Dolphins head coach Brian Flores still hasn’t officially named his starting quarterback, but all signs are pointing to a Week 1 display of FitzMagic in Miami. As Adam H. Beasley of the Miami Herald writes, the team’s starting offense is not playing in tonight’s preseason finale, but Josh Rosen might.

Although Rosen will not start against the Saints tonight — that honor belongs to Jake Rudock — he is dressed and will go in if Rudock gets injured. It therefore seems clear that the 36-year-old Ryan Fitzpatrick will get the nod to open the season. Cameron Wolfe of ESPN.com (Twitter link) hears that will indeed be the case.

It’s fair to wonder if it’s wise for a rebuilding team like Miami to turn to an aging journeyman under center rather than evaluating what it has in Rosen, who was the No. 10 overall pick in last year’s draft. But while Rosen was said to be closing the gap on Fitzpatrick earlier this month, it seems the bearded veteran has managed to hold off his younger competition.

Neither player has lit the world on fire in preseason contests. Rosen has completed 28 of 45 passes for 352 yards and has thrown one interception, while Fitzpatrick has completed 17 of 32 passes for 166 yards and one touchdown.

Less than a week ago, we learned that Ryan Fitzpatrick was decisively winning the Dolphins’ starting quarterback competition. Now, though, the race has tightened considerably, and Adam H. Beasley of the Miami Herald says that Josh Rosen may find himself at the top of the depth chart when the team returns to practice Monday.

Beasley notes that Rosen has shown improvement over the past week, while Fitzpatrick has stumbled a bit. On Saturday, Fitzpatrick threw two interceptions and nearly threw a third, and after the second pick, head coach Brian Flores sent in Rosen to work with the first-team offense, which has not happened often. Rosen responded by engineering a touchdown drive that included several excellent throws.

Flores, who was the one who declared Fitzpatrick the frontrunner on Tuesday, walked back his comments a bit on Saturday. He said, “I know I said [Fitzpatrick] was leading the way the other day, but let’s be clear there’s still a lot competition and a lot of time left. Today is a big day to showcase the improvement guys have made.”

When asked specifically about Rosen, Flores added, “[h]e’s made some improvement really across the board. It’s things a lot of people don’t see. Better footwork, better mechanics in the pocket, better decision-making.”

The Dolphins would probably like to see Rosen take the reins, as he was a first-round draft choice last year and has a legitimate chance of becoming the team’s QB of the future. Fitzpatrick, on the other hand, is in the twilight of his career and is almost certainly not going to be a part of the next competitive Miami team.

So as we head into the first week of preseason games, the race is suddenly too close to call.

The Dolphins are one of only a couple of teams that will be having open quarterback competitions in training camp. They signed Ryan Fitzpatrick to a two-year, $11MM deal this offseason, but then traded a second-round pick for Josh Rosen in April. 

Many have accused the Dolphins of tanking, and they’re definitely playing for the future, so it’s been assumed the team will want to get a look at Rosen sooner or later. Not so fast. Fitzpatrick has apparently been impressing during OTAs and minicamp, per Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. Additionally, Jackson writes that Rosen is a “clear underdog to begin the season as the starter.”

One Dolphins player told Jackson that Fitzpatrick has “impressed everyone as a leader and that he was clearly the best quarterback in the offseason program.” Rosen started 13 games for the Cardinals as a rookie last year, and struggled mightily. He completed only 55 percent of his passes, and had more interceptions (14) than touchdowns (11). That being said the circumstances were far from ideal, as we was playing for an offensive coordinator who was fired just a handful of weeks into the season, and with one of the league’s worst offensive lines.

Fitzpatrick started the first few games of the 2018 season for the Buccaneers due to Jameis Winston‘s suspension, and played so well that he initially kept the job when Winston returned. He was subsequently benched, reinserted, and benched again before the end of the year. Fitzpatrick has always been more than capable of playing lights out in flashes, but has struggled for consistency.

New Dolphins coach Brian Flores has insisted that the team isn’t going to tank, so maybe he will go with Fitzpatrick each week if he thinks it gives him the best chance to win. Miami only gave up a late second-rounder for Rosen, so it’s not as if they’re too heavily invested in the UCLA product.

That being said, with Fitzpatrick’s relatively modest contract they aren’t too invested in him either. Miami will likely be picking early in next year’s draft and they’ll need to get a look at Rosen to see whether or not they need to draft a quarterback. Fitzpatrick will likely falter at some point and relinquish his grip on the starting job, but it doesn’t sound like it’ll be right away.