Should the Dolphins Sign Mac Jones to Back up Tua?

Quarterback is the most important position in football and perhaps the most important position in all of sports. If your quarterback is great, then you’ll be a contender, and if not, you’ll be looking at mock drafts in October.

The Miami Dolphins have invested heavily in their starting quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, to the tune of $212.4 million, and when he’s healthy, he has consistently produced for the team.

The problem with Tua is his injury history and the way the offense has looked in his absence. Last year the Dolphins released Mike White in favor of Skylar Thompson right before the season began.

It’s a move I’m confident Dolphins brass would like to have back. When Tua went down with a concussion in week 2, it led to a stretch of bad play from the backup quarterbacks. All told, the triumvirate of Thompson, Tim Boyle, and Tyler Huntley combined for a 2-4 record and often looked lost in head coach Mike McDaniel’s system.

So it is imperative that Dolphin’s leadership brings someone in who can rise to the occasion when called upon, or they risk losing another season and potentially their jobs. The draft is extremely top-heavy when it comes to talented signal callers, and some draft experts would even argue that the top isn’t so heavy. Additionally, the Dolphins have plenty of other positions that need to be addressed early in the draft, so that leaves us with the free-agent class.

Players like Sam Darnold, coming off of a bounce-back year with the Vikings, will likely command too much money to seriously consider. The backup quarterback has to have the perfect mixture of enough talent to keep your team afloat should you lose your starter, but he can’t be talented enough to cause fans to chant his name during tough times. With that said I believe you can make a case for Mac Jones to once again be Tua’s back. The pair played together in college both winning National Championships with Alabama.

Being from Massachusetts, I had a front-row seat to the Mac Jones era. What started off promising with a playoff appearance, Pro Bowl nod, and wide acclaim completely went off the rails once Josh McDaniels was hired away from the Patriots.

I do believe that some of his struggles can be attributed to the Patriots hiring Matt Patricia, formerly a defensive coordinator, and Joe Judge, formerly a special teams coordinator, to replace McDaniels. For all of McDaniels faults as a head coach he is a genius when it comes to being a coordinator. Which is part of the reason why now Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel hired McDaniels to lead the offense in New England once again.

Jones should be looking to rehab his reputation around the league after middling performances the past three seasons, including a 2-5 stretch this past year with the Jaguars. While he may be limited in terms of talent, the talent he does have lines up well with what Tua excels at. Both possess accuracy and touch, and Jones should be able to handle the timing-based offense that flummoxed some of the backups last season.

Coming out of college Jones was compared favorably to Tagovailoa, and under his tutelage, he should be able to develop into a serviceable back in much the same way that he was able to take over the Crimson Tide when Tagovailoa left for the NFL.

Furthermore, Mike McDaniel would be the best offensive coach for Jones since his first year with the Patriots. All of this combined makes taking a flyer on Jones to once again back up Tagovailoa very appealing.