Dolphins coach
Joe Philbin said at the NFL owners’ meetings in March, before the team had drafted
Ryan Tannehill in the first round, that incumbent quarterback
Matt Moore doesn’t have any sort of advantage over newcomer
David Garrard in the competition for the starting job.
“I told David, my only obligation to Matt Moore is he’s a member of the 2012 Dolphins,” Philbin said at the time. “He’s under contract, he played well last year and he deserves an opportunity to compete for a starting job, just like David does.”
Sure enough, throughout much of the offseason practices from April to June, there has been a lot of buzz – the kind of unsourced buzz that makes its way around talk radio and the interwebs – that Garrard has outplayed Moore. On top of that, agent
Drew Rosenhaus said Sunday night on 7 Sports Xtra that he expects Garrard to open camp on Friday with the First Team offense, ahead of Moore. And Rosenhaus certainly hears what’s going on – he currently represents nine players on the Dolphins, including three wide receivers.
But has Garrard really leapfrogged Moore in the quarterback race just based off of his performance in May and June? Does Moore’s 2011 season with the Dolphins mean nothing? And if Moore and Garrard are about even after four weeks of training camp, does Moore not deserve any benefit of the doubt based on his incumbent status?