MIAMI GARDENS — You’d always want Lamar Jackson on your team, because he’s a three-time Most Valuable Player and one of the top quarterbacks in a league built around quarterbacks. But there’s no chance Baltimore trades him despite the rumors.

And you’d surely want Fernando Mendoza or Dante Moore as your quarterback, because they’re the hot college quarterbacks in the NFL draft that starts inching into view now. But for the Miami Dolphins to rise from the 12th spot in the draft, where they sit after Sunday’s 20-17 win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, to the first or second spot to get either one seems as fanciful as getting Lamar.

So, the Dolphins question as the season left Hard Rock Stadium until next summer is the question asked in some way around this team for a quarter-century: Where do they find a franchise quarterback? And can they even recognize one?

And, specifically, who is Quinn Ewers?

Eight days ago, Ewers was a before-the-fall Skyler Thompson, just another seventh-round rookie playing for a job. Now Ewers has a job. Now he’s replaced Tua Tagovailoa and Zach Wilson and moves into next season as someone with a purposeful role.

What role? Ewers looked like a capable backup again Sunday. That’s a good step forward from eight days ago. He looks like someone who the next Dolphins’ front office, whoever it involves, could say was competing for the starting job.

The No. 1 challenge of this franchise hasn’t changed because of two respectable Ewers starts. Everyone surely knows that. The Dolphins have to find someone this offseason who looks and throws like a franchise quarterback or they have to say next year is another cost of rebuilding. Maybe both.

Malik Willis, Green Bay’s backup, would be an intriguing name to sign this offseason. He’s sat and developed for the past couple of years. He started Saturday and threw 288 yards and a touchdown. He ran for 60 yards and two more touchdowns in Green Bay’s loss to Baltimore.

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“Watch him, he has the chance to be special,” a veteran scout said before that game.

Willis also a free agent who probably will cost north of $30 million a year, a former general manager guessed Sunday. Can the Dolphins whose salary-cap hell only starts with owing Tua at least $67 million next season be a player in that money game? Is that even possible?

And would a quarterback with options like Willis pick a team handcuffed by money and roster problems?

A lot will be made about the Dolphins’ rookie class helps that roster because it had a nice day Sunday. Ewers completed 14-of-22 passes for 172 yards and a couple of touchdowns. The three defensive linemen, headed by top pick Kenneth Grant, helped hold Tampa Bay to 53 yards rushing. One of those linemen, Zeek Biggers, blocked a field goal.

All good as far as it went. None are sure things. And the other story Sunday was second-round pick Chop Robinson leaving with a concussion to probably end a disappointing second season. His sack total dropped from six to four, and his quarterback hits from 14 to seven. He was tomorrow at the position, too. Now?

But the big question is quarterback, just as it always is when you don’t have one. They’re in a division of Buffalo’s Josh Allen, New England’s Drake Maye and the New York Jets sitting in the third draft spot and loaded with No. 1 picks to trade from in-season deals.

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Before deciding on a quarterback, Dolphins owner Steve Ross has to decide on who’s picking him. It takes talent to find talent. The Dolphins haven’t had enough talent in the front office for years, and that’s been clear in the standings.

Early Sunday night, the cleaners were picking up trash around Hard Rock Stadium one final time this season after a Dolphins game. The middle of the field was being dug out and changed for the coming College Football Playoff game.

Another season is a game from gone. There was some good news Sunday in the sense any win brings good news. That starts with Ewers, whose good first half accompanied the win. The question that won’t be answered now  is if he’s a nice backup quarterback, the kind every team needs, or can grow into something more.

The Dolphins’ offseason always seems more intriguing than the season. That’s not a good thing. They’ll be doing what they often do in deciding on who looks for the quarterback they haven’t found in decades.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/12/28/dave-hyde-top-miami-dolphins-offseason-issue-again-is-finding-franchise-qb/