The Dolphins are handing the Bucs a gift with their decision to not only bench Tua Tagovailoa, but to bypass No. 2 quarterback Zach Wilson and start rookie Quinn Ewers, their seventh-round pick from Texas, on Sunday.

In his first start last week against the Bengals, Ewers had a decent first half, going 10-of-12 passing for 109 yards. But he had three turnovers in the second half, throwing two interceptions and losing a fumble in what became a 45-21 loss.

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Ewers wasn’t the only reason the Dolphins lost the game. He finished a respectable 20-of-30 passing for 260 yards, zero touchdowns but did not take a sack.

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“He’s different than Tua,” Bucs head coach Todd Bowles said. “He’s more of a drop-back passer from that aspect, but they’ve got so many weapons around him with the running backs and the receivers and the tight ends that he doesn’t have to put it on his shoulders. He just gets the ball into the hands of playmakers, and we’ve got to make sure we just do our job and know where everyone is.”

Maybe Ewers becomes the next Brock Purdy, the 49ers’ former Mr. Irrelevant who rose to the top of the depth chart ahead of first-round pick Trey Lance and veteran Jimmy Garoppolo.

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But turn the tables. Say the Dolphins needed to win their last two games to reach the playoffs and the Bucs benched Baker Mayfield and Teddy Bridgewater to start Connor Bazelak. Would their chances of winning drop a notch or two?

Who knows if Tagovailoa has a future with the Dolphins. They don’t have a lot of good options. A trade, which would bring costly dead money in their salary cap, or a post-June 1 release to spread the financial penalties are the most likely scenarios.

Playing Ewers the final three games could improve the Dolphins’ draft position. They’re currently 10th.

Tanking isn’t permitted in the NFL, but a team can certainly make winning more difficult. It’s unlikely the Dolphins could get high enough in the draft, but a dream scenario for them would be to try and land Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who is from Miami and played high school football at Christopher Columbus.

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Regardless of motive, there’s no excuse for the Bucs to not take advantage of the Dolphins’ decision under center.

A Carolina win over the Seahawks in Charlotte and a Bucs loss would give the Panthers the NFC South crown. If the Bucs beat the Dolphins or both Tampa Bay and Carolina lose, it’s going to come down to the regular-season finale in Tampa to decide the division.

Last season, when Bucky Irving didn’t become a starter until the final two regular-season games, Bowles was asked about his use of running backs. His default answer was that they all would play but the Bucs would always go with the “hot hand.”

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In the last two weeks, Irving has received the bulk of the rushing attempts, even though Rachaad White had a run of 39 yards against the Panthers and one rushing attempt for 20 yards versus the Falcons.

While White was handed the football only four more times vs. Carolina and did nothing with it (gaining 6 yards), Irving is only averaging 3.74 yards per carry since his return from shoulder and foot injuries.

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“It’s definitely week to week, and I think we can adjust that in-game,” offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard said. “Rachaad (White) had a big run up the sideline there and a couple more where we didn’t really go forward on the plays. Ultimately, being able to get it to all these guys — especially in a game where you’re trying to establish the run and run it to that amount — is to keep them fresh. That way, one guy goes in, the next guy goes in, ultimately to spread it around and using their abilities in different ways.”

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With their stated goal of 30 rushing attempts at Carolina, White probably deserved more than five.

“He broke off one and he should have (gotten) a couple more carries than that,” Bowles said. “I agree with that completely, but I think the game took a different turn. We substitute on offense how we substitute, but we’ve got to make sure the guys that get the big runs end up getting followup runs as well.”

Jason Pierre-Paul did not record a statistic and only participated in a dozen plays at Carolina, his first snaps in the NFL in two years.

The Bucs expect Pierre-Paul to play more against the Dolphins.

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“He is going to get more snaps this week,” said outside linebackers coach Larry Foote. “Last week, I thought he had a great week of practice. I’ve been getting on him because he fell down a couple times throughout those 12 snaps, so (we) had him on the sled, make sure he gets those football legs back. I’ve been having a little fun with him in the meeting room. He did trip over the one guy’s foot, but he has to get into football shape.”

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