Tua Tagovailoa and his Miami Dolphins teammates heard what former safety DeShon Elliott had to say about the team, and they were having none of it.
Elliott went on the Punch Line Podcast, which is hosted by Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey, and took multiple shots at the Dolphins, where he played in 2023.
"Last year, I played for a team that was soft as f--k," said Elliott. "There were some guys that were tough, but for the majority of the team, there was not many mentally tough individuals."
He also said, "Miami will never be a good football team."
Elliott's former Dolphins teammates were paying attention, and they didn't take too kindly to being called soft. Tagovailoa didn't rise to it and gave a classy response.
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"I would say, every man speaks for themselves. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him," said Tagovailoa. "I've been able to have a lot of conversations with him last year, but that's it. Every man has their own voice. They should be able to speak what they feel. If that's how he feels, cool."
Tagovailoa's teammates didn't react so kindly.
Dolphins players fire back at DeShon Elliott after calling them 'soft'
One example comes from cornerback Kader Kohou, who had the perfect response.
"He's not here for a reason, obviously. I don't know why he would go on a podcast and say anything crazy like that," said Kohou, via David Furones of the Sun Sentinel.
Jevon Holland also didn't appreciate Elliott's comments and called out his former teammate.
Jevon Holland on DeShon Elliott: I heard he made the comments. I saw the clip. Honestly, man, if you want to call somebody out go ahead and do that and drop names… If you’re not naming names the rest of it is empty.
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) November 13, 2024
The same goes for cornerback Nik Needham.
Asking for a friend https://t.co/DefSbxhzia
— Nik Needham (@FOETYY) November 13, 2024
The problem for the Dolphins is this isn't the first time these types of things have been said about their practices and work ethic.
Miami is not a very disciplined team. Special teams coach Danny Crossman has said he doesn't try to correct his players at halftime when they are having bad games and doesn't call them out watching film, saying they know what they did wrong.
Needless to say, the Dolphins play undisciplined, and the special teams are consistently bad. If it were just a case of a former player griping about his former team, it would be one thing, but Elliott's comments came out of left field with no reason to say anything. He simply said, "I played for a team that was soft as..." There has been no beef with Miami.
The Dolphins are not going to do anything about the comments, but the players will make theirs back as it reflects on them. That being said, the Dolphins may need to consider how they coach and practice and what their expectations are for the players. There is a lot of smoke with this to be nothing at all.