Opinion: Miami Dolphins Tua Tagovailoa and Ryan Fitzpatrick situation

After listening to Ryan Fitzpatrick’s Zoom call, there were some things that rubbed me the wrong way.

“I was shocked by it..caught me off guard” (Ryan Fitzpatrick’s reaction to hearing the news that Tua was named the starter.)

If Fitzpatrick was truly shocked by the news then that is almost definitely on the Dolphins coaches.  Firstly, head coach Brian Flores can’t let his team find out about the change from Adam Schefter.  He has to find a way to get his team together before the news breaks.

More importantly, it makes me wonder if the coaches did really have a plan for Tua.  Did they really decide to start Tua based on two completions in ‘garbage time’ at the end of the Jets game or was it because of the bye?  If it’s the former, that doesn’t speak well for the coaches evaluation method.  If the latter, then the coach needed to have that talk with Fitzpatrick either before the Jets game or, at least, immediately after the game.

“This is the first place, other than Buffalo….felt like it was my team.”  (Fitzpatrick on why it surprised/hurt him so much to be benched.)

When you first signed, you knew it was to be a ‘bridge quarterback’.  You were benched after two games last season for the highly touted Josh Rosen; who went on to start the next three games.  You only got your job back because Rosen looked terrible in those games.  Fast forward four months and the Dolphins spent the 5th overall pick in the draft on your eventual replacement.

When exactly did you develop this false sense that this was “my team”?

If you truly felt this was your team, then the hurt you feel is entirely on you!

“I basically got fired yesterday….Spent my day in Zoom meetings listening to the guy that fired me and locked in a spaced out room with my replacement for four hours.”

I hate to break it to you Fitz but nobody except you thinks you ‘got fired’.  You are still employed by the Dolphins and they continue to pay your salary.  You were ‘demoted’ and were in a meeting with your boss and, later, with the guy you were hired to train to take your job.  There is nothing ‘weird’ about this situation.  It happens to people in the “real world” everyday Ryan.  Don’t try to make yourself out to be some special “pity case”.

That just about covers Ryan Fitzpatrick’s point-of-view.