Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel noted it’s “a little premature” to name a starter at quarterback for Monday night’s game against the Titans. But Skylar Thompson was at least on the field for Miami’s first practice of the week.
The team listed Thompson (ribs) as a limited participant in Thursday’s session.
Thompson started the Week 3 loss to Seattle and was 13-of-19 for 107 yards before exiting the contest.
Running back Raheem Mostert (chest), cornerback Storm Duck (shoulder), fullback Alec Ingold (shoulder/knee), and receiver Malik Washington (quad) were also limited. Mostert has not played since Week 1.
Offensive tackle Terron Armstead (concussion), cornerback Kendall Fuller (concussion), linebacker David Long (hamstring), and cornerback Siran Neal (hamstring) all did not practice.
Defensive tackle Calais Campbell also did not practice with a rest day.
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel didn’t name a starting quarterback for Week Four when he spoke to reporters on Tuesday and he’s still not ready to make an announcement.
McDaniel said, via multiple reporters, that it is “a little premature” to name a quarterback for multiple reasons. One of those reasons is a competitive one and the other is the status of a couple of the options for the position.
Skylar Thompson left the team’s Week Three loss to the Seahawks with a rib injury and is not expected to be a full participant in practice on Wednesday. Tyler Huntley signed with the team last week and McDaniel said he is more comfortable with the idea of playing Huntley, who he also said has been gaining the confidence of his teammates.
Huntley and Thompson are on the active roster while Tim Boyle, who replaced Thompson last week, is on the practice squad. One of the three of them will start against the Titans, but they and the rest of us will have to wait to find out who it will be.
Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores filed a landmark lawsuit against the NFL and multiple teams in February 2022. More than two and a half years later, much of the case is still stuck at square one.
Part of the case is finally starting to move toward square two. Which has sparked a skirmish as to the portion of the case that remains stuck at square one.
Flores has sued the NFL, the Dolphins, the Giants, the Broncos, and the Texans. Horton has sued the Titans. Wilks has sued the Cardinals.
Some claims have landed in arbitration. Other claims are pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as to the question of whether they should be arbitrated. One of the arguments made by Flores and his co-plaintiffs (Steve Wilks and Ray Horton) relates to the question of whether Commissioner Roger Goodell should be permitted to resolve disputes involving the teams that employ and compensate him.
On Tuesday, the NFL sent a one-page letter to the appeals court for the express purpose of “bring[ing] to the Court’s attention that, on September 17, 2024, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell exercised his discretion to appoint the Honorable Peter C. Harvey as the arbitrator over the claims in this case that the district court ordered to proceed in arbitration.”
That same day, Flores’s lawyers responded with a letter that accused the league of “attempt[ing] to falsely create an appearance of impartiality in the arbitration proceedings.”
The letter attacks Goodell for making the threshold decision that the dispute is or is not “football-oriented.” If it is football-oriented, Goodell resolves it; if it’s not, the dispute goes to third-party arbitration. Flores’s lawyers contend that the league’s in-house policies specify that a dispute is not “football-oriented” if it is “a dispute relating to or arising out of discrimination, wage and hour or family and medical leave issues.”
“Mr. Goodell self-servingly determined that the dispute was ‘football oriented’ and kept the administration of the dispute in-house at the NFL,” the Flores letter alleges.
The letter then explains that Goodell’s appointment of Peter Harvey, who will be assisted by former NFL G.M. Bill Polian, does not cure the bias.
“Mr. Harvey has an ongoing professional relationship with the NFL, including being a member of the Diversity Advisory Committee created in response to the filing of the Flores lawsuit in a purported effort to address the racial inequities set forth in this action,” the letter asserts. “Mr. Polian is a lifelong NFL executive, having worked in management for at least four different teams over more than 40 years. Together, Mr. Harvey and Mr. Polian’s relationships and connections to the NFL and its member teams, and its lawyers, is sure to be extensive.”
As we’ve said before, Goodell should not want to be responsible for these decisions. Goodell’s insistence to control the outcome of cases involving the league and its teams — and the league’s obsession with confidentiality of the proceedings — creates the impression that the NFL maintains a secret, rigged, kangaroo court.
Even if the courts are inexplicably going to allow it, the public needs to understand how the league handles its internal business. Basically, it’s the equivalent of allowing one of the two teams in a football game to appoint its own employees to serve as the on-field officials.
Last night, the NFL staged a pair of staggered Monday night games — Jaguars at Bills and Commanders at Bengals. The first game started at 7:30 p.m. ET, and the second one started 45 minutes later, at 8:15 p.m. ET.
Most didn’t like it. A Twitter poll posted after the second game started asked a simple question. Do you like two games being played on Monday night?
Of more than 27,000 votes, 66.9 percent said, “No.”
People prefer to watch one game at a time. It’s impossible to closely follow two at once.
This new periodic habit of overlapping doubleheaders has one major benefit. One game becomes insurance against the other game not being very good.
That happened last night. By the time the Jaguars-Bills game was out of hand, Commanders-Bengals was getting good.
Like it or not, it’s coming again. Next Monday, Titans-Dolphins starts at 7:30 p.m. ET, and Seahawks-Lions begins at 8:15 p.m. ET.
The Dolphins won’t play until Monday night in Week Four and it sounds like the extra day will come in handy.
Skylar Thompson left last Sunday’s loss to the Dolphins with a chest injury and the Dolphins don’t know if he’ll be able to play at this point. At a Tuesday press conference, head coach Mike McDaniel was asked if the team would go with Tim Boyle or Tyler Huntley in the event that Thompson is not cleared to play. McDaniel indicated that the team will take as much as they can before making any decision.
“As Skylar progresses, I think that leaves variables more vague,” McDaniel said. “I think we have an important 48 hours to see where he’s at and also to get in front of the rest of the quarterback room. Talk with them, talk with coaches, talk with some of the players to get them most comfortable with the varied uncertainty. We’ll just have to take it a day at a time, there’s a lot of stuff on the table.”
Boyle replaced Thompson against Seattle with Huntley serving as the emergency quarterback less than a month after signing with the team. He’ll have more time under his belt when the Dolphins face the Titans, but it remains to be seen if that’s enough to give him a shot at running the offense.
