{"id":248660,"date":"2025-07-30T18:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/248660\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T18:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:33:12","slug":"dolphins-have-clear-no-2-quarterback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/248660\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins have clear No. 2 quarterback"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI GARDENS \u2014 Miami Dolphins<\/a> rookie Quinn Ewers<\/a>, the seventh-round pick from Texas, won\u2019t be the No. 2 quarterback on the depth chart behind starter Tua Tagovailoa when Miami takes the field for the Sept. 7 season opener at Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

The No. 2 job belongs to veteran Zach Wilson<\/a>, the No. 2 pick of the 2021 draft who has 33 career starts. Wilson, who was selected by the New York Jets but flamed out during his three seasons there, has been the better backup quarterback throughout the offseason program, including the first seven practices of training camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cZach is the backup quarterback,\u201d coach Mike McDaniel said before Wednesday\u2019s practice, \u201cand it\u2019s up to players to adjust that.\u201d<\/p>\n

End of discussion. For now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, Ewers has been good. Last Friday, he was better than Wilson, who wasn\u2019t my first choice for Dolphins backup quarterback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ewers was the star of the day last Friday. No doubt.<\/p>\n

We saw some of that excellence carry over to Wednesday\u2019s practice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Late in the practice, Ewers dropped back confidently and delivered a crisply-thrown 15-yard dart to wide receiver Theo Wease Jr., who was tightly covered by safety Jordan Colbert.<\/p>\n

It was a thing of beauty between Ewers and Wease, the player who seems to be his most reliable target.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t an exception. Ewers makes these types of throws frequently.<\/p>\n

Despite that, Ewers, who battled injuries at Texas while holding off the people\u2019s choice \u2014 backup quarterback Arch Manning \u2014 isn\u2019t looking too far ahead or being unrealistic. He knows the depth chart. McDaniel has been crystal clear on that front.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as non-competition, and I think Quinn is the type of person that is every day trying to make that a real competition,\u2019 McDaniel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now it\u2019s not like that in my mind. But I\u2019m very candid about being open to anything that the players tell me with actions, not words.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accordingly, Ewers stays in his lane.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I just want to lead my group,\u201d he said, \u201cand my group right now is the threes, and then those young guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

I like Ewers. I think he has potential.<\/p>\n

One thing that I watch at this time of year is how coaches talk to players after the play, or whether coaches care enough to talk to players after a play. You see positive things with Ewers from that standpoint. Coaches aren\u2019t yelling at Ewers. They\u2019re not scolding him and gesturing wildly as though Ewers can\u2019t do anything right. Instead, coaches are gently correcting or congratulating Ewers. They seem much more positive than negative.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s been good,\u201d Ewers said of the way coaches are talking to him. \u201cI think they do a great job on coaching how they want to coach. And the quarterback position is hard because I feel like all quarterbacks have big egos and whatnot. So they try not to damage it, I guess.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut no, I mean, I\u2019m cool with how they\u2019re coaching. I like it for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The kid has done well.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s be clear: Wilson has been better. Wilson has a stronger arm, Wilson has made better reads, Wilson has made better throws.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And it\u2019d be hugely embarrassing for Ewers to overtake Wilson on the depth chart.<\/p>\n

Wilson, you\u2019ll recall, is the man McDaniel hand-picked to be Tua\u2019s backup. At the NFL meetings in Palm Beach in late March, McDaniel called Wilson the \u201cbest option\u201d for the Dolphins.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a direct, calculated target,\u201d McDaniel said.<\/p>\n

McDaniel also pointed out he thinks he and the Dolphins\u2019 coaching staff can restore Wilson\u2019s confidence in the same fashion they did for Tagovailoa.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot comparing the players at all,\u201d McDaniel said in March, \u201cTua found that this environment helped him through that process.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDaniel is banking on doing the same for Wilson.<\/p>\n

One thing Ewers has almost certainly done with his performance is earn a spot on the 53-man regular-season roster. There\u2019s no way the Dolphins get rid of him, and there\u2019s no way they\u2019d put him on the practice squad and risk him being poached by another team.<\/p>\n

After all, the Dolphins have gone down to their No. 3 quarterback a few times in the Tua-McDaniel era, and it could happen again this year.<\/p>\n

If so, Ewers will be the man who gets tapped on the shoulder. But McDaniel made it clear Wednesday that if the Dolphins must go to their No. 2 quarterback this year, Wilson, not Ewers, is the man for the job.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: July 30, 2025 at 1:39 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI GARDENS \u2014 Miami Dolphins rookie Quinn Ewers, the seventh-round pick from Texas, won\u2019t be the No. 2…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[217,7,216,251,2087,6,1849,3452,1733],"class_list":{"0":"post-248660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-dolphins","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-dolphins","12":"tag-miamidolphins","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-quinn-ewers","15":"tag-tua-tagovailoa","16":"tag-zach-wilson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114943623619127807","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}