WHO THE HELL IS MARK GRONOWSKI?
I replied to a Dolphins-related tweet last week – which is often a mistake – about the state of the quarterback room. The author felt cheated by the fact that general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan had ignored a pre-draft statement by not spending a pick on a passer, therefore failing to “infuse competition” into the race to be a starter. On top of that, they were similarly angered by the fact that Miami had already decided to “hand the keys to Malik Willis anyway”, in large part making any quarterback battle null and void.
Usually, I ignore these things. They almost always appear in the “FOR YOU” section of Twitter, the algorithmic engine of terror that’s jam-packed full of things that are very obviously not “FOR YOU”. Unless YOU happen to be a misogynist, a racist, a flat-earther, or a lunatic. It’s an everyday 4Chan, where terrible opinions criss-cross people asking Elon Musk’s AI tool whether it can undress women and place them in sexual poses.
Thankfully, I digress.
Anyway, I went back to look for that tweet this morning to see if I could at least do the original poster justice and quote them verbatim, but alas it’s been deleted.
However, my reply remained:
“It was a bad QB class, and it was very clear from a long way out they valued Mark Gronowski, who they ultimately didn’t have to spend a pick on. They quite literally infused competition into the QB room by signing Willis, who OBVIOUSLY should be given the keys.”
Despite their 13 picks, the Dolphins decided to pass on a quarterback in April’s draft, yet still landed the passer they coveted from a long way out. As my reply stated, barring injury, Malik Willis, of course, will be the starter on opening day in Las Vegas. But this week, the passer Miami felt could push incumbent back-ups Quinn Ewers and Cam Miller, has a chance to show why he deserves a chance to take a roster spot. Now, it’s worth noting that when Sullivan was in Green Bay, the Packers didn’t keep three quarterbacks on an opening day 53-man roster in the last five seasons. But given the fact that the three current back-ups have just 83 passes in the NFL between them, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Dolphins will approach 2026 with caution at the position and roll with a trio rather than a duo.
The question is… which duo will back up Willis?
The fact is that the least suitable passer for Bobby Slowik’s scheme is actually the man who’s thrown all 83 of those passes: Quinn Ewers. Whether they decide to remove the designed runs and RPOs from the playbook should something happen to the former Liberty star is a question only the OC can answer at this point. But it certainly bears watching, especially as both Miller and Gronowski are far more adept at using their legs to create plays. Last season at Iowa, Gronowski rushed for a Big 10-leading 16 touchdowns at 4.2 yards per carry, and his 2,312 career rushing yards are 200 more than Willis had in college, and he had 24 more rushing scores to boot.
So who is Gronowski and why are the Dolphins so keen on him?
From a sporting family, his father was a quarterback at Drake, his sister was a four-year starter in softball at Butler, and his older brother Ryan was a flag football Special Olympian. A multi-sport standout as a kid, he was all-conference in both baseball and basketball, where he was the starting center, annoying everyone else in the paint with charges and fouls even though they towered over him.
He started playing pee-wee ball in first grade, and after a good prep career, committed to South Dakota State over offers from Butler and Valparaiso – who play in the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League – and from D2 Quincy and Bemidji State. (He also had offers to walk on at Iowa, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Stanford). But the lack of real college interest put a huge chip on his shoulder, and he set out trying to prove schools wrong. So all he did in five seasons was win back-to-back FCS National Championships in 2023 and 2024, take home the 2023 Walter Payton Award as the most outstanding offensive player in the FCS, become a finalist for the academic Heisman – The Campbell Trophy – and earn a degree in mechanical engineering. In two stops, he started an astonishing 68 games and is the winningest QB in college football history with a 58-10 record.
I was told early on in the draft process that Miami was keen on him, and post-draft, it was confirmed that not only did he speak to the team in Frisco at the East West Shrine week – where he was MVP of the game – but that senior personnel executive Jon Robinson met with him on the road. They also brought him into the Baptist Health Training Complex for a 30-minute visit and continued to show the most interest in him throughout the process. The opportunity to compete for a roster spot despite going undrafted was seen as a huge draw.
On signing the Iowa star post-draft. Sullivan told the NFL Network, “We’re excited to get Gronowski as a UDFA. We’ve liked him all along. He’s a big athlete, can run, can move. And we ended up adding to the QB room, it just didn’t come in the form of a draft pick.”
Whether that’s luck or shrewdness, it matters not. What counts is getting the guy you wanted all along, but not spending a pick on him. I’m told he was in the conversation in the 7th round, but ironically, it was Gronowski’s Iowa teammate, Max Llewellyn, a player the Dolphins didn’t expect to be there, who was higher on their board at the point, and who they took at the 238th spot.
Quarterbacks coach Bush Hamdan, who pushed hard for the two-time National Champion, told reporters at the first mini-camp that he loved the fact that he was such a winner. “There’s just some guys when you put the ball down that can move an offense, that can lead, that can win games. That’s Mark.”
Although his production slipped last season to their lowest levels since 2022 after making the step up into the Big 10, Gronowski played through an injury as he navigated Iowa’s somewhat archaic offense, still finishing with a 63% completion rate on a four-year low of just 262 attempts (to contextualize that, the Hawkeyes ran the ball 504 times).
At 6023, 235 lbs, he’s the biggest of the Dolphins passers, and he stands tall in the pocket, displaying good feet. He’s well-balanced and displays a natural feel for the position, able to move quickly through his progressions to get the ball to where it needs to go. Gronowski showed consistent ability to throw up the seam, which he did on time and in rhythm, and although he doesn’t have a huge arm, and things can get a little sketchy the further down the field he goes, he showed precision with the football. Where he did a solid job, especially as it pertained to the NFL, was how he navigated a cloudy pocket, able to move around without ever being chaotic, able to evade a pass rush and pick up significant chunk yards. He’s calm, he doesn’t put the ball in harm’s way – just 27 picks in five seasons as a starter – and although there were times where I wanted to see him grip it and rip it, he’s smart and sticks to the script. And unlike most passers who come out in April’s draft, he worked in Tim Lester’s pro-style scheme. Lester of course, worked for the Packers under Matt LaFleur and brought some of the passing concepts that Willis worked with to Iowa City.
Gronowski is an older prospect – he’ll turn 25 during the season – but one of the critical factors for Miami during the evaluation process was that he was a multi-year captain at every stop, is extremely mature, and those around him in college told me he was a “great leader who can handle big moments” – go back and watch his 93 yard drive in the rain against Oregon to take the lead at the end of the game and you’ll see what they mean.
Mini-camps are difficult moments for offenses; they’re naturally predicated towards defensive successes, in large part because more often than not, teams are either implementing new schemes or new players are getting to grips with old ones. Yesterday’s pearl clutching from some elements of the fanbase over the mediocre offensive output seems to forget that the same things were being said at the same point of the year back in 2023 when they went on to lead the NFL with 401.3 total yards per game; ranked 2nd in the league in scoring, averaging 29.2 points per game; and led the NFL in both yards per carry at 5.1 and in passing offense at 265.5 yards per game.
As the de facto 4th stringer, Gronowski will see limited snaps in team portions of practice, and so he’ll need to make each one count. The same rule applies to pre-season games. But don’t be surprised if the greatest winner in college football begins to push the two men in front of him and fulfill the promise the team most definitely believes he has.
