It should come as no surprise that Bill Parcells and the Dolphins turned to the Chiefs for some help with their quarterback depth. Kansas City GM Scott Pioli is Bill Parcells’ son-in-law and this marks the second time he’s done business with Pioli this year. The Chiefs had also been looking to trade Thigpen for a little while now bringing in Matt Cassel and Matt Gutierrez.
While we shouldn’t read too much into this seeing as how we all knew the Dolphins would be bringing in some quarterback with starting experience to compliment Henne and White, it’s worth noting that Thigpen is only 25 years old and has far more starting experience than both of Miami’s two quarterbacks combined. Even still, I suspect Thigpen will be nothing more than the #3 quarterback on gameday for the foreseeable future.
His athleticism is his biggest upside. It wasn’t a surprise in the least to see him reel off 30-50 rushing yards in a game last season, which is a far higher average than the vast majority of quarterbacks.
There are, however, a couple of downsides. First, his accuracy is not good. […]
The other downside is the offense that’ll have to be run to accommodate him. By the second half of the season when Thigpen was the only option for the Chiefs, they employed what we over at Arrowhead Pride have dubbed the ArrowSpread. It’s basically a spread-like offense that’s used to create space for him. It’s sort of gimmicky and isn’t used by many teams.
Bottom line? Thigpen’s a good backup assuming he’s put into the right offense. Depending on the compensation, I like this move for the Dolphins with Chad Pennington’s injury.
Agreed. At the very least, Thigpen is a decent insurance policy in case Chad Henne gets hurt or proves unable to handle starting in the NFL. Thigpen is a young quarterback with upside and starting experience – and that’s a valuable thing.
