DAVIE, Fla. Despite Ryan Fitzpatrick’s miracle swell that led the Miami Dolphins to a 26-25 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday night, coach Brian Flores made it clear again on Sunday that Tua Tagovailoa will remain his starting quarterback.
Flores adamantly disagreed with those outside of team building who believe that starting the veteran gives the Dolphins the best chances of winning.
“Tua has given us a spark in a lot of other games. I think people will just forget that because we just remember the last,” said Flores. “ Speculation on what people want to speculate on what we should or shouldn’t do based on last night, I wouldn’t do that and forget about the body of work over the course of the season, including the last one, no matter how many games Tua has started [eight]. I think he played quite well.
“People may disagree, but I think in that case we should agree to disagree. That’s my opinion on that. It’s not based on one game or a quarter – there are a lot of practices that people don’t see. , walkways that no one sees. But everyone wants to pass judgment and try to make a decision for us about what we should do without all that information. ”
Flores’ defense of Tagovailoa comes a day after putting the rookie quarterback on the bench in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s comeback victory. He compared Fitzpatrick’s role as a reliever of the ninth inning who came in to end a game, and he didn’t rule out calling his number again if the Dolphins find themselves in a similar scenario. Likewise, Flores didn’t hesitate to call Tagovailoa the starter against Buffalo Bills next Sunday in a very important “win and you’re in” game for the hopeful playoff Dolphins.
It’s rare for a modern NFL team to have a two-quarterback system, but it looks like the 10-5 Dolphins are comfortable with some version of it as they try the play-offs. It’s the second time that Flores made the move to Tagovailoa in the fourth quarter of a close game (Week 11 in Denver), and both times he went back to Tagovailoa as a starter.
Tagovailoa was very efficient with a better touchdown-to-intercept ratio (10-to-2 compared to 13-to-8 for Fitzpatrick) of the two quarterbacks, but Fitzpatrick has put in more downfield plays (7.8 yards per attempt and 232.3 passing yards per game compared to Tagovailoa (6.3 yards / attempt and 161.4 passing yards per game) due to his willingness to take risks on 50-50 balls.
With questions about his QB situation after a big win, Flores made it clear that winning is all that matters to him, no matter what people like to call their unusual rotation.
“I don’t want to put labels on it. The label is that we are going to do what we have to do to win. I owe that to the fans of the Dolphins, to the players in that dressing room, to the people in the organization, that is what we’ll always do, ”said Flores. “So two people, three people QB, five people QB, whatever we have to do to win, that’s what we’re going to do to win.”
After the game, Fitzpatrick and Tagovailoa both said they believe in Flores to make the best decision for the team, while strongly supporting the other when not playing. There is no evidence of Dolphins locker room issues during this season’s QB switches, showing that Flores is having a good heartbeat from his team, making it clear that he believes in Tagovailoa now and in the future.
“Tua has played well. He has made a lot of progress over the season. He is developing,” said Flores. “I don’t make judgments and decisions based on one body. A lot goes into the decisions we make – conversations and not just one game or a quarter. Tua has done a lot of good things for this team. He knows. team knows that. “