The Miami Dolphins will be without Tua Tagovailoa for at least one more game, as he’s ineligible to return until Week 8 at the earliest. In the meantime, Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel is comfortable with Tyler Huntley continuing to be the team’s starter.
“I feel very happy with the way ‘Snoop’ [Huntley] went from managing the offense, so to speak, in his first outing to … I thought he was executing the offense and that’s to his credit,” McDaniel said Monday. “I feel pretty good about how fast he’s developed, and I would guess to forecast continuing that development process with the offense. The operation was better but not as good as it could be and you hope that with continuity, there’s an improvement in that.”
In Huntley’s second start with the Dolphins, he completed 18 of his 31 passes for 194 yards — more than double the 96 passing yards he recorded in Week 4 — even if he threw an interception and no touchdowns.
“We’re just going to continue to build off of that,” Huntley said after the 15-10 win against the New England Patriots on Sunday. “We have a bye week coming up. We’re going to get in the lab, work on the things that we need to fix, and come out the next week ready to fire.”
In August, the Dolphins held a competition between Skylar Thompson and Mike White for backup duties. Thompson won with a strong performance in the team’s preseason finale, but when he was thrust into the starting lineup in Week 3, he struggled and Miami scored just three points in a loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
Thompson suffered an injured rib in that loss, but it appears as though he won’t be taking back the No. 2 spot on the depth chart from Huntley even when he’s healthy again.