I\u2019m strongly against the Dolphins retaining Tua<\/a> for a number of reasons, including he\u2019ll restrict your offense\/playcalling because he\u2019s immobile and comes with an elevated injury risk. But mainly because the Dolphins must cut ties to the main principals of the Grier-McDaniel-Tua era, meaning ex-general manager Chris Grier, ex-coach Mike McDaniel and Tua.<\/p>\nIf the Dolphins forgo the chance to sign a long-term quarterback in 2026, let\u2019s take a quick look at their options the following year.<\/p>\n
San Francisco\u2019s Mac Jones is eligible to be a free agent in 2027. So is Houston\u2019s Davis Mills.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s a largely unimpressive group.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay\u2019s Baker Mayfield will be eligible to be a free agent but it\u2019s doubtful he reaches free agency. The same is true for Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams, the league MVP, and Houston\u2019s C.J. Stroud.<\/p>\n
The rest of the field potentially includes Carolina\u2019s Bryce Young and Andy Dalton, Arizona\u2019s Jacoby Brissett, Indianapolis\u2019 Anthony Richardson, Denver\u2019s Jarrett Stidham and Green Bay\u2019s Desmond Ridder, to name a few.<\/p>\n
The 2027 draft class is led by Oregon\u2019s Dante Moore, Ohio State\u2019s Julian Sayin, Texas\u2019 Arch Manning, Texas Tech\u2019s Brendan Sorsby, and perhaps Miami\u2019s Darian Mensah.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the Dolphins can use the leaguewide defensive trend as leverage in free-agent quarterback negotiations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Or, perhaps the Dolphins could use the leaguewide quarterback trends as reason to think they can build their defense and take their time in committing to a long-term quarterback. You see the above examples.<\/p>\n
On top of that, quarterback play was bad in the playoffs, and that\u2019s being nice.<\/p>\n
Anecdotally, interceptions were up, passer ratings were down, and the number of quarterbacks who completed at least 65 percent of his passes was ridiculously low.<\/p>\n
In the 2025 playoffs, quarterbacks had 42 touchdowns and 26 interceptions. Two quarterbacks had a passer rating of 100 or above. Only one quarterback completed at least 65 percent of his passes.<\/p>\n
In the 2024 playoffs quarterbacks had 36 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. Seven quarterbacks had a passer rating of 100 or above. Eight quarterbacks completed at least 65 percent of their passes.<\/p>\n
In the 2023 playoffs quarterbacks had 44 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Eight quarterbacks had a passer rating of 100 or above. Eight quarterbacks completed at least 65 percent of their passes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the 2022 playoffs quarterbacks had 42 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. Four quarterbacks had a passer rating of 100 or above. Seven quarterbacks completed at least 65 percent of their passes.<\/p>\n
Yeah, quarterback play in the 2025 playoffs was bad.<\/p>\n
New England quarterback Drake Maye had seven fumbles in the postseason and lost four. He had four fumbles, losing two, in the Patriots\u2019 28-16 divisional playoff win over Houston.<\/p>\n
Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud threw four interceptions in that New England playoff loss. The week before, Stroud had five fumbles, losing two, in a 30-6 playoff victory against Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen had four turnovers (two interceptions, two lost fumbles) in the Bills\u2019 33-30 overtime divisional playoff loss against Denver.<\/p>\n
Chicago quarterback Caleb Williams, who dazzled at times, had four touchdowns and five interceptions in two playoff games.<\/p>\n
If I\u2019m the Dolphins, my training camp quarterbacks would include returnee Quinn Ewers, a rookie draftee (no later than the third round) and a veteran with starting experience (Atlanta\u2019s Kirk Cousins?).<\/p>\n
While that\u2019s going on, I\u2019m building my defense and the trenches, which is a big part of the winning formula in the future. And I\u2019m pushing my long-term quarterback solution back to 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI GARDENS \u2014 Let\u2019s say this up front: the Dolphins don\u2019t have to find their long-term answer at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2072],"tags":[7,41,345,2514,2513,929,251,6,428,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-749547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-green-bay","10":"tag-green-bay-packers","11":"tag-greenbay","12":"tag-greenbaypackers","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-miami-dolphins","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-packers","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116064045441419825","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749547","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=749547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}