Dave Hyde: A good workday for Zach Wilson, not for Dolphins' physical work

Dave Hyde, South Florida Sun Sentinel on Aug 17, 2025

Published in Football

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Mike McDaniel had a decision to make Saturday. He knows by now you can’t talk a team’s desired identity or reformed culture into existence. It has to be created with work, not words.

That’s why he practiced two days and played Saturday’s exhibition against the Detroit Lions. How better to move your identity from finesse to physical than working against one of the toughest teams led by a coach who professes to eat kneecaps?

Only on Saturday, in a workout of mostly backups, McDaniel dropped the demands toward a newer, tougher identity in the first half.

The Dolphins ran just five times for 6 yards.

Quarterback Zach Wilson, meanwhile, passed for 23 times that half, completing 15 for 151 yards and a touchdown.

McDaniel’s intentions were as clear as his play calls. He wanted the roster’s second most important player to get in a good day’s work.

Wilson’s individual development in this offense was more important Saturday than the larger team’s daily, seasoning process toward a changed identity as shown by a big running game. That’s because three of the past four seasons have involved Tua Tagovailoa injuries that meant the season’s fate fell to his backup.

That’s why Wilson is watched closer than any backup in the league. It’s why this decision is more important than any made this Dolphins offseason.

Here’s the good news: He was more comfortable in the offense than last week in Chicago. Maybe it was just knocking off some rust since he didn’t throw a pass in Denver last season. But Wilson was better Saturday than a week ago in the tie against the Bears when he wanted several passes back.

This time, it was just one, a deep pass on first down — just the way the Dolphins’ identity was the past couple of years — that was so severely underthrown to Dee Eskridge a would-be touchdown that became an incompletion.

It’s a tough translation, judging how Wilson’s preseason play with backups projects toward how he could be in the third regular-season game, as was needed of backup Skyler Thompson last season. It’s easier to see there’s problems at cornerback, that the defensive line is deep, that there are backup receivers with some talent.

“There was some growth,” McDaniel said of Wilson on CBS Miami at halftime. “We had two long drives in particular, the 80-yard touchdown drive was good. There was some resolve he showed. He kind of got in the huddle and took charge, so that’s what we want to see.”

Good, fundamental quarterback work. That’s what Saturday was about. McDaniel has to get to know Wilson, too, in workouts like this. What patterns he likes to throw. Which plays he can work. McDaniel handed him the offense to run from long balls to receiver screens to a toss sweeps to a receiver in motion.

It was Eskridge much of Saturday’s first half, and he did fine with three catches for 53 yards. His good toss-sweep run was called back by penalty. But tight end Tanner Conner had six catches for 48 yards, too.

This is Wilson’s job, too, no matter how rookie Quinn Ewers fares. Ewers was fine Saturday, filling the second half in a more balanced offense. Ewers threw 17 passes for 116 yards, and the Dolphins ran a more responsible 14 times for 92 yards.

But this is Wilson’s job behind Tagovailoa, just as it has been since he signed for $6 million. You see why McDaniel wanted a former No. 2 draft pick of the New York Jets.

You also wonder why Denver coach Sean Payton made him the third quarterback last year behind Bo Nix and Jarrett Stidham. And wanted Stidham this offseason.

Wilson could be the next Sam Darnold or Geno Smith, a quarterback leaving the New York Jets and recapturing a good career. That’s what this season could be about.

Saturday was about building his comfort and confidence in a workout. He threw 23 times and handed off just five. One was a third-and-one dive by Jaylen Wright for a first down after measurement. Whew.

Developing a new, physical identity with the running game matters, McDaniel has decided since last season.

But the state of the backup quarterback mattered more Saturday for good reason.

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