MIAMI GARDENS — Mike McDaniel was talking about positivity, because if a guy can talk about it on a Monday morning, you know he’s big on the topic.

“I think it’s beneficial for someone to be showing them a vision of their greatest self,” he said.

Skylar Thompson hasn’t shown his greatest self this summer.

Mike White hasn’t shown his greatest self this summer.

And guess what?

That’s by design.

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Amid a ripple of concern — panic is too strong a word at this point — over Tua Tagovailoa’s backups on the Miami Dolphins having a rough go of it in both preseason games, McDaniel revealed that he is intentionally putting both players behind the eight-ball.

“Quite honestly, the approach that I’ve kind of taken is to create super difficult situations for both of them,” McDaniel said.

Why?

“What are we really trying to evaluate? Who’s best to serve handling a difficult situation,” McDaniel said. “Inherent in being a backup quarterback is that you are in a difficult situation.”

By “difficult situation,” maybe McDaniel meant the hand White was dealt in the Atlanta game. White came out of it having gone 4 for 14 for 26 yards and still feeling good about himself. Why?

“You don’t want guys frantic because the ‘other guy’ is coming in,” White said. “So I thought it was a good op to work on that.”

And all this time, you thought White was in there to work on taking the snap and throwing the ball so Malik Washington or River Cracraft could catch it. No. White was there to make chicken salad out of something other than chicken salad.

“I think just ultimately when you're like, what are you trying to get done in practice?” offensive coordinator Frank Smith said. “Like, what are you trying to get done at this time of year? You want to put guys in challenging situations and put them in stuff, you know, situations where they feel uncomfortable so you can simulate game performance as much as you can."

There is something to be said for the approach. Regardless of who wins the backup job — and the leader in the clubhouse at the moment is Thompson — there is no chance either will sniff the field unless Tagovailoa gets hurt or it’s mop-up time.

If it’s the former, the ability to put out fires would be huge. White, for his part, says he understands the arrangement (not that he has a choice).

"Once you let your mind start wandering to that like, you're kind of screwed," he said. "So I've taken the approach of just whatever my plays are that day, play them out, lead your group. No matter who it is, it could be Tyreek (Hill) and Jaylen (Waddle), it could be the rookies, it could be anybody."

This franchise knows this better than any. Early in the historic 1972 season, Bob Griese broke his leg against the Chargers, forcing them to turn to not the “other guy,” but rather the “Old Man,” as teammates called Earl Morrall.

“When Earl came in the huddle, he asked, ‘What do you think?’ ” fullback Larry Csonka told NFL.com. “I said, ‘Earl, it doesn't matter what I think. It's what you think.’ He smiled at me and said, ‘I think we got them.’ ”

White, too, has relied on his experience to know when a light touch is beneficial, saying the other 10 players in the huddle can sense when a QB is tense and when he's confident. White ended last week's victory over Washington with a kneel-down, but not before pulling a joke on teammates.

"I get in the huddle and I'm like, 'Hey, we got fly to trips right. And I gave them a pass pro in the entire offense line,' " White said. "All young guys, I've never heard them speak up so loudly in my life. They're all like, 'What?' "

A knowing wink of the eye might be the best we’ve seen of White and Thompson this summer. Combined, they have gone 31 of 68 for 298 yards, one touchdown and one interception for a passer rating of 57.1. That won’t win you anything in today’s NFL, even with a Csonka.

McDaniel admitted he has held both QBs’ feet to the fire by surrounding them with players playing out of position or with his play-calling.

“It’s quite literally handling difficult situations and saying, ‘Hey, you have to go do this. I’m going to call this play probably against a non-premier coverage, and let’s see what you can do. You’re going to play a quarter with a receiver playing running back. How do you respond?’ ”

Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at  hhabib@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @gunnerhal. Click here to subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Here's why Miami Dolphins' Mike McDaniel is rough on backup QBs