Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores defends decision to stay with Tua Tagovailoa as QB

DAVIE, Fla. Despite Ryan Fitzpatrick’s miracle that the Miami Dolphins scored 26-25 on Saturday night over the Las Vegas Raiders victory, coach Brian Flores once again made it clear on Sunday that Tua Tagovailoa remains his starting quarterback.

Flores expressed dissatisfaction with those outside the team building who believe the start of the veteran gives the Dolphins the best chance of winning.

“Tua has brought us a spark in a lot of other games. I think people will just forget it because we only remember the last thing,” Flores said. ‘Guess what people want to speculate about what we should do or not based on last night, I will not do it and forget the work during the season to include the last games. Tua begin [eight]. I think he played pretty well.

“People may not agree, but I think in that case we will have to agree not to agree. That’s my opinion. It’s not based on one game or a quarter – there are many practices. “What people do not see, walk – what no one sees. But everyone wants to make a judgment and try to make a decision for us on what we should do without all the information.”

Flores’ defense of Tagovailoa comes one day after capturing the rookie full-back in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s return. He compared the role of Fitzpatrick as a ninth innings reliever to close out a game, and he did not rule out calling his number again if the Dolphins are in a similar scenario. Similarly, Flores did not hesitate to nominate Tagovailoa the frontrunner next Sunday against Buffalo Bills in a very important “win and you are in” game for the playoff-hopeful Dolphins.

It’s rare for a modern NFL team to have a two-quarterback system, but the 10-5 Dolphins seem comfortable with a version of it as they try to make it to the playoffs for the first time since 2016. This is the second time Flores is making it. in the fourth quarter of a close game (week 11 in Denver), he sat down to Tagovailoa in the fourth quarter.

Tagovailoa was very effective with a better touch-to-intercept ratio (10 to 2 compared to 13 to 8 for Fitzpatrick) of the two quarterbacks, but Fitzpatrick had more field games (7.8 yards per attempt and 232.3 passes) ) meters per game compared to Tagovailoa (6.3 yards / attempt and 161.4 passing yards per game) because of his willingness to take chances on 50-50 balls.

Asked about his QB situation after a big win, Flores made it clear that winning is the only thing that matters to him, no matter what people want to call their unusual rotation.

“I do not want to put any labels on it. The label is that we are going to do what we have to do to win. I owe it to the fans of the Dolphins, to the players in that locker room, to the people in the organization, it is what we’re always going to do, “Flores said.” So, two-person, three-person QB, five-person QB, whatever we have to do to win, that’s what we’re going to do to win.

After the game, Fitzpatrick and Tagovailoa both said they believed in Flores to make the best decision for the team, while strongly supporting the others if they did not play. There were no hints about Dolphins locker room during the QB switches this season, showing that Flores has a good pulse from his team, and he has made it clear that he believes in Tagovailoa now and in the future.

“Tua played well. He improved a lot over the course of the season. He developed,” Flores said. “I do not make judgments and decisions based on one case. There is a lot going on in the decisions we make – talks and not just one game or a quarter. Tua has done a lot of good things for this team. He knows it. The team knows that. ‘

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