DAVIE, Florida – Despite Ryan Fitzpatrick’s miracle that led the Miami Dolphins to a 26-25 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday night, coach Brian Flores once again made it clear on Sunday that Tua Tagovailoa remains his defender holder.
Flores expressed adamant disagreement with those outside the team, who believe that starting the veteran gives the Dolphins the best chances of victory.
“Tua has given us a spark in many other games. I think people will forget that because we just remember the last thing,” said Flores. “Speculation about what people want to speculate about 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 to include the last few games Tua is starting [eight]. I think he played very well.
“People may disagree, but I think we would have to agree to disagree in that case. That’s my opinion about it. It’s not based on a game or a room – there are many practices that people don’t see, walk around – passages that no one sees. But everyone wants to make a judgment call and try to make a decision for us about what we should do without all this information. “
Flores’ defense over Tagovailoa comes a day after he eliminated the rookie defender in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s return win. He compared Fitzpatrick’s role as a ninth-round reliever arriving to close a game, and he did not rule out calling his number again if the Dolphins are in a similar scenario. Likewise, Flores did not hesitate to nominate Tagovailoa as the starter next Sunday against Buffalo Bills in a very important “win and you’re in” game for the hopeful playoff Dolphins.
It is rare for a modern NFL team to have a two quarterback system, but it seems that the 10-5 Dolphins are comfortable with some version of it while trying to make it to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. It is the second time Flores has done the move to the reserve bank Tagovailoa in the fourth period of a game played (Week 11 in Denver), and both times he returned to Tagovailoa as a starter.
Tagovailoa has been very efficient with a better touch ratio for interception (10 to 2 compared to 13 to 8 for Fitzpatrick) from the two defenders, but Fitzpatrick provided more moves on the field (7.8 yards per attempt and 232.3 yards passes per game compared to Tagovailoa (6.3 yards / try and 161.4 passing yards per game) due to his willingness to risk 50-50 balls.
With questions about his situation at QB after a big win, Flores made it clear that winning is the only thing that matters to him, regardless of what people want to call unusual rotation.
“I don’t want to put any label on it. The label is that we are going to do what we have to do to win. I owe it to the Dolphins fans, to the players in that locker room, to the people in the organization, that’s what we will always do,” said Flores. “So, two-person, three-person QB, five-person QB, all we need to do to win, that’s what we will do to win.”
After the game, Fitzpatrick and Tagovailoa said they believed in Flores to make the best decision for the team, while strongly supporting each other when they are not playing. There was no evidence of problems in the Dolphins locker room during the QB changes this season, showing that Flores has a good pulse for his team, and he made it clear that he believes in Tagovailoa now and in the future.
“Tua played well. It has improved a lot over the season. It is developing,” said Flores. “I don’t make judgments and decisions based on an instance. A lot of decisions are made – conversations and not just a game or a room. Yours has done a lot of good things for this team. He knows that. The team knows that.”