Tyler “Snoop” Huntley’s new Miami Dolphins teammates and coaches had been paying attention to him even before he joined the team.
Coach Mike McDaniel saw how Huntley’s former teammates with the Ravens supported him in 2022 when he stepped in to help lead Baltimore to the playoffs while Lamar Jackson was out.
Receiver Tyreek Hill was impressed by Huntley’s running skills. Quarterbacks coach Darrell Bevell pointed out Huntley’s often-overlooked passing abilities.
This helped the Dolphins decide to make Huntley their starting quarterback for Monday night’s game against the Tennessee Titans.
“We’ve been very high on Snoop,” McDaniel said Saturday. “High enough to give him a roster spot on the 53, which are very few and far between without having seen him play. His growth has been quick, and he’s done a great job fitting into the locker room and understanding our system as his own. The team is excited for him.”
Tua Tagovailoa is still on injured reserve due to a concussion, and backup Skylar Thompson is dealing with a rib injury from the game against Seattle in Week 3. This left Huntley and Tim Boyle as the only quarterback options, both of whom have been in Miami for less than a month.
Huntley mentioned that he has spent a lot of time studying the playbook since joining the Dolphins on September 17. He’s been working on learning the complicated system that includes pre-snap motions and timing-based throws. He compared this learning process to riding a bike.
“First time, you’re a little iffy,” he said. “You didn’t know how to pedal. Then you just start putting it all together, pedaling, going in a straight line, then after a while, you’re going to start standing up.”
McDaniel said earlier this week that he won’t make entirely new plays for Huntley but will instead add parts to the current system that match his strengths.
“If you do (create new plays), the only way that you can is that there has to be some overlap into what you already do,” McDaniel said.
“Just because you don’t go in and completely change from ground zero everything you do, it has to be within your verbiage and ways that they’ve learned how to identify people, and who you’re reading and all that. I think there’s a balance.”
McDaniel also has experience with a quarterback joining a team and quickly becoming the starter. He was with San Francisco in 2017 when Jimmy Garoppolo was traded from New England midseason and immediately became the 49ers’ starter. The 49ers ended that season with five straight wins under Garoppolo after starting 0-9.
“You naturally reflect on, ‘OK, how do you pull that off?’” McDaniel said. For him, the answer was how Garoppolo’s teammates responded to his leadership.
“There’s an unspoken, I don’t know, confidence and conviction that a person has to have,” McDaniel said, “where guys believe that, regardless of how long they’ve played with him, that they have the components to do what each and every one of them need him to do, really.”
McDaniel sees those same qualities in Huntley.
“He was replacing the league MVP and you could tell from far away that he was a guy that the team absolutely believed could lead them to victory,” the coach said last week.
Huntley has a 64.6% career completion rate and a 79% passer rating with eight passing touchdowns. He can extend plays with his legs, adding another option to a Dolphins offense that has struggled in three games and scored only 33 points.
Huntley has 509 career rushing yards, averaging 4.4 yards per carry and scoring three rushing touchdowns.
His focus has been on being ready when he is needed. McDaniel mentioned he felt more at ease turning to Boyle when Thompson got injured last week because Huntley hadn’t had enough time to learn the offense well.
“You’ve got to literally learn it like learning for the bar exam,” Huntley said with a smile. “I know some people probably took the bar exam, I didn’t. You’ve got to go all-in and just absorb everything that’s in the playbook.”
Boyle will be Huntley’s backup on Monday, and Thompson might be available as an emergency third quarterback.
The Titans are still looking for their first win but have been tough on defense, allowing only 139.3 passing yards per game. They’ve also been preparing to face Huntley even before McDaniel named him the starter on Saturday.
“We know that we’re probably going to see Snoop most likely at quarterback,” defensive end Jeffery Simmons said on Wednesday.
“That’s one of the things we can for sure take heed to and pay attention to because if Snoop plays, it’ll probably be the same exact plays that we saw with Malik (Willis) with the quarterback runs and getting the ball on the perimeter and the edges.”