Dolphins say placing Skylar Thompson on the 53-man roster was move they had to make

MIAMI GARDENS — In the end, Dolphins general manager Chris Grier and coach Mike McDaniel agreed, the decision to keep three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster wasn’t much of a decision at all.

The third quarterback is Skylar Thompson, a seventh-round pick from Kansas State who far exceeded expectations this preseason. The Dolphins had a choice between keeping him on the roster or risking losing him by trying to sneak him onto the practice squad, although the real question became whether it was a no-brainer.

“Yeah,” Grier said Tuesday. “ … We got calls again, people asking what were you going to do. And they’re all saying, ‘You guys would be stupid to let him go.’ And there was no thought about it.”

Not for McDaniel, who reminded everyone how valuable talented quarterbacks are in this league.

“If you let those slip through your fingers, you'll end up regretting that forever,” McDaniel said.

In three preseason games, Thompson went 36-of-48 for 450 yards for a 138.4 passer rating, which also led all quarterbacks with at least 42 attempts. He threw five touchdown passes without an interception.

Thompson stands a chance of not playing a single down as a rookie, entrenched on the depth chart behind starter Tua Tagovailoa and backup Teddy Bridgewater, but it’s an investment in the future the Dolphins are willing to make.

“I think that I haven’t heard of a good football team that their problem was they had too many good quarterbacks,” McDaniel said.

The unexpected news as teams cut players to reach the 53-man limit by Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline was that the Dolphins placed starting cornerback Byron Jones on the physically unable to perform list, meaning he must miss at least four games.

Jones is still recovering from offseason leg surgery. The club had hoped he’d be ready for the Sept. 11 season opener against New England, but Grier said Jones had “good days and bad days” in his rehabilitation. The Dolphins did not want Jones to feel pressure to rush back.

“He was still optimistic about hopefully being here in a couple of weeks,” Grier said. “But you can’t rush him out there. We just want to make sure he’s ready when he comes back.”

Without Jones, the Dolphins are thin at cornerback behind Xavien Howard. Nik Needham is heavily counted on and a part-time starter, but Jones’ absence puts pressure on young players Noah Igbinoghene, Kader Kohou and Keion Crossen.

Grier said the Dolphins are checking the waiver wire for all positions, including cornerbacks, but he doesn’t feel it’s “critical” to add a corner.

Grier confirmed reports that the Dolphins had not shopped tight end Mike Gesicki, who is playing under the franchise tag.

“We did not make any calls on Mike,” Grier said. “We had calls from two teams that reached out to us about Mike. We never made any phone calls about him.”

The Dolphins added veteran edge rusher Trey Flowers last week. Flowers and defensive coordinator Josh Boyer overlapped in New England.

“We were kind of looking for someone with his skill set,” Grier said.

Grier said the Dolphins have been impressed at how Tyreek Hill has assumed a leadership role since the trade.

“It’s been really fun watching him behind the scenes, take leadership of the team and help guide the guys to be great,” Grier said.

The Dolphins parted with veteran running back Sony Michel, instead retaining Salvon Ahmed, Myles Gaskin, Raheem Mostert and projected starter Chase Edmonds. McDaniel said it was a wrenching decision.

“The process was brutal,” McDaniel said.

Hal Habib covers the Dolphins for The Post. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: GM Chris Grier: If we let Thompson go, we could have looked stupid