Dolphins demotion brings revealing response from Tua Tagovailoa

Quinn Ewers is the new Miami Dolphins starter at quarterback, and it doesn't seem to be sitting well with the previous starter. Tua Tagovailoa had to watch as his replacement took the much-needed first-team reps at practice.

The Dolphins conducted a walkthrough session on Thursday as the team prepares for the Bengals this weekend. Naturally, pictures of Ewers were going to be the focal point for the photographers on the field. They may have caught more than Tagovailoa intended.

Images from Thursday's practice caught Ewers going through the motions while Tagovailoa seemed to give him the evil eye.

Quinn Ewers' Miami Dolphins promotion seems to be bringing out the worst in Tua Tagovailoa

The Dolphins' $54 million quarterback doesn't have too much to worry about. Even if he loses his job to Ewers for good, the money he will make next year, regardless of whether he plays in Miami or not, will be more than anyone else on the roster, including the guy who is replacing him.

To be fair, the cameraman may have just caught Tagovailoa at the wrong time, but there is no denying that his facial expression is not one of the more pleasing he has exhibited.

During and after the Monday night loss to the Steelers, Tagovailoa was captured on video laughing on the sidelines while the clock ticked down to playoff elimination. After the game, another video caught Tagovailoa laughing it up with former Dolphins corner Jalen Ramsey.

Both were bad looks for the Dolphins quarterback. It led some former players, including J.J. Watt, to talk about how it's just a bad look for him, especially considering the team had just been eliminated.

Dolphins fans would never have seen that between Dan Marino and Jim Kelly. It would not have been tolerated by Don Shula or Jimmy Johnson. That's not to say that McDaniel did.

The Dolphins look to the quarterback for leadership and guidance. It's the wrong message to send to the rest of your team, the ones in the locker room who put everything they had on the line to win a game, only to get bounced from contention because the leader of the team didn't do his job.

Tagovailoa's biggest problem has always been self-awareness. Earlier in the year, he pushed his teammates under the bus and then tried to apologize for it. No one is buying it anymore.

The images captured at practice likely tell only a small side of what actually happened, or what Tagovailoa was actually thinking. It's still a bad look for a quarterback who has had too many the last few days.