Miami Dolphins quarterback Mike White will function the workforce’s backup behind Tua Tagovailoa, head coach Mike McDaniel instructed the media on Monday. The announcement comes after a coaching camp and preseason place battle between White and Skylar Thompson. All three quarterbacks stay on the workforce’s 53-man roster, with Thompson prone to be listed as inactive on gamedays, however out there beneath the NFL’s new emergency quarterback guidelines.
The league will permit a 3rd quarterback to decorate for the sport, however can solely be used if the highest two quarterbacks on the roster are each injured within the sport. He must be on the 53-man roster, maintaining the workforce from utilizing a observe squad elevation for the aim, and, if both of the highest two quarterbacks is deemed cleared to return to the sport, the emergency quarterback should head again to the bench.
“This was a troublesome one,” McDaniel mentioned when requested who could be the backup quarterback and why. “I knowledgeable them late final week we will probably be going with Mike White because the backup to start out the season. Really feel tremendous lucky in our scenario. It was type of what we had been hoping for. We’ve realized the laborious method you want out there gamers in your roster, simply on the whole, and I assumed Mike White and Skylar competed all the best way till the final rep and when it actually got here right down to it, I assumed they each made simply instances. For our soccer workforce, and actually adhering to precisely what a backup quarterback must do, they’ll all be lively every day, however to have the ability to perceive our system in such a brief time frame that Mike White did, and the command he actually exudes within the huddle. You’re actually fixing an imperfect puzzle as a backup quarterback the place you don’t get any of the reps throughout the week and it’s important to grasp your scenario, your craft, rep-less. I feel we’re counting on Mike White’s veteran expertise and actually all the expansion he confirmed this offseason, I really feel fairly snug with that.”
Miami struggled with accidents to their quarterbacks final 12 months. Tagovailoa was pressured to overlook taking part in time resulting from a number of concussions. Teddy Bridgewater, Miami’s quantity two quarterback in 2022, additionally missed time for a possible head damage and resulting from a damaged finger. Thompson, a seventh-round draft decide in 2022, appeared in seven video games, beginning two of them, final 12 months for the Dolphins, tallying 534 passing yards on a 57.1 p.c completion price with one landing and three interceptions. He additionally began the workforce’s playoff sport towards the Buffalo Payments, throwing for 220 yards on 18-for-45 passing with a landing and two interceptions.
Thompson threw for 396 yards on a 64.5 p.c completion price with three touchdowns and 4 interceptions within the 2023 preseason.
White joined the Dolphins this 12 months as a free agent signing, agreeing to a two-year, $8 million contract. He was initially a fifth-round draft decide of the Dallas Cowboys in 2018, spending one season there earlier than being a roster minimize on the finish of the 2019 preseason. He joined the New York Jets throughout the 2019 common season, then returned in 2020, spending many of the 12 months on the observe squad with short-term elevations and a promotion making him out there for video games. He returned because the backup in 2021 and 2022. He appeared in eight video games in these two seasons, beginning seven of them, and tallied 2,145 passing yards on a 62.2 completion price with eight touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
White was 9-for-14 for 85 yards with an interception within the preseason this 12 months. He noticed restricted taking part in time after sustaining a concussion towards the Houston Texans within the workforce’s second preseason sport.
Miami kicks off the common season on Sunday with a go to to the Los Angeles Chargers. The workforce will launch a full depth chart this week, however we not less than now know the way the quarterbacks will stack up.
