MIAMI GARDENS — The eyes didn’t deceive. Everything we thought about the competition between incumbent Mike White and Skylar Thompson, for the right to back up Tua Tagovailoa, was just as it seemed.

Thompson was moving the Miami Dolphins’ offense. White wasn’t.

To reach that point, Thompson had to change the way he was moving himself.

“I was being a robot,” he said.

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Thompson had been focusing on every aspect of playing quarterback. The footwork. The timing. Going through progressions. In trying to do every little thing just so, he was losing sight of the bigger picture.

“Sometimes it’s getting stagnant and doing it exactly how the book says to do it,” Thompson said.

Thompson didn’t cast aside lessons from QB coach Darrell Bevell. That stuff, he had down pretty well. The change?

“It was just being more rhythmical,” he said. “ … Play more fluently.”

’It came to life' as things clicked for Skylar Thompson

This explains why the preseason finale last weekend in Tampa looked the way it did. Until that point, neither White nor Thompson had managed a performance that generated confidence should anything happen to Tagovailoa. There was speculation that maybe the Dolphins needed to look outside the organization for the insurance policy that is QB2.

White, who started the game, managed just 37 passing yards.

Thompson came in and went 19 of 27 for 190 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. It wasn’t just Thompson who was in rhythm, but the offense in general. His preseason passer rating, 76.3, was nearly 20 points better than White’s.

“It truly felt like there were times in games in the preseason where I did something and I was like, I could feel myself getting better at something,” Thompson said. “Like, ‘Oh, yeah, that was it.’ It came to life.”

From the outside looking in, the choice was obvious. It also may have seemed that way on the inside, up until the moment coach Mike McDaniel and Bevell told Thompson he was QB2 for the first time in his career.

“I had a feeling that was going to be the case,” Thompson said.

Thompson's first two NFL seasons were opposites

Thompson was drafted in the seventh round in 2022 after a standout career at Kansas State, where he passed for 7,134 yards and 42 touchdowns and rushed for 1,087 yards and 26 TDs. Injuries to Tagovailoa and Teddy Bridgewater forced the Dolphins to start him in two games, plus the wild-card loss in Buffalo, where he became the lowest-drafted rookie in NFL history to start a playoff game.

What would Year 2 bring? Nothing. Not a single snap.

“You look at the past two seasons, they’re a tale of two different fights,” he said. “ … Getting thrown in the fire and seeing it and feeling the speed of everything and what it’s like to play, and then having last year to sit back and digest everything and learn and get practice reps and all that stuff — I thought all of that helped prepare me for this camp and this opportunity here. I was able to play fast and with confidence.”

That’s only part of his job now. Thompson knows it. In the short term at least, it’s on his shoulders to be an extra set of eyes and ears for Tagovailoa. To support him however possible.

“I feel like there is trust there,” Thompson said. “You know, it's finding that fine line of trying not to do too much to where it's overboard but not too little.”

Tagovailoa’s respect for Thompson is obvious.

“We go over the film and to see his growth from his rookie year to this point has been something really, really cool, I think,” Tagovailoa said. “Just learning this offense, keeping his head down — ‘Skylar, you’re going with the twos. Hey, Skylar, you’re going with the threes. Hey Skylar, you’re not getting reps today’ — and just seeing his mindset that he’s had throughout the years and also throughout the practices, I really commend him for sticking it through and being able to do what he has done.”

It culminated with the meeting with Bevell and McDaniel, “a cool moment,” Thompson said.

“They were proud of me and happy for me,” he said.

It was a moment, but only a moment. Then, reality.

“The work is just getting started,” Thompson said.NFL OpenerSunday, Sept. 8Jaguars at Dolphins1 p.m., CBS

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: Skylar Thompson's key to being Miami Dolphins' QB2: Quit being a robot