MIAMI GARDENS ― Quinn Ewers low-fived and hugged Dolphins mascot “TD,” hugged interim general manager Champ Kelly and pumped a fist as he walked off the field at Hard Rock Stadium after his first win as Miami Dolphins starter.
Some fans exiting the stadium could be heard chanting, “Let’s go Ewers! Let’s go Ewers!”
The Dolphins beat the Buccaneers 20-17 in a win that will not push Miami into the postseason but is in no way inconsequential.
Coach Mike McDaniel may very well have saved his job.
The Dolphins may have – may have – found a quarterback.
Ewers passed for 172 yards and two touchdowns, with no interceptions, and scrambled for a key first down in the fourth quarter.
Ewers didn’t look at all like a 7th-round rookie.
McDaniel said after this game that Ewers is authentic, smart and aggressive.
Many laughed when McDaniel said more than once that Ewers gave Miami “the best chance to win” after benching Tua Tagovailoa.
On this day, McDaniel laughed last.
Ewers has a stronger arm, is more mobile, more athletic and more convicted than Tua.
Ewers has good field vision and has been responsible, but aggressive, with the football.
“He’s not scared,” McDaniel said.
Miami used play-action and designed roll-outs and it wasn’t perfect, but it was a heck of a lot more inspiring than early-season Dolphins.
Look, we don’t know if Ewers can be or should be Miami’s starting quarterback in 2026.
If anything, Miami will have a quarterback it should be very confident in as a backup.
Will Quinn Ewers start at QB for Dolphins in 2026?
But who knows. Maybe Ewers enters the spring and summer with a legitimate shot to compete with a quarterback-to-be-named-later not named Tua.
Ewers hit undrafted rookie wide receiver Theo Wease for a 63-yard touchdown. It was the longest play of Miami’s season, which says a lot.
Tua (benched) and Tyreek Hill (injured) have a combined 2025 salary cap hit of about $66.9 million, according to Spotrac.
The combined salary cap hit for Ewers and Wease? At this time, Spotrac says about $971,000.
This is where Miami must be headed. With Tua and Tyreek projected to be gone in 2026, the subject of massive dead cap hits, the Dolphins will need lower-cost players to produce.
This does not mean that Miami should not explore the likes of Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, Kirk Cousins, Malik Willis, Fernando Mendoza and/or Dante Moore.
It just means that next year may be a bridge season. And it seems likely at this point McDaniel will be steering Miami over that bridge and, who knows, maybe Ewers is his 2026 quarterback.
“It’s awesome in this profession when you believe in people and they take advantage of the opportunity,” McDaniel said.
Quinn Ewers meets expectation of Dolphins’ Mike McDaniel
Ewers is poised.
“He doesn’t break character,” Wease said. “Cool guy. Stays the same.”
Ewers plays without fear. He has experience. And he understands the value of attempting to occasionally drive the ball down the field and occasionally putting his body on the line.
On a third-and-3, with less than four minutes to play, Ewers scrambled up the middle for a key seven-yard run. He jumped up and pointed “first down!” in jubilation.
“It was kind of like, the game on the line, if you will, in my head,” Ewers said. “To get the first and get down, man it was a cool moment for me.”
We don’t know if Ewers is Miami’s long-term solution at quarterback.
Who could possibly know that now?
But we know this: McDaniel’s decision to bench Tua for Ewers was correct.
And it just may have saved his job.
Joe Schad is a journalist covering the Miami Dolphins and the NFL at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jschad@pbpost.com and follow him on Instagram and on X @schadjoe. Sign up for Joe’s free weekly Dolphins Pulse Newsletter. Help support our work by subscribing today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: In Quinn Ewers, Miami Dolphins may have found a QB | Schad
Reporting by Joe Schad, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
