MIAMI GARDENS -- For the past three seasons, backup quarterback for the Miami Dolphins has been a more high-profile job than it is for most teams.
Not just because of the games starter Tua Tagovailoa has missed -- 11 combined in 2022 and 2024 -- but because of the drastic drop in production from an otherwise explosive offense whenever Tagovailoa is not on the field.
To help mitigate the difference, Miami signed a quarterback it hopes can keep its offense running if Tagovailoa is forced to miss time this season -- former No. 2 overall pick Zach Wilson.
Wilson's career production has fallen well-short of his draft position. He has passed for 6,293 yards and 23 touchdowns against 25 interceptions in 34 career games with the New York Jets. He was traded to the Denver Broncos and spent the 2024 season as rookie Bo Nix's backup.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said the team made this move based on the physical traits he has seen from Wilson dating to his time at BYU.
"I think it's layered. This was something that was on our mind for a considerable amount of time and it goes back to everybody has a different circumstance, but we drafted a quarterback in San Francisco the year he came out," McDaniel said. "I watched every snap of his collegiate play, and he was a phenomenal talent that in my opinion didn't have reps in an NFL pocket yet. Like at BYU he was launching it from about 10 and 11 yards deep and you're not in the phone booth, and so my estimation, there was going to be some nuanced growth to his game that I think it is close to impossible to excel that early in that new form of football that he was playing (in the NFL)."
Tagovailoa missed a career-high six games in 2024 with a concussion and a hip injury. From Week 3 through 7, Miami's offense ranked 31st in expected points added, dead last in quarterback rating and scoring, and 29th in yards per game. The Dolphins' offense didn't take off upon Tagovailoa's return but was a far more efficient seventh in EPA and ninth in scoring during his healthiest stretch from Week 8 to Week 16. Tagovailoa ranked ninth in the NFL in touchdown to interception ratio during that span and led the league in completion percentage.
Dolphins general manager Chris Grier received criticism for not having a better backup plan in place considering Tagovailoa's injury history, despite the fact he'd played all 18 games in 2023. Former seventh-round pick Skylar Thompson was the primary backup entering the season, having beaten out Mike White for the job during training camp. But Thompson played poorly in his lone start of the season, a 30-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. He was knocked out of that game with a rib injury, leaving Tim Boyle and a newly signed Tyler Huntley as Miami's only viable options at quarterback.
After the season, Grier said the team held an affinity for the homegrown Thompson, who won a playoff-clinching game as a rookie in 2022 and lost a close playoff game to the Buffalo Bills on the road a week later. But he also admitted the Dolphins had tried to address the position last offseason.
"We were in on a number of top-flight backup quarterbacks in the league," Grier said. "We were runners-up for a couple of them that we wanted to get here, and for some financial restraints and compensatory pick stuff, we just couldn't go to those, to the prices. But all of those guys wanted to come here.
"It's a position we do not take lightly. We were working through that the entire offseason, and the fact that some of those guys were willing to come here at what we could pay them shows in how they believe in Mike, the staff and the offensive scheme, and the players that are here."
The Dolphins own 10 picks in this month's draft and despite myriad other roster holes, the team is still interested in taking a quarterback if the right opportunity presents itself. Grier said as much.
"That's a position we will always focus on, and it will be a position that we will focus on this offseason," he said.
During the first week of free agency last month, Miami agreed to a one-year deal with Wilson to become its new primary backup -- assuming he beats out anyone the team might draft. His salary makes him the fifth highest-paid backup quarterback in the league. Last season, Thompson was the 48th highest-paid non-starting quarterback in the NFL.
When asked what interested him in the job, Wilson didn't mention the potential to play, but instead focused on Tagovailoa's development and his admiration for Miami's offensive coaching staff.
"What's not to like, right? Extremely explosive offense and I think they do a great job, and it starts from coach McDaniel and goes all the way down," Wilson said. "I'd just say the offensive staff as a whole has done a great job. You've seen how Tua's development has gone, too, since he's been there, and I think I'm just excited to be with those guys."
Wilson said his experience as a backup in 2024 helped him with his processing and pocket awareness, and that his understanding of the game has improved over the past year.
McDaniel said Wilson was a "direct calculated target" for Miami in free agency, over players with more NFL experience. But one of McDaniel's mantras is "adversity is opportunity," and he admires the adversity Wilson has faced in his young NFL career.
"What I see in Zach is the experience of being the second pick in the draft, being the starter Week 1 and then not fulfilling the rookie contract; that is behind him," McDaniel said. "So to me, that's an exciting prospect because you can't put a measurement on that human ability that is huge at the quarterback position. Not comparing the players at all -- on the record, not comparing the players -- Tua found that this environment helped him through that process. As coaches, we want to offer literally everything to his game and I'm excited about where he's at based upon him."