Miami Dolphins Can No Longer Count on First-Round Pick

Tua Tagovailoa better not get hurt. The Miami Dolphins signed former No. 2-overall New York Jets draft pick Zach Wilson to a one-year deal this offseason. The hope was that he could jump start his career in Miami after his failed attempt with the Jets and short stint with the Denver Broncos last year.

If one half of preseason football against the Chicago Bears is any indication, this isn’t going to work unless Tua is healthy for all 17 games and Wilson never has to play. Wilson played into the second half, but let’s ignore that for now since it’s the preseason and it’s anyone’s guess who will be playing on either side of the ball at that point.

In the first half, Wilson was 4-8 passing for 91 yards, but that putrid 50% complete percentage doesn’t tell the whole story. There is always the eyeball test, and Wilson was late, indecisive and got sacked three times.

Zach Wilson should have had a costly Pick 6

With the clock winding down to the midway point, Wilson attempted to really put his fingerprints on the game. He threw an incredibly dangerous pass to the sideline that went right through the hands of Bears’ cornerback Terell Smith.

The third-year man out of the University of Minnesota has started just six NFL games since being selected in the fifth-round of the 2023 NFL Draft. In short, he could have really used a pick six to help him with his roster spot situation, and Wilson served one up on a silver platter.

The Dolphins still led 14-10 at the midway point, but they shouldn’t have and it’s mainly because of Wilson. Will the game tape show that he wasn’t as bad as he looked? Possibly, but it could also show that he was even worse than the average Boca Raton retiree saw on Sunday afternoon.

Wilson struggled in offseason practices too

During offseason practices with his new team, Wilson had coaches reminding him that he was “late” in his reads and throws. That’s a very, very serious problem for a quarterback. Late decisions lead to things like pick sixes (see: previous section).

“It’s crazy because I’ve never been maybe told before at past places, ‘hey, you’re late,’” Wilson told reporters following a mandatory minicamp practice. “Even with a strong arm, it’s not like, hey, you’re late on this throw or whatever.”

Wilson sounded like the concept of timing patterns was new to him.

“But here, it’s an entire step above,” Wilson continued. “And again, for good reason. I mean, they want these balls out before our guys are getting to whatever their landmarks are because we’re throwing to space, and we have so much speed that you’re anticipating, I gotta trust this receiver is gonna be there.”

That’s what every NFL team wants, Zach. It’s not like this was Knute Rockne fooling Army with timing routes back in 1913 when the forward pass still wasn’t really a thing.

Barry Jackson, Omar Kelly and C. Isaiah Smalls II of the Miami Herald also noted that Wilson was struggling in the padless offseason practices.

“The Zach Wilson experience remained quite the rollercoaster,” they wrote. “On one hand, he had a nice pass to Tahj Washington and a 20-yard completion to Tarik Black. But he also threw a pass that Willie Gay Jr. intercepted (and returned for a touchdown) and another that Isaiah Johnson nearly intercepted. He was sacked by Gay on another play. On Tuesday, Wilson threw two interceptions (including a pick-six to Dante Trader) and nearly had another pass returned for a touchdown (if Ethan Bonner hadn’t dropped the potential interception).”

While it’s tough to glean much from preseason games, it’s not tough to notice a pattern with Wilson. He’ll need to be better or the whole Dolphins train will go off the rails if Tua goes down for any length of time.