The Miami Dolphins had an extremely tough decision to make earlier in the week with rosters needing to be trimmed to 53 players to meet the league’s protocols.
They could either keep seventh-round rookie Skylar Thompson on the active roster or waive him and hope that he clears waivers to sign him back to the practice squad.
Obviously, the latter was a huge risk, and it was one that the Dolphins apparently weren’t comfortable taking.
General manager Chris Grier and head coach Mike McDaniel spoke about a number of the transactions that happened in the cutdown, and they explained why they made the choice to keep a player, in Thompson, that they hope doesn’t see the field in 2022.
“Yeah. He played very well,” Greer said, agreeing that it was a no-brainer. “Again, another guy that comes in, he just works every day, won over his teammates through his work ethic, and he went out and balled. Another one where we got calls again, people asking what we were going to do and they’re all saying, ‘you know, you guys would be stupid to let him go.’ And there was no thought about us doing that.”
McDaniel jumped in at the end.
“We’re not in the business of being stupid,” he said.
Thompson’s performance in the preseason was impressive, as he finished eighth in passing yards (450), first in touchdowns (five) and first in quarterback rating (138.4) without throwing an interception.
“I haven’t heard of a good football team that their problem was they had too many good quarterbacks,” McDaniel said. “They touched the ball every play. So it’s not about – you can go (through) a lot of draft classes over a long period of time, and if you’re holding your breath for a player out of the seventh round to play like he did in the preseason, you’re going to pass out. That’s why – it’s just because you don’t just scoff and look the other way when you have a player playing well at that position. Those are things that if you let those slip through your fingers, you’ll end up regretting that forever.””
If he had been waived, there was a strong chance that he was claimed, and while it’s hard to expect anything from a seventh-round rookie, the Dolphins believe that they may have found a nice developmental quarterback to mold.
