Miami Dolphins: 3 major takeaways from Week 3 vs. Raiders

1. Miami will compete with an elite QB

Jacoby Brissett played solid. He did not play terribly. He did not play great. But he did enough to give his team a chance to win the game. And had the referee thrown a flag for blatant pass interference in the end zone of overtime, Miami would likely be 2-1, and the vibes would be different.

Brissett did lead Miami back on an impressive final drive to score the touchdown and get the two-point conversion to tie the game. His final drive was a lot of fun to watch. He was dealing. That fourth and 20 pass to tight end Mike Gesicki was money!

Watching him lead the team down the field and see how efficient the offense was running, it really cemented to me that this team could compete with an elite quarterback. I know people will argue about the offensive line, but Brissett was pressured 25 times and still was dealing at the end.

Tua Tagovailoa is out right now, so it makes it tough to truly evaluate the offense. Tagovailoa is better than Brissett, in my opinion, but outside of Brissett, how good is Tagovailoa? The jury is still out because he is injured again, which is unfortunate because this team needs an elite quarterback.

Could Tagovailoa be the elite quarterback they need when he comes back from his injury? Possibly. Hopefully. But who knows? I think if Tagovailoa can stay healthy, he has a chance to be a really good quarterback. The only issue is that no matter who is starting quarterback, you have to take a bunch of hits, and I question if Tagovailoa can do that as an injury-prone quarterback.