With Chad Pennington’s season likely done and Chad Henne on crutches, the Dolphins turn to five-year vet Tyler Thigpen as their starter for Week 11 against the Bears. Thigpen made some noise in his second season when he appeared in 14 games for the Chiefs after both Damon Huard and Brodie Croyle went down with injuries. Over his final 10 starts, Thigpen averaged 222 passing yards, 1.6 TDs and 0.8 INTs. He completed 192-of-330 passes (58.2%) and averaged 32.5 rushing yards during that stretch. That all combines to yield an 84.7 QB rating, which would put him at #21 this season (between Kevin Kolb and Carson Palmer).

I asked our NFL guru, Anthony Stalter, to give me his impression of Thigpen and here’s what he had to say:

His decision-making his questionable but he’s mobile and if the Dolphins get him moving outside of the pocket he can be effective. He has a hard time making reads under pressure though, so Miami would be better served limiting the plays he runs.

On Sunday, he came in as the Dolphins’ third QB and completed 4-of-6 passes for 64 yards and a TD. Miami ran a number of plays out of the Wildcat formation to limit Thigpen’s snaps.

Fantasy-wise, I’d rather sit on a pile of broken glass than start Thigpen against a stout Chicago pass defense, but going forward, he may not be a bad QB2 or member of a QB committee. He averaged 19.9 fantasy points during that 10-game stretch with the Chiefs, but the Dolphins probably won’t be playing from behind as much as the Chiefs were that season. After next week’s game against the Bears, the schedule lightens up considerably, including a nice pair of matchups (BUF & DET, at home) during Weeks 15 & 16. If Thigpen is still the Miami starter at that point, he could be a sneaky good start.