Dolphins Make Their Backup QB Call

The big Miami Dolphins personnel question of the summer has been answered: Skylar Thompson will be the backup quarterback.

The Dolphins have made that clear with the decision to release Mike White after he had served as the backup to Tua Tagovailoa in 2023. The news was confirmed by a league source Sunday morning.

The move was made despite the proposed rule change allowing practice squad quarterbacks to serve as the third emergency quarterback being rejected by the NFLPA, meaning the third emergency quarterback once again will have to be on the 53-man roster.

Releasing White will create $3.5 million of additional cap space for the Dolphins.

White now will be free to sign with any team, and the possibility certainly exists that the Dolphins could bring him back to the practice squad and maybe even to the 53-man roster at some point.

White had been listed as second team on the depth chart all summer, though it was Thompson who started at quarterback in the preseason opener against Atlanta and who came in first after Tagovailoa in the preseason game against Washington.

White got the start in the preseason finale against Tampa Bay but couldn’t lead the offense to any points, while Thompson shined after coming in late in the second quarter. He threw for two touchdowns and his passer rating was near 130 before he threw an interception on his final pass of the evening.

Thompson didn’t see any action in the 2023 regular season when Tagovailoa played every game for the first time in his NFL career and White himself got only mop-up duty.

In 2022, Thompson was the third quarterback behind Tua and Teddy Bridgewater and saw action in seven games with two starts — against the Minnesota Vikings in October and in the season finale against the New York Jets when the Dolphins won 11-6 to clinch a playoff spot. Thompson also started the playoff game at Buffalo that season and had an unsightly 44.7 passer rating that day, though he also wasn’t helped by dropped passes.

But Thompson was a rookie seventh-round pick back then and the Dolphins obviously feel confident he can handle the job as Tua’s main backup now.

“With Skylar, he got the opportunity to play early in his career and I thought, as a rookie, he demonstrated some aggressiveness and ability to make plays in this league,” McDaniel said after the preseason finale. “It’s been about, since then, training his craft and really owning the quarterback position within the offense and I thought this preseason, he’s exhibited growth and what that means. It means you are the leader of the unit, that you have to orchestrate play calls, decision making, all of those things, and I thought he took a good step forward tonight.”