Dolphins sticking with Tua Tagovailoa is a good thing for next HC
By Brian Miller
Brian Flores didn’t like Tua Tagovailoa and the next Miami Dolphins head coach will have to decide his future, after this season is over.
According to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, who is confirming what others in the media are saying, the Dolphins will move forward with Tua. Chris Grier apparently wants it this way and Ross has no issue with it.
Keeping Tua Tagovailoa for another season is the smartest thing the Dolphins can do right now.
Source with direct knowledge confirms national reports from a short time ago that the Dolphins are planning to move forward with Tua as their starter barring something unforeseen. This is what Grier wants, and Ross is fine with it.
— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) January 15, 2022
Tua will not keep a head coach from joining the Dolphins. In fact, it should be a great situation for any head coach that takes the job. Hear me out.
As fans, some may not like the idea of sticking with Tua next season and will immediately write the year off before it begins. In reality, Miami is going to undergo a lot of changes beyond just the QB. If Tua stays, it is one less position for a new HC to worry about.
The head coach can concentrate on fixing other areas of the team and will have a full year to evaluate Tua on the field and in practice. If Tua isn’t going to fit into the system that the the new head coach wants, he will get the chance to replace him in 2023.
Grier won’t tie himself to Tua beyond this season and given the inept offensive system that Miami was running and the apparent lack of faith from Flores, it would be too soon to give up on Tua.
Some are viewing this as a negative but I don’t. I’m not what is being called a “TuaStan”. I support the Dolphins not a singular player. I wasn’t thrilled with his drafting but he is here now.
I don’t view the draft class this year as a good one for quarterbacks without extremely overreaching. I am not a fan of sending a ton of draft capital to get Deshaun Watson and I don’t see Russell Wilson coming to Miami on any type of FA deal or trade. Aaron Rodgers is going to be expensive and only has a few years left.
All of this plays agains what a new HC will want to do. To build a team, you need draft picks. To build a defense you need money as is the case for the offensive line. The QB is the most important part of the team but you can’t just jump in and want immediate change unless your QB is atrocious. Tua is far from atrocious.
Tua may not be the longterm solution for the Dolphins. He could be extremely far from it but the reality is we simply don’t know. There are games he looks as though he will be great and others not so much. How much of that was or is coaching? He looks a lot different from the attacking QB he was at Alabama where the deep ball was not a problem.
The NFL trend for a new HC is that he gets a say in his QB. In Arizona, Cliff Kingsbury wasted no time drafting Josh Rosen’s replacement but that was unique given the Cardinals draft position and his knowledge of Kyler Murray.
Miami is in a decent position to lure a quality head coach if they play it right and Tua shouldn’t shackle that. Instead, he should provide a reprieve for the first year offering an opportunity to spend resources to fix other areas of the team and evaluating the most important one first hand.