Pros and Cons of an Inexperienced Quarterback Room for the Dolphins

When the Miami Dolphins signed Malik Willis, they understood that they were taking a gamble on a player with limited reps.

Willis, in his four-year career, has 548 career snaps. Rookie quarterback Cam Ward had 1,007 just last season.

This lack of experience doesn’t end with Willis, though. Currently, Miami’s other two quarterbacks are 2025 draft picks Quinn Ewers and Cam Miller. Ewers played in four games for Miami and logged 83 pass attempts, while Miller never saw the field either with the Las Vegas Raiders or after joining Miami in December.

No other team in the NFL matches the lack of experience that the Dolphins have. The Las Vegas Raiders are the only comparison, but Aidan O’Connell, the only quarterback on their roster, has 370 more career pass attempts than Miami's entire quarterback room.

This may be exacerbated come April, as new Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan already has stated that the team plans on drafting a signal-caller every one to two years.

What does this mean?

While meaningful football games won’t be played for almost six months, we can attempt to identify what some of the pros and cons of an unprecedented quarterback room would look like.

On one hand, Miami will have three or more quarterbacks on relatively even standing going into training camp. Willis’ $45 million guaranteed and four years of NFL experience stand out, and we’re under the assumption he’ll be the starter.

He’s still a young gun at 26 years old, though, and the combination of youthful energy and something to prove may provide a level of competition that gets the best out of this position group.

But if Miami drafts a quarterback next month, they will have four players who need substantial development. Is there enough experience and bandwidth on a first-year coaching staff to help try to provide that? Will a potentially talented player fall by the wayside due to sheer volume? The latter seems like a legitimate possibility.

Where does Miami go from here?

If the Dolphins are going to spend any more than a seventh-round flyer on a rookie quarterback, there needs to be a real plan in place to maximize the development of everyone in the room. Taking consistent swings at one position is a strong idea, but only if you can execute it and cater to the needs of each individual player.

Furthermore, it wouldn’t be shocking to see Miami bring in a veteran with experience as a camp arm at the very least. Willis and Ewers have combined for nine career starts, and giving them a veteran whose brain they can pick could help them build strong habits when it comes to weekly game planning, while also potentially providing Miami’s young coaching staff with someone they can trust to relay a message to the younger guys.

Either way, Miami will certainly be looking to find some sort of edge in the quarterback development realm, and this next month or so will be telling in how they hope to do so.