{"id":247448,"date":"2026-04-26T17:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/247448\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T17:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:28:09","slug":"dolphins-add-qb-mark-gronowski-as-undrafted-free-agent-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/247448\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins Add QB Mark Gronowski as Undrafted Free Agent: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2258574220.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Mark Gronowski\"   decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>NFL Network&#8217;s Tom Pelissero reported the Miami Dolphins signed former South Dakota State and Iowa QB Mark Gronowski as an undrafted free agent.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/miami-dolphins\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Miami Dolphins<\/a> signed <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/nfl\/player\/malik-willis\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Malik Willis<\/a> to be their starting quarterback this season. After the conclusion of the 2026 <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/\" title=\"NFL\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"239212\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NFL<\/a> Draft, the Dolphins added a potential backup for Willis \u2014 Mark Gronowski.<\/p>\n<p>NFL Network\u2019s Tom Pelissero reported Saturday night the Dolphins signed Gronowski as an undrafted free agent.<\/p>\n<p>Former South Dakota State and Iowa QB Mark Gronowski \u2014 the winningest quarterback in college football history \u2014 is signing with the Dolphins, source said. <\/p>\n<p>As Pelissero noted, Gronowski is the winningest college football quarterback in history.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mark_Gronowski\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Gronowski captured<\/a> 49 of his 58 victories in college at the FCS level. The quarterback led South Dakota State to a 49-6 mark from 2020-24. He won 49 games despite missing all of the 2021 campaign with a torn ACL.<\/p>\n<p>With Gronowski behind center, South Dakota State won back-to-back FCS championships in 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n<p>During 2025, Gronowski led Iowa to a 9-4 record. He threw 10 touchdowns versus seven interceptions while also rushing for 16 scores.<\/p>\n<p>Dolphins Sign QB Mark Gronowski in Undrafted Free Agency: Report<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.miamidolphins.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Miami added<\/a> 13 prospects in the 2026 NFL Draft. None of them, though, were a quarterback.<\/p>\n<p>The Dolphins entered the draft with three signal-callers already on their roster. But NFL teams typically carry a fourth quarterback during the offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Gronowski will fill the QB4 role initially for Miami. He could, though, ultimately compete with <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/nfl\/player\/cam-miller\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cam Miller<\/a> for the team\u2019s QB3 spot.<\/p>\n<p>Gronowski\u2019s several years of college experience could give him an edge in any quarterback competition. Clearly, he won a lot in college too.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/iowa\/football\/mark-gronowski-nfl-draft-projection-iowa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">The quarterback earned<\/a> the starting job at South Dakota State as a freshman despite being a 0-star recruit. He became an immediate star, earning freshman of the year honors in his conference.<\/p>\n<p>After recovering from his knee injury in 2021, Gronowski returned to star for South Dakota State again. During his second year as a starter, he led the program to its first of back-to-back championships.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to 49 wins, Gronowski completed his South Dakota State career with 10,308 \u00a0passing yards and 93 touchdowns. He also had 1,767 rushing yards with an additional 37 scores on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>At Iowa, Gronowski passed for 1,741 yards in 13 games. He also rushed for 545 yards.<\/p>\n<p>At the FBS level, Gronowski wasn\u2019t as much of a passing threat. It\u2019s possible, though, Iowa\u2019s offense played a role in his depleted passing number.<\/p>\n<p>Gronowski averaged 8.7 yards per attempt at South Dakota State versus 6.6 yards per pass at Iowa.<\/p>\n<p>Dolphins QB Depth After 2026 NFL Draft<\/p>\n<p>Analysts often say prospects would prefer to be undrafted free agents than late-round draft picks. That was probably the case for Gronowski.<\/p>\n<p>The quarterback appears to have landed in the perfect spot for him to earn a roster spot.<\/p>\n<p>Behind Willis, the Dolphins have two other inexperienced, young quarterbacks \u2014 Miller and <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/nfl\/player\/quinn-ewers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Quinn Ewers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/E\/EwerQu00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">The Dolphins drafted<\/a> Ewers in the seventh round last year. Miller landed in Miami when the Dolphins claimed him off waivers in January.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/MillCa00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">The Las Vegas Raiders selected<\/a> Miller in the sixth round last spring.<\/p>\n<p>Ewers started three games for the Dolphins at the end of last season. He completed 66.3% of his passes for 622 yards. Ewers averaged 7.5 yards per pass with three touchdowns and three interceptions.<\/p>\n<p>Because of that brief experience, Ewers probably has the inside track to be the team\u2019s backup to Willis.<\/p>\n<p>But Miller has never played in the NFL regular season. If Gronowski could outplay Miller in offseason workouts, the two could engage in a training camp battle for QB3.<\/p>\n<p>Typically, only three quarterbacks make a team\u2019s roster after the preseason.<\/p>\n<p>Whichever signal-caller isn\u2019t kept, though, the Dolphins could try to bring back on their practice squad.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/dmholcomb\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dave Holcomb<\/a> is a sports reporter covering the NFL and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Pittsburgh Steelers and a variety of other NFL teams. Originally from Pittsburgh, Holcomb has covered college and professional sports for outlets including FanSided, Rotowire and Yardbarker.  <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/dmholcomb\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More about Dave Holcomb<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty NFL Network&#8217;s Tom Pelissero reported the Miami Dolphins signed former South Dakota State and Iowa QB Mark&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-247448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}