One of the biggest reliefs of the Miami Dolphins' decision to put a costly end to the Tua Tagovailoa era is that Miami will no longer employ the league's most fragile quarterback. Upon entering the league, Tagovailoa already displayed diminished mobility from his college days — likely due to the dislocated hip and fractured hip joint he fell victim to in his final game at the University of Alabama.
Tagovailoa suffered through a litany of injuries in his Dolphins career. The takeaway for the Dolphins coaching staff was obvious: Tagovailoa cannot get hit. Naturally, that affects playcalling, whether through discouraging longer-developing plays or eliminating any designed QB runs from the playbook altogether. It's also a boon for the defense, which gets to pin its ears back and attack the sitting-duck signal-caller, knowing he's not a threat with his legs.
While the hype died down for the play in 2025, the "tush push" has been a sore subject for Dolphins fans. Not only was the 2023 squad that brought so much hope to the city routinely victimized by the Eagles' trademark play that season, but they also never had a chance to run it themselves.
Perhaps, until now. Meeting with the media following the latest Dolphins OTA, head coach Jeff Hafley spoke of the difficulties of the play before speculating it may be on the menu for Miami in 2026.
"[The "tush push"] is hard to stop. So get good at it, and do it ... As long as it's a legal play, we need to figure out on defense a way to stop it. And with a quarterback like we have with Malik [Willis] — and some big guys up front — maybe we can get good at it."
The Miami Dolphins finally have a mobile quarterback, and the "tush push" may be coming next
While Malik Willis and Tagovailoa have identical listed heights and weights at 6'1" and 225 pounds, their athleticism and durability could not be more distinct. Through the much-talked-about tiny sample size of 22 career appearances (and only six starts), Willis has gained 405 yards on the ground at a 5.5 yards-per-carry average. Tagovailoa, on the other hand, has rushed for 473 yards at a paltry 2.7 average — in 78 appearances with 76 starts.
There's just no comparison. In a league that has shifted over the years to an improvising quarterback standard, needing athletic ability to keep the play alive, Tagovailoa finds himself among the Matthew Stafford–Aaron Rodgers–Kirk Cousins tier — otherwise known as the league's elder statesmen. Dolphins fans have been starving for a modern-day offense in Miami, and they're about to get it.
As it relates specifically to the "tush push," the play itself may be phasing out. The Eagles converted it at a much more conservative rate in 2025, and naturally, the assault on the play subsided. Two things can be true at once: the Eagles mastered this maneuver, and it's not a football play. If the league intends to keep it legal, however, it would behoove the Dolphins to have it in their arsenal.
Dolphins fans should know this by now, though. Just as the league banned the so-called "cheat motion" after Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill, and Jaylen Waddle used it to break records in 2023, the "tush push" would go the way of the dinosaur the minute it benefited Miami.
Call it the curse of the Marino, the South Beach snub, or the anti-aqua agenda, the result is the same. The National Football League has never done a thing to help the Miami Dolphins. That's perfectly alright. It'll be that much sweeter when they get things figured out.
Here's to hoping that, "tush push" or not, the Dolphins are building something real this time.
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