
Dolphins rave about pick No. 231, QB Quinn Ewers
Rookie Quinn Ewers, the 231st overall pick in the 2025 draft and a three-year starter at Texas, is putting on a show of his own in a competition with former top-5 pick Zach Wilson.
"Quinn Ewers is doing great," Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel said. "He has a personality that players gravitate to."
The competition is likely to play out in preseason games in August. Tagovailoa said he's not above playing in the exhibitions, but given his injury history, the Dolphins have little to gain exposing him to meaningless hits before September.
Placing Ewers and Wilson, who was drafted by the Jets and spent last season with the Denver Broncos, in game-like situations will probably take precedent for Miami. Because Tagovailoa missed six games last season and the Dolphins were entirely dormant offensively without him, there's added focus on finding a productive passer behind him. In five NFL seasons, Tagovailoa has played in 64 total games.
"I think Quinn Ewers has been balling," Tagovailoa said.
In one red-zone drill on Monday, Tagovailoa was one of the most vocal cheerleaders as Ewers threw three touchdown passes and set social media ablaze with his accuracy.
"I think, realistically, Quinn's development is all him," McDaniel said. "But it's as much as coaching and from the quarterback coaches and Zach and Tua as well. They're creating a good environment that he has to keep up with because the other two are rolling."
Ewers threw for 9,128 yards and 68 touchdowns at Texas.
--Field Level Media

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
29 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Trump's bizarre comment to Chiefs' Harrison Butker goes viral
Donald Trump left Harrison Butker red-faced on Thursday after telling the Kansas City Chiefs star he's a 'good-looking sucker' during a speech at the White House. Butker was one of several professional athletes invited to the White House by Trump for an executive order signing that will reestablish the Presidential Fitness Test - an initiative to promote young Americans staying active and healthy. As well as the Chiefs kicker, golfer Bryson DeChambeau, WWE icon Triple H and former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor were also in attendance for the signing. Every athlete was given the chance to speak at the White House after being introduced by Trump, and Butker (pictured) received some awkward praise from the president on the day. As well as calling him 'the best in the business' when it comes to kicking, Trump turned around and told Butker in a bizarre moment: 'You're a handsome guy, by the way. It's usually not my thing, but he is a good looking sucker'. The embarrassed NFL player couldn't help but laugh along with the rest of the room in a moment which quickly went viral online. Butker, who has claimed three Super Bowl rings during his eight-year career with the Chiefs, sparked controversy last year when he referred to women as 'homemakers' in a contentious speech at Benedictine College. The Georgia-born kicker also hit out at the LGBTQ+ community and Joe Biden's pro-abortion stance when addressing students at the college, which divided opinion across America. Trump gushing over Butker's looks was not the only part of his speech which garnered attention on Thursday, nevertheless. The 79-year-old found himself tongue-tied at one point as he attempted to pronounce Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa's last name, which is pronounced 'Tun-go-val-oa.' He sounded out the last name of the signal caller, who is of Samoan descent, before butchering it anyway and pronouncing it 'Ta-go-valiah.' 'Tua... Tag-o-valiah, the quarterback who has really been fantastic,' Trump said. 'When he's not injured, he's great. He's got to stay healthy. But he's a great guy.' Trump signed executive orders as Butker and his fellow athletes watched on before lating passed out souvenir pens. First established by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966, the Presidential Fitness Test created a program to reward excellence in physical education. Participants would typically run, do sit-ups, pull-ups and push-ups to compete. Other activities in the test included running, jumping, a 50-yard dash, and a softball throw.


Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Louis Rees-Zammit joins a Team GB sprinter and former rugby stars who tried and FAILED to break into the NFL … and why their struggles should be a warning to Harry Kane
After 18 months, Welsh rugby star Louis Rees-Zammit has called time on his budding career in the NFL. In early 2024, Rees-Zammit rocked the sporting world by announcing that he would make the switch to the bright lights of American football as part of the NFL's International Player Pathway. In his statement announcing the decision, Louis Rees-Zammit stressed that he was being given the chance to take up 'a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pursue a new challenge'. However, from the moment he embarked on the seismic undertaking Rees-Zammit was attempting to defy some pretty significant odds. An intrinsically American sporting pastime developed through years at school and college, foreigners have rarely been able to excel at the highest levels on the gridiron. Was Rees-Zammit able to buck the trend in a sport where so many other Britons struggled? Read on as Mail Sport takes a look back at some to see how he and his contemporaries have fared. Louis Rees-Zammit A Six Nations winner with more than 30 international caps under his belt, Rees-Zammit was a wanted man. After deciding to leave Gloucester in January of last year the 24-year-old had lucrative offers to continue his rugby career in France. But the bright lights of the NFL were just too alluring. After announcing his intention to go through the International Player Pathway Program, Rees-Zammit signed a contract with the Kansas City Chiefs to play as a running back. However, despite his blistering speed putting him among the fastest players ever to lace up a pair of cleats Rees-Zammit would find that his inexperience would put him at a significant disadvantage. After being cut by the Chiefs in August, Rees-Zammit joined the Jacksonville Jaguars and served as part of the franchise's practice squad. Ultimately though a call up to the Jaguars' active 53-roster continued to elude him, despite IPP rules allowing for it on two separate occasions. Injury subsequently further diminished Rees-Zammit's chances of making it onto the field at the highest level and he departed the franchise this week without ever playing in a regular-season game. Announcing his intention to move back to his original code, Rees-Zammit called his foray into American football a 'great experience'. 'I've decided to leave the NFL and return to rugby,' he wrote on social media. 'It's been a great experience, but it's time to come home. I've decided that this is the best time to make this decision to give myself time to get everything in place for next season. 'There's only one thing that's on my mind, that's coming back to rugby and doing what I do best. Dwain Chambers Whilst the lion's share of those who have taken the decision to restart their sporting careers on the gridiron are, like Rees-Zammit, rugby union players, Chambers was an outlier - a highly successful, yet controversial, sprinter. Early career success in the mid-to-late 1990s saw Chambers pick up gold medal after gold medal in the juniors, but a promising career was brought to a dramatic halt in 2003 when the then-25-year-old tested positive for banned substances. Handed a back-dated two-year ban from athletics in 2004, Chambers was also banned from the Olympics for life and stripped of his medals since 2002. It was during this break in his career that he first flirted with the sport, via an abortive try-out for the San Francisco 49ers, but it was only in 2005 that Chambers committed to the sport full-time. While he never featured on American soil, Chambers took part in a string of NFL Europa training camps after playing for a spell in the British league with Farnham Knights. In 2007, he earned a contract with German NFL Europa side Hamburg Sea Devils. But his attempt to start anew was star-crossed - after being sidelined midway through the season with a stress fracture, the league itself was shuttered in June of that year, putting a premature end to the player's budding career. Chambers later returned to athletics, and an end to his Olympic ban saw him compete at the London 2012 Olympics, where he reached the semi-finals. But the athlete had a particular warning for those wanting to make the switch from alternative sports to American football in 2013. 'Unless you have been playing the sport from an early age you are at a disadvantage,' Chambers noted, before comparing learning the NFL system to 'learning the game of chess from scratch'. 'The worst part,' Chambers added. 'The worst part for me was knowing that when I caught the ball there was a 300lb player whose job it was to hurt me.' Christian Wade Wade's career began as Rees-Zammit's has, with considerable achievements in English rugby. Six years after his last touch in the Premiership, the player still sits fifth in the division's leading try-scorers standings, after scoring a titanic 82 tries for Wasps. But in 2018, the pull of American football was too strong, and the wing travelled to the US to take part in the 2019 cohort of the International Player Pathway. But despite being allocated to the Buffalo Bills via the pathway, Wade failed to play a minute during the regular season, featuring only during a pre-season tie in August 2019. Later signed to the practice squad, Wade had to sign a reserve/future contract at the end of the season in 2020 to yet again only manage a spot on the practice squad. After three years of treading water, Wade was released by the Bills, calling time on his foray into the sport. But Wade wasted no time on the sidelines, instead restarting his rugby career at Racing 92, before opting for another career switch in 2025 to join rugby league side Wigan Warriors. In a 2022 interview with Mail Sport, Wade discussed what he believes to be the fundamental difference between rugby and American football, and shared what one sport could learn from the other. 'In rugby, it's always, "You have to wear this. You have to do that". You almost feel like you're at school,' Wade told former Wasps team-mate Danny Cipriani. 'In NFL, you can wear what you want and be how you want to be, as long as you're respectful. 'It's more natural. The coaches would say, "Let it flow. Be yourself". It's great. 'For me, if you're allowed to really be yourself, it translates into how you play. Lawrence Okoye Okoye may have started off as a junior rugby player who caught the eye at the academies of London Irish and Wasps, but it wasn't long before the athletics star discovered the sport that would take him to the 2012 Olympics - discus. Deferring the opportunity to study law at the University of Oxford, Okoye threw himself into preparations for the home games, only to finish a disappointing 12th in the finals. The result is believed to have contributed to Okoye's disenchantment with the sport, and his subsequent defection to the NFL in a bid to make it into the sport as a defensive tacklers. In the 2013 Draft, the then-22-year-old was signed by the San Francisco 49ers, but after picking up an injury in pre-season, was immediately placed on the team's injury reserve list. A year later, Okoye would only make the practice squad, thus beginning an ignominious cycle as he bounced from the Bay Area side, to the Arizona Cardinals, to the New York Jets, Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bears, and the Miami Dolphins. Okoye spent four years trying to break into the sport without seeing competitive action, later jumping the border to try his hand with the Montreal Alouettes, before ending up in the Alliance of American Football with Birmingham Iron in January 2019 - three months before the league folded. Like Chambers before him, Okoye's gridiron dreams were shelved and the athlete made an immediate step back into his initial discipline. The move was fruitful: in 2022, Okoye became the first British athlete to medal in discus at a European championships. Alex Gray The former London Irish back-rower was one of the first Britons to get the nod as part of the International Player Pathway, and the first rugby player. Previously, Gray had found himself restless with the sport, and switched to Sevens, but in need of a greater challenge, the player crossed the pond with the desire for a wholly different experience. The reality check came when Gray was confronted with the immense task of getting up to speed with the intricacies of the game. 'The biggest thing was the mental side of it,' Gray said of his transition in 2017. 'Physically it was very tough, just the amount of workload I had to go through to get up to scratch, but mentally… The latest phase of his career sees Gray compete as Apollo in the revamped Gladiators series 'I'd spent all my life being really good at one thing: rugby. Then, as soon as I arrived in Florida, all that was stripped away. It was a very humbling experience, but quite refreshing as well, because it meant I wasn't being held back by anything I'd done in the past.' Gray joined the practice squad for the Atlanta Falcons, but like others who had attempted to make the leap from sport to sport, struggled to get into the main roster. After two years, the former Newcastle Falcons academy starlet was waived from the injury reserve list, and back in England looking to restart his rugby career at Bath. But the spell was a brief one, with Gray making just six appearances between 2020 and 2021. But Gray remains committed to hunting out new experiences - the ex-athlete now features as 'Apollo' on revamped 90s classic Gladiators. Christian Scotland-Williamson Like Gray, Scotland-Williamson was a rugby union player looking to blaze a trail as a tight end in the NFL - but that's where the similarities come to an abrupt halt. The former Worcester Warriors star was content with pushing for a spot in the England squad and developing his game in his home country when a 2017 video of a brutal tackle on Wasps' Alex Reider went viral, catching the eye of a number of NFL scouts. The player was frustrated by injuries during his stint with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL In an interview in 2022 with talkSPORT, Scotland-Williamson said that the reason why he had been swayed was because he saw American football and the US as a 'meritocracy' where he would be more valued. A stint in the International Player Pathway followed, and Scotland-Williamson joined up the Pittsburgh Steelers, but despite building a strong relationship with head coach Mike Tomlin, injury meant that he never made the active roster. Scotland-Williamson returned to England and attempted to rejoin Harlequins, but failed to make an appearance. Instead, he switched professions yet again, and now works as a barrister. Harry Kane? Despite his masterful technical skills on the football pitch, England captain Harry Kane lacks many of the raw physical attributes of his contemporaries on this list. However, that hasn't stopped the Bayern Munich star detailing his own ambitions of playing in the NFL in the past. Well-aware of where his talents lay, the NFL superfan has previously claimed that he wants to be a kicker in the league after hanging up his boots. 'It's something I want to definitely explore,' Kane said in 2023. 'I know it will be a lot of hard work. I'm not expecting to just walk up and start kicking field goals. It would be a lot of practice, a lot of hard work. But yeah, it's something I'd love to do. 'The NFL is something I have been following for about 10 years now, and I love it, so I would love to give it a go.' NFL superfan Harry Kane has previously announced his intention to attempt a career in gridiron football after hanging up his boots The Bayern Munich star would attempt to translate his ball-striking ability into being a kicker While the thought of Kane taking to the field donning a set of shoulder pads and a helmet may seem far-fetched, he could be well served in take inspiration from another former Tottenham striker. After forging a reputation as a prolific marksman for several London clubs, Clive Allen took the plunge after his football career ended and played as a kicker for the short-lived London Monarchs in NFL Europe. 'I know Harry well. He's a natural sportsman - a good golfer - and I wouldn't be surprised [if he moved to NFL]," Allen said of Kane in 2016. 'He would be one who could master the technique - there's no doubt about that. And I know he would have the mentality to cope with it as well.


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Sunderland's Keel Crossing one-day opening for Rugby World Cup
An unfinished footbridge will temporarily open for the first day of the Women's Rugby World Cup before shutting again for final cosmetic Keel Crossing will welcome pedestrians on 22 August, including fans travelling to the Stadium of Light for the tournament's opening match between England and the more than 40,000 people expected in the city for the game, council leader Michael Mordey said: "It will be incredible seeing a sea of England and USA shirts and scarves walking across the bridge."Keel Crossing will close at the end of the day so the final phase of works can be completed before it is officially opened for permanent use. The £31m structure links Keel Square in the city centre with Sheepfolds and the Stadium of is one of several high-profile developments currently under construction as part of the Riverside Sunderland scheme, including Culture House and the new eye said: "I think this crossing has come to represent the sense of renewed positivity and optimism that is growing in Sunderland right now." Follow BBC Sunderland on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.