One week after rookie quarterback Quinn Ewers made his NFL debut, the Miami Dolphins have reversed course. The inactive list came out on Sunday before the Dolphins were set to take on the Atlanta Falcons and on Ewers' name was on the list.
This is a bit surprising considering the Dolphins promoted Ewers from emergency third quarterback to backup last week. Even though we didn't see much of the rookie in the blowout loss to the Browns, Ewers looked competent in the limited action he saw and gave fans some hope for the future.
Now, it appears, that Ewers is going back to his old job while Zach Wilson will back up Tagvoailoa against the Falcons.
The Dolphins are going back to Zach Wilson as backup quarterback.
— David Furones (@DavidFurones_) October 26, 2025
Quinn Ewers inactive and the emergency third QB this afternoon in Atlanta.
Quinn Ewers is back to emergency third QB for Dolphins in Week 8
This is even more puzzling considering that Tua Tagovailoa was added to the injury report with an illness, meaning there was potentially a chance he wouldn't play in the game if he didn't get better. Would the Dolphins really feel better about having Wilson in there instead of Ewers, who showed potential in his first-ever glimpse of NFL action?
We'll have to see what the reasoning was for this but it feels weird for the team to promote Ewers and praising his ability to grasp the offense only to then demote him again. Perhaps the team really is going off who looks better in practice each week and last week, Ewers looked better than Wilson but then it flipped again this past week.
Maybe we'll find out more following the game but it feels like a strange decision. Wilson isn't the future of the team and while maybe Ewers isn't either, he did show potential last week. Maybe the team still doesn't think he's quite ready yet. We'll have to wait and see.