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Few are sold in Tua Tagovailoa as a defender of the franchise. At least not yet. But the only people who matter believe in Tagovailoa and put their future in their hands.
Tagovailoa will have a chance to prove that the Dolphins are right.
“Tua pays a lot of attention, but I think he has improved a lot over the season. I’m excited about the future with him, ”said Dolphins coach Brian Flores to ESPN’s Cameron Wolfe on Thursday. “He is a young, talented player who has recovered from his hip. I think this is a great off season for him. This jump from Year 1 to Year 2 will be important as it is for all newbies. “
The Dolphins have the third overall choice, a choice they got from Texans, sparking speculation about whether they can choose a quarterback in the first round for the second year in a row. The Cardinals did this by choosing Josh Rosen for 10th overall in 2018 and Kyler Murray for first overall in 2019.
Dolphins general manager Chris Grier tried to calm any potential quarterback controversy by saying, “Yours, we are very happy with. He’s our starting quarterback. “
Flores downplayed the story earlier this week that some of Tagovailoa’s teammates have doubts about the new defender.
“The criticism comes with NFL territory across the board,” Flores told Wolfe. “Our team did a good job of ignoring these things. Anyone who has seen the Dolphins this year has seen that we were a very close group and I think that is still the case. The idea that there is some kind of fracture is exaggerated. I thought there was a lot of support in the entire locker room.
“My message to the team was to ignore the noise and the people inside the building will tell you the truth. Without all the information, how do you determine what’s going on? “
Tagovailoa made it 6-3 as the team’s holder, completing 64.1 percent of his passes for 1,814 yards with 11 touchdowns and five interceptions.
“We learned that he is healthy. He still has a lot of mobility. It is necessary, ”said Flores. “In the Arizona game, he brings us back in the fourth period. He brought us back to the Kansas City game. He also didn’t play as well in other games. He had some bright and not-so-bright spots. This is the life of a beginner. If he continues to learn, study, stay healthy, become stronger, work on his feet and progression of his eyes and continue where he left off, I think we will be happy with his improvement ”.