Dante Moore’s surprising decision to return to the Oregon Ducks rather than enter the 2026 NFL Draft has the New York Jets in a pickle.
Prior to Wednesday, the favorites to be the top two picks in April were Moore and Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza. While a lot can change in a few months, early January mock drafts overwhelmingly leaned toward Mendoza going No. 1 overall to the Las Vegas Raiders and Moore at No. 2 to the Jets.
That unfortunate news for the Jets isn’t exactly a great thing for the Miami Dolphins, though. While their AFC East rival has one less option to solve a significant quarterback issue, the Dolphins’ situation won’t be helped either.
For now, Miami has Tua Tagovailoa and Quinn Ewers under contract with Zach Wilson set to become a free agent when his deal voids in February. The Dolphins seem set to move on from Tagovailoa and it’s hard to imagine new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan is confident Ewers is the answer.
Landing Moore wasn’t that realistic of a scenario for Miami. His absence from the draft class leaves an underwhelming group with Mendoza likely to go No. 1 and possibly no other quarterback worth a first-round pick. The right answer for the Dolphins may be to wait for a much more intriguing 2027 class (one of the greatest ever, according to Todd McShay), but that may have been the call regardless of Moore’s decision.
The problem for the Dolphins is that the Jets now join the list of teams that will need to find another more immediate solution at quarterback. Daniel Jones and Malik Willis headline the list of free agent passers, and their price tags may be even higher now that the Jets, owners of one of the NFL’s biggest treasure chests of salary cap space, are probably in the market.
Miami didn’t have much room to dive into a bidding war to begin with, and a watered down list of options at quarterback could leave Sullivan with even fewer possible answers at the position next season.
This article originally appeared on Dolphins Wire: Dante Moore’s surprising draft decision isn’t great for the Dolphins
Reporting by Adam Stites, Dolphins Wire / Dolphins Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
