Tua Tagovailoa has started just one NFL game in his rookie season for the Miami Dolphins. So it certainly came as a surprise to hear Adam Schefter report that the Dolphins are using these 10 games to evaluate Tua to see whether or not to use one of their early first-round picks on another quarterback. While the report seemed troubling, Brian Flores came out and put an end to the rumor at yesterday’s press conference.
Flores said this about the rumors, “Now that you mention the quarterback, there were a couple of things out there, let’s call it a source close to Dolphins thinking. They’ve been saying that we are auditioning Tua (Tagovailoa) and I’m just going to tell you about my thinking. We brought Tua here because we believe in him. The same as all of the other draft picks. We believe in developing players. I think you guys have heard me talk about improving players on a daily basis. That would be the opposite of giving somebody a 10-game audition. I guess that’s my thinking on that, just so everybody’s clear. What was the rest of your question? You just kind of piqued something that had been on my mind.”
Mike Florio from Pro Football Talk joined The Joe Rose Show for his Friday trip around the league's top headlines and Florio had this to say about the Tua rumors, “I respect and admire Coach Flores and I wouldn’t expect him to say anything different than that but I vividly recall last year when Josh Rosen was installed as the starter for the rest of the season by Flores, it wasn’t long before Fitz was starting again. The reality is this, many around the league believe that Stephen Ross was the driving force to take Tua with the number five pick…when you see Burrow obviously great right out of the gate, and you see Herbert…if you are a Dolphin fan you want to see great out of the gate and the other reality is this, when you’re holding the Texans first-round pick and they are in the top five I think you’re foolish to enter the draft process and evaluating all the quarterbacks and asking yourself if there’s someone better than Tua and the only way to know is to see what Tua can do.”
Tua will have another opportunity to see what he can do on Sunday when the Dolphins head to Arizona to take on the Cardinals.
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You can listen to the full show podcast by clicking here! Today we were joined by Larry Blustein, Don Bailey Jr., Brandon Lang, and Mike Florio.