Dave Hyde: Could Dolphins’ Tyler Huntley save his hometown team’s season? He might be best QB hope

Before seeing why Tyler Huntley is an emergency fit for this Miami Dolphins offense, before understanding how his release time on passes is similar to Tua Tagovailoa ’s trademark, go back and see what Dennis Erickson did in the fall of 2014.

The former University of Miami coach was the offensive coordinator at Utah when a South Florida friend tipped him off to this Hallandale High quarterback who was too small at 5 foot 11 to attract many recruiters. Too thin. Everyone said so. But Erickson watched the videotape and booked his recruiting trip to South Florida.

“What jumped out at me were his athletic ability and his accuracy,” Erickson said. “I was glad no one was recruiting him.”

There, in short form, is the story of Huntley’s career.

“He grew two inches after his senior season and all of a sudden all these schools wanted him,” says his Hallandale coach, Dameon Jones, now the Chaminade coach.

There, too, is the appendix to his story the Dolphins would love to repeat. A late bloomer who succeeded. A story no one was sure of coming through again?

The question of the week is whether coach Mike McDaniel starts veteran Tim Boyle or Huntley in a suddenly vital game against the winless Tennessee Titans on Monday night.

The case for Boyle is he’s a 29-year-old reserve of six teams who moved the ball better Sunday in Seattle than Tagovailoa’s replacement, Skylar Thompson . Boyle also threw a catchable touchdown pass that tight end Durham Smythe didn’t catch. He’s been in the system a few weeks, too, so has to be more comfortable than Huntley, who arrived last week.

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Huntley’s case is simple: The 26-year-old had some limited success in NFL starts, going 2-2 in his extended chance with the Baltimore Ravens in 2022 while completing 67 percent of his passes for 658 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. But the real fit is some additional numbers that might reflect why the Dolphins signed him off Baltimore’s practice squad.

His release times were from 2.47 to 2.59 seconds in those 2022 games, according to NextGen Stats — close to Tua’s 2.4 this season. Such quick, accurate throws — see Huntley’s 67-percent on completions — define this system that McDaniel hard-wired to Tagovailoa’s talents. (Thompson wasn’t exactly slow in Seattle — averaging 2.67 seconds on his release).

The other number: Huntley averaged 27.4 yards rushing in his five starts over the past two season. So, if chaos happens, he has enough running ability and speed (draft-timed at 4.54 seconds in the 40 yard dash) to create something.

“Sneaky fast,” Huntley was labeled by Neru N’Shaka, who was Huntley’s receiver for three years at Hallandale and now a Chaminade assistant. “He’s always been athletic that way.”

N’Shaka remembers as an eighth grader how receivers wanted to wear gloves in catching Huntley’s passes.

“Coaches wouldn’t let us, and he threw so hard it stung our hands,” N’Shaka said.

“He was this little, scrawny kid, not even 120 pounds as a freshman, but he could throw,” Jones said. “He always had a big arm on him.”

Huntley did well enough by his senior year to be Florida Gatorade Player of the Year and the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s Small School Player of the Year in Broward (as future Baltimore teammate Lamar Jackson was that season in Palm Beach). Jones ticks off the list of Huntley’s talents by that point in his career: Smart, strong, good leader — and tough?

“We should’ve won the state championship his senior year but he got a high ankle sprain in beating American Heritage,” Jones said. “He played the next game but couldn’t bend over for the ball if it was by his leg. But you weren’t telling him he wasn’t going to play and he still threw for close to 500 yards. We ended up losing, but I’ve never seen something like that in my life.”

Erickson, as the first college believer, landed not just Huntley to Utah but Hallandale and future NFL running back Zack Moss.

“That started the success that Utah’s had to this day,” said Erickson, who coached them for two years. “(Huntley) just had that good feel for the game. I don’t know if you teach that. We’d spread it out, and he was good with anything (we) did. He can avoid the rush pretty well and make plays. He was smart. Guys enjoyed playing with him — a leader.”

Huntley went undrafted in 2020. The Dolphins are his third team as a reserve. One issue in the decision on whether to start him will be how comfortable he is with this system in his second week. Desperate times might decide that. Erickson remembers all his Seattle Seahawks quarterbacks were hurt before the 1996 finale so he brought in former UM quarterback Gino Torretta. They used play calls from their Hurricanes days together and beat the Oakland Raiders.

“I remember (Raiders owner) Al Davis saying, ‘Gino frickin’ Toretta beat us,” Erickson said.

Maybe Tennessee says that Monday night if Huntley or Boyle beats it. The Dolphins wouldn’t care. They need a win any way it comes. Maybe the hometown kid, the late bloomer in so many ways, can bloom again as a NFL starter to help save this season.