Pundit waffles on forecast of Dolphins and Tua Tagovailoa

Pundit waffles on forecast of Dolphins and Tua Tagovailoa

We hope you’re hungry, Dolphins fans. Because you’re about to get served a massive stack of waffles to the likes of which is impressive — even for the chef involved, Colin Cowherd of Fox Sports. When you talk sports as much as Cowherd, it is inevitable that you’re going to have some conflicting narratives and some changes in opinion. That’s not necessarily anything new. But when the narrative changes as drastically as the about-face Cowherd has just made on Miami Dolphins rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa — with no new information, mind you — it becomes quite the stunning development.

This story starts back in the winter and spring, in which Tagovailoa was an apple of Cowherd’s eye. His show held a nearly 10-minute segment dedicated to which quarterbacks he’d rather have for the next ten years.

‘Who-A or Tua’ was the name of the segment. And in it, Cowherd declared he’d rather have Tagovailoa, who was undrafted at the time and at this point had not even held a Pro Day or proved the health of his hip, over the following quarterbacks:

  • Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys
  • Daniel Jones, New York Giants
  • Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions
  • Kyler Murray, Arizona Cardinals
  • Sam Darnold, New York Jets
  • Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills
  • Baker Mayfield, Cleveland Browns
  • Derek Carr, Las Vegas Raiders
  • Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals (then undrafted)

“I’ve never seen Tua fail,” said Cowherd.

Now? Cowherd has magically changed his tune on the eve of Tagovailoa’s first career start in the NFL. He’s gone from stating that Tagovailoa has never failed and that he would be Cowherd’s “No. 1 pick…I’ve never seen a college QB with numbers like his. Ever.” to now suggest that Tagovailoa “is not going to work in the NFL.” Again. It’s okay to change your mind as you receive more information on things. That’s a natural part of the process in sports, things are fluid.

But again, what has Cowherd seen to change his mind about Tagovailoa’s pro prospects? Two attempted (and completed) passes against the New York Jets? The play of Burrow and fellow rookie QB Justin Herbert are impressive this early on in their pro careers — but simultaneously their play is no indicator at all of the forecast that awaits Tagovailoa as a starting quarterback.

“Small without the wiggle” is the root of the criticism. Take that with a grain of salt, Dolphins fans. Cowherd is telling on himself for his process if his thoughts and impressions of Miami’s new quarterback can change this quickly and this drastically without any new information. It says more about him than it does about Tagovailoa.

Carry on!