In 2021, the Miami Dolphins had Jacoby Brissett as their backup for most of the season, but he was thrust into the starting role multiple times with Tua Tagovailoa dealing with injuries. However, even when Tagovailoa was healthy, Brissett was getting chances in short-yardage situations.
Brissett appeared in 11 games this past season, starting five of them. In those contests, he completed 62.7% of his passes for 1,283 yards with five touchdowns, four interceptions, and a 78.1 passer rating. While he technically finished with a 2-3 record as a starter, Tagovailoa played the second half of his second win and was the one who secured the victory.
If Tagovailoa is going to be the starter once again, it would make sense to have a backup quarterback who has a similar skill set to the starter. We saw the Baltimore Ravens do something similar this past season with Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley. Jackson is obviously a better player than Huntley, but they didn’t have to completely change everything when the latter was in.
For Miami, Tagovailoa seems to fit best in an RPO, quick-read system. Brissett doesn’t fit that mold. Luckily, there are quite a few free agents who may be able to come in and fill that void. That would make it a lot less of a drop-off when a new quarterback comes in.
On top of the injury situations, it would be nice if Tagovailoa was left in for the short-yardage scenarios that Brissett got. Everyone knows that Tagovailoa isn’t the prototypical quarterback size, but there aren’t any franchise quarterbacks that are coming out to let their backup quarterback sneak.
This offseason feels like a good opportunity to find a new backup, and if the Dolphins are smart, they’d sign someone and take someone later in the draft.
