Tread carefully, Dolphins fans! For the past twelve months, Miami Dolphins fans have been fed a single narrative from just about every major news outlet to cover the sport:
The Dolphins are in love with Tua Tagovailoa.
But being in love doesn’t necessarily equate to any guarantees other than an affection that exists for a prospect by a team. And even then, there are times in which the finer details derail the marriage everyone so desperately wants to see. The 2020 Miami Dolphins serves as a perfect example. Because yes, Tagovailoa is a highly talented passer. And he could feasibly be in Miami’s strike zone for this April’s NFL Draft.
But that doesn’t mean this story is going to go how everyone things it will. And what’s more, if it doesn’t, that doesn’t make the Dolphins’ offseason a failure, either.
Would it be shocking? Absolutely. The Dolphins have been tied to Tua going all the way back to last February, when whispers started leaking that the Dolphins had eyes for the talented lefty with the championship pedigree. And then the 2019 season happened. Another high ankle sprain. The dislocated hip. Things got messy — and yet the Dolphins’ pairing with Tagovailoa never seemed to waver.
That could mean the Dolphins are so blinded by Tagovailoa’s talent that none of it matters. What’s more likely? The Dolphins are still weighing their options. If given the guarantee of a healthy Tua, perhaps the Dolphins would be all in. But there is no guarantee of a healthy Tua — not anymore. And while the Dolphins would still absolutely be justified to swing the bat if they felt compelled, Dolphins fans at the very least need to be receptive that a different outcome may come Miami’s way by the time this draft process is all said and done.
It’s still very, very early. There’s a lot of ground to cover — including the 2020 NFL Combine, which opens this week in Indianapolis. Tagovailoa, and the Dolphins, are already there. But there are hundreds of other players in attendance too, Dolphins fans. They’ll do their best to convince Miami that there is another way. And that remains fact: there’s no shortage of ways the Dolphins can make this work and they all don’t have to run through Tagovailoa.
[vertical-gallery id=422254]