The Miami Dolphins have been tied to Alabama quarterback prospect Tua Tagovailoa since last January. When the team announced it was going to conduct a rebuild, the reported target on the other side was Tagovailoa. When the Dolphins bombed their first two games of the 2019 season, it was supposedly all in the name of Tagovailoa. When Tagovailoa went down with a brutal hip injury, who was the team to show up with their full leadership group at Alabama’s bowl game? The Dolphins — with Stephen Ross and Chris Grier present on the sidelines.
Never mind the slew of mock drafts that have pegged these two together — that’s nothing new, either.
But Super Bowl week has brought a bombardment of clues that this marriage may actually be waiting in the wings. Just yesterday, three separate nuggets dropped that seemed to indicate Tua and his party — including his family and agent, Leigh Steinberg, are all pulling to see the selection in Miami materialize.
First, Steinberg threw the Bengals under the bus when talking to ESPN 97.3 about whether or not he wants Tagovailoa to get drafted #1 overall to Cincinnati.
“You want to make sure your client ends up with a good organization…I hope Cincy falls in love with Joe Burrow,” said Steinberg.
Oh. Well in that case, go ahead and scratch off any fleeting anticipation you might have had that Tua would get a clean medical and leapfrog Burrow late in the process. But still, that doesn’t provide any further clarity on where Steinberg would like to see Tagovailoa play. But Tua’s father Galu certainly did. A producer from Fox Sports 640 told the elder Tagovailoa that he hoped Tua was drafted by the Dolphins. Galu’s response?
“So do we.”
And Tua himself helped throw some fuel on the fire with his gracious words for the city of Miami yesterday during his media availabilities. And during a session with the Miami Herald, Tagovailoa was asked for what message he would deliver Dolphins fans.
“I can’t promise anyone anything because I don’t know if I’m even going to get picked by the Dolphins. People love to trade up; they can trade up to two or three. The Dolphins could trade down for all we know,” said Tagovailoa. “If I have the opportunity, I would be honored and privileged (to play for the Dolphins). Like Lamar Jackson said, ‘you guys would have to get a Super Bowl out of me.'”
A far departure from the “woe is us” mentality some shared in September about the Dolphins — when Dolphins fans were worried their team was so dysfunctional that Tagovailoa would pull an “Eli Manning” and strong-arm his way out of playing for Miami.
Expect this hype train to pick up steam — we’ve got a lot of offseason left in front of the draft.
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