What Now at Backup QB for the Dolphins with Big Ewers News?

The overhaul of the Miami Dolphins quarterback room is now complete, but now comes a bigger, more important, question.

Quinn Ewers is gone, so the team must find a new backup quarterback for new starter Malik Willis.

The Dolphins are trading Ewers to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a sixth-round pick in the 2028 draft. In other words, the Dolphins basically sent Ewers away.

The move will complete a dramatic downfall for Ewers in Miami that began with fans suggesting he should at the very least compete for the starting job in 2026 even after the signing of Willis as a free agent to being shown the door after a frustrating training camp.

Ewers didn't play in the preseason finale against the Atlanta Falcons, with head coach Jeff Hafley saying after the game that the groin injury he sustained in the preseason opener and had kept him out of practice for the next week prevented him from properly operating in a game situation.

There's also a reasonable chance the Dolphins had something in the works already and wanted to make sure that Ewers didn't aggravate his injury before being able to trade him.

Ewers' only preseason appeared didn't go well, but then again that was reflective of a very poor camp performance by the 2025 seventh-round pick.

This came after Ewers looked good in the offseason program, maybe even better than Willis.

But the starting job always was going to belong to Willis, who Hafley and GM Jon-Eric Sullvan brought over from Green Bay as their potential franchise quarterback.

It's crazy to think at this time about the comments of former Dolphins tight end Darren Waller about Mike McDaniel telling him before he was fired in January that he planned on turning over the offense in 2026 to Ewers after benching Tua Tagovailoa late last season.

Ewers instead now will be working as the backup for Trevor Lawrence, assuming he beats out Nick Mullens for the job.

WHAT NOW AT NUMBER 2?

That the Dolphins have made this deal suggests they already have a plan in place for who will back up Willis, and it would be an absolute shock if that plan involved either Cam Miller or Mark Gronowski.

And because the Dolphins can't control which players will become available via the waiver wire, the thinking is they wouldn't leave themselves without a viable number 2 option and simply would wait to trade Ewers if they didn't have a line on a quarterback.

And logic then says that line comes via a trade.

And the next logical place to look is toward those teams that have a backup quarterback that's expendable and also would represent an upgrade over Ewers — or at the very least an equivalent in the event there were factors involved in Ewers' departure beyond performance.

One name to watch might be Green Bay Packers backup Kyle McCord, who blew up with four touchdown passes against the Arizona Cardinals on Friday night.

McCord is a 2025 fifth-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles who spent all of his rookie season on the practice squad and signed with Green Bay in January.

McCord is running behind starter Jordan Love and veteran backup Tyrod Taylor, and word out of Green Bay is the Packers like McCord but not enough to keep him on their 53-man roster.

Another obvious place to look is Pittsburgh where 2025 draft pick Will Howard could be on the way out.

The Steelers also have Aaron Rodgers, 2026 third-round pick Drew Allar and veteran Mason Rudolph, so perhaps the Dolphins could swing a trade for Howard, a former sixth-round pick out of Ohio State.

Remember that the Dolphins have ties to both the Packers and Ohio State, where Hafley served as defensive coordinator in 2019.

Two other teams to watch are the Cleveland Browns, where 2025 draft pick Dillon Gabriel could be available, and Philadelphia, which has Jalen Hurts, veteran Andy Dalton, Tanner McKee and rookie Cole Payton.

Word out of Philly is the Eagles wouldn't mind trading McKee, who has shown promise in preseason and limited regular season. And this is where we bring up the connection with new Dolphins passing game coordinator Kevin Patullo, who was the Eagles offensive coordinator in 2025.

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