With Tua Tagovailoa and Teddy Bridgewater both in concussion protocol, rookie Skylar Thompson is now set to make his first career start against the Vikings on Sunday.
Head coach Mike McDaniel said on Wednesday that he didn’t view Thompson as a “run of the mill rookie.” For his part, Thompson said it’s exciting to know he’ll be behind center this weekend.
“I mean, it’s a dream come true — something that I’ve worked for my whole life. But there’s a ton that goes into that,” Thompson said in his Wednesday press conference. “I didn’t get here just by myself and there’s a lot of people that have contributed to help me get to where I am today, my family, my past coaches, my current coaches, my current teammates, Teddy and Tua. There’s a handful of people that have helped me get to this spot. I’m not the type of person to point the finger at me and [say] I did it by myself and all that type of stuff — that’s not the case at all. I’m very grateful for this opportunity and I’m super excited to go to work today and have this opportunity in front of me.”
Thompson nearly every offensive snap for the Dolphins after Bridgewater was removed from the field early on in the Week Five loss to the Jets. The difference this week is that he’ll now get the first-team reps at practice, which should make things smoother on Sunday.
“It helps kind of knowing,” Thompson said. “I’m a very mental, visualization person. And I like to put myself in situations before they happen and all those types of things. And just having a week of prep, being able to, most importantly, just build the continuity of the offense with the snap count, the cadences, the protections, timing of routes — all that stuff is so important to build throughout the week. And for me to have a week to build that, build confidence with the guys and build that trust and timing is going to be really important.”
Thompson completed 19-of-33 passes for 166 yards with an interception and a lost fumble in his debut.