The Miami Dolphins certainly have offensive weapons for days.
Between a Pro Bowl tight end in Jonnu Smith, one of the game’s most prolific pass catchers out the backfield in De’Von Achane as well as the elite receiver tandem of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, it’s no wonder why free agents would be attracted to the Dolphins offense. Just ask quarterback Zach Wilson.
“What’s not to like right?” Wilson said Monday afternoon. “Extremely explosive offense. I think they do a great job and it starts from Coach McDaniel and goes all the way down.”
Added Wilson: “You’ve seen how Tua’s [Tagovailoa] development has gone too since he’s been there so I’m just excited to be with those guys.”
Wilson spoke to the Miami media for the first time since the March 10 report of his signing with the Dolphins as a backup quarterback. A former No. 2 pick, Wilson has bounced around between the New York Jets and Denver Broncos, however, still envisions himself as a starter.
“I still believe I can be a starter in this league whenever that opportunity comes,” Wilson said. “I’m just trying to put myself in the best situation with the best team and coaches and do the absolute best that I can and then hopefully at some point, you can get that opportunity to show what you can do.”
The Jets selected Wilson with the second pick of the 2021 NFL Draft. During his three years in New York, he started 33 games and won just 12 of them. The former Brigham Young quarterback completed roughly 57-percent of his passes for nearly 6,300 yards and just 23 touchdowns. He has also thrown 25 interceptions.
Wilson spent the 2024 season with the Broncos behind Bo Nix and learned a lot from that opportunity.
“Just processing in the NFL, pocket awareness, the ability to kind of progress more smoothly through my progressions and get the ball out of my hands and just maybe my understanding of the game I feel like has just increasingly gotten better since my first year in the league,” Wilson said.
At just 25, he hopes that McDaniel has the same effect on him that the coach had on Tagovailoa.
“We all saw how his first couple of years went that I don’t necessarily think were all on Tua of course,” Wilson said. “You’ve seen what the ability to get people that believe in you and a staff that makes everything else around him better and he’s played at an extremely high level and so I don’t think that’s ever anything bad to be around or to see and learn from.”
Still, Wilson doesn’t take the backup position lightly. When asked if he would feel pressure to come in mid-game, his response spoke to the near three dozen starts under his belt.
“I don’t know if it’s pressure,” Wilson said. “I mean luckily, I’ve played in a lot of games in the NFL so far and so it’s just the ability to step in and make the offense feel like nothing’s changed. From a leadership standpoint, just command of the huddle, getting guys the information they need on each and every play and kind of just that not skipping a beat kind of mentality going in there that everyone feels comfortable that they’re able to completely do exactly what they’ve been doing.”
Wilson’s comfort level is a good sign considering that Tagovailoa has only completed a full season once in his career. The need for a quality backup quarterback is paramount.
“That’s a position we will always focus on, and it will be a position that we will focus on this offseason,” general manager Chris Grier said Jan. 7. “I will tell you that every stone will be unturned at that position including the draft.”
Whether Wilson will actually see the field remains to be seen. His confidence and raw talent, however, should be rather intriguing for Dolphins fans.
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C. Isaiah Smalls II is a sports and culture writer who covers the Miami Dolphins. In his previous capacity at the Miami Herald, he was the race and culture reporter who created The 44 Percent, a newsletter dedicated to the Black men who voted to incorporate the city of Miami. A graduate of both Morehouse College and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Smalls previously worked for ESPN’s Andscape.