The Miami Dolphins’ quarterback depth went from a talking point to a genuine problem on Sunday. Quinn Ewers, the No. 2 behind starter Malik Willis, is week to week after suffering a groin injury in Friday’s 20-7 preseason loss to the Washington Commanders.
He hurt his groin on his second snap of the game, and the plan is for Ewers to sit out this week and return next week if the injury has healed.
The team’s answer arrived within hours. Miami re-signed quarterback Mark Gronowski, added linebacker Cam Riley, placed offensive lineman Jamaree Salyer on season-ending injured reserve and waived cornerback Ethan Robinson with an injury designation.
An injury Ewers was already playing through
The groin is not the only thing Ewers has been managing. Ewers had been dealing with a separate, undisclosed injury he has pushed through since the start of training camp, and suggested the coming week could give him a chance to finally get healthy on both fronts.
Quinn Ewers, who is week to week with his new groin injury sustained Friday, had previously been dealing with another undisclosed injury he has been pushing through since the start of training camp, per source. Maybe this gives him an opportunity to sit back this week and get… https://t.co/NENUqEKomo
— David Furones (@DavidFurones_) August 16, 2026
That detail recasts Friday night considerably. Ewers hurt the groin two plays into his outing and stayed on the field anyway, laboring through a 1-of-8, 27-yard night with an interception that set off a round of alarm about Miami’s depth behind Willis.
The performance was ugly, but the context now includes a quarterback compromised by two injuries while facing Washington’s backups. How much of the struggle was health and how much was regression is exactly the question the Dolphins no longer have preseason reps to answer.
The durability file is becoming its own storyline. Ewers, a seventh-round pick in 2025, started Miami’s final three games as a rookie and completed 66.3 percent of his passes for 622 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions, but he left the season finale against New England with a knee injury.
Add the undisclosed camp ailment and now the groin, and the 2026 offseason has been a fight for availability as much as a fight for the job.
Gronowski’s nine-day round trip
Nobody’s summer has swung faster than Gronowski’s. The Dolphins waived the undrafted rookie on Aug. 7 to make room on the 90-man roster, watched him try out for the Indianapolis Colts on Friday, then brought him back Sunday — nine days after letting him go.
The choice of Gronowski over a veteran was deliberate. Because the Dolphins do not believe Ewers’ injury is long-term, they opted to re-sign the undrafted rookie rather than pursue one of the few veteran backups still available on the street.
It is a bet on a quick recovery, and it doubles as a statement that Miami is comfortable riding out the next two weeks with Willis, Cam Miller and a developmental arm who started 67 college games across four seasons at South Dakota State and a final year at Iowa.
The rest of Sunday’s business carried real costs. Salyer, signed in free agency to be the top backup across the interior, is done for the year — a blow to an offensive line group whose depth was already a concern when Miami traded for Caedan Wallace earlier this month.
Robinson, who played 16 defensive snaps and 10 more on special teams against Washington, was waived with an injury settlement.
Riley, an undrafted linebacker out of Florida State who spent time with the Patriots and Titans without seeing regular-season action, takes one of the open spots. Riley was one of five players Miami worked out, alongside linebacker Power Echols, tackles Luke Felix-Fualalo and Timothy McKay and guard Jared Penning.
What it means for the quarterback room
The immediate beneficiary is Miller, who becomes the second quarterback for a Giants week that includes joint practices and Saturday’s preseason game on Aug. 22, which Ewers is now likely to miss.
Miller’s own opener went worse than Ewers’ on the stat sheet — he went 3 of 11 for 39 yards with two interceptions — so a heavier workload against New York is both an opportunity and an audition under pressure.
Behind him, Gronowski gives Hafley’s staff a fourth arm to survive the practice volume of a joint week. For Ewers, the math is unforgiving.
If the timeline holds and he returns next week, the preseason finale against the Atlanta Falcons on Aug. 28 becomes his last chance to put anything on tape before cutdown day.
He entered this preseason needing to stabilize the No. 2 job after an inconsistent camp, and instead his most recent film is a two-injury struggle, with at most one game left to overwrite it.
None of this touches Willis, whose grip on the starting job was never part of the question. His opening-drive touchdown march in Landover answered the only thing Miami needed to see in game one, and the depth churn behind him only reinforces how much the Dolphins’ season rides on his availability.
The nightmare scenario is no longer hypothetical for this front office: one Willis injury now means turning to a quarterback room whose top healthy option behind him has thrown 11 preseason passes and caught two of the results in the wrong-colored jerseys.
The Dolphins reconvene for Giants week with two preseason games left and a roster that has now churned through four transactions in a single August Sunday.
Ewers’ groin will heal on its own schedule, but the evaluation clock in South Florida does not stop — and for the second-year quarterback, the frustrating part is that the biggest fight of his summer is once again happening off the field.
