Four years after he heavily scouted him ahead of the NFL draft, Miami Dolphins QB coach Darrell Bevell finds himself working with Zach Wilson.
The goal for Bevell and the rest of the Dolphins offensive staff is to put Wilson in position to maximize his very obvious passing skills so he can be ready to produce if called upon as Tua Tagovailoa's backup.
It's a gradual process for Bevell, one that starts with honing his skills and fine-tuning his game.
"He has the talent," Bevell said. "He didn't get picked there for no reason, right? So he definitely has the talent. And we're just trying to, from my eyes, make corrections that we want to, that will help fit into our offense. And then once we get to take the next step against defenses, then we'll be able to continue no more.”
Bevell first became familiar with Wilson's work ahead of the 2021 draft when he was offensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Jaguars, who had the first overall pick that year.
As it turned out, the Jaguars selected fellow QB Trevor Lawrence before Wilson was picked by the New York Jets.
Wilson spent three frustrating seasons in New York before he was traded last year to the Denver Broncos, where he worked under Sean Payton while serving as the No. 3 QB behind rookie Bo Nix and Jarrett Stidham.
"So we did Zach and Trevor and Justin Fields, that whole group," Bevell said. "And I was impressed with him then. And obviously there's things that as a coach that you wanna get him and start working with him and maybe help him, whatever the things that you see that you can help him improve on. And I was eager to do that.
"It's been fun to watch his progression at what he went through with the Jets, obviously tough experiences but great learning experiences. If you can step away and look at it from different eyes and then going to Denver, getting with Sean Payton, who's outstanding as everybody knows, and start to maybe have a few changes and then as he comes here, we don't do the same stuff that either one of them do."
Bevell says Wilson's "buy-in" has been exemplary.
In fact, Bevell says he's happy with everything he's seen from Wilson away from the field.
“As a person he's been outstanding," Bevell said. "I love the way that he's come into the room. I love the interactions that Tua and him have been able to have. They've had some good conversations, some real conversations, talking about some of their past experiences and things like that. So it's kind of fun to be in there. And then he's really eager. He's really humble. He's, you know, what can I do? Need to get better. And I'm just, I mean, in every way, I've been really pleasantly pleased and pleasantly surprised by how good he's been.”
That doesn't mean, however, that Wilson is at the point the Dolphins would like him, understanding the obvious preference is having Wilson simply wear a baseball cap on the sideline all season because that will mean that Tagovailoa stayed healthy.
There is plenty of time for Wilson to work on his game before the regular season arrives in September, and joint practices against the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders will only help.
“Well, everything that he can do within our offense is valuable for him," Bevelll said. "I mean, what we're doing out here and the emphasis that we have and how we've structured Phase Two (of the offseason program) just being able to work on the fundamentals is really important to him. Right and then every step where now we're doing individual drills, now we're adding a receiver to it, now we're adding the whole crew to it, OK, now we're gonna get to face the defense, so every one of those steps will be vitally important for him and the more he gets against defenses and other defenses than ours will be very valuable.”
Bevell is clear that he thinks Wilson has all the physical traits necessary to succeed.
“Well, he's got a lot," Bevell said. "I mean, first, he's got a gifted arm, and so he's special with that. But the thing that we're continuing to work on is the footwork and then how to not always have to rely on the arm and then to be able to use your feet to stay on time to go with where your feet are telling you that you need to go with the ball.”
