee injury, but it was merely a bruise, according to a source, and he could’ve played a game the following weekend if there was one.