Was Dolphins head coach Brian Flores in the right to bench Tua Tagovailoa? The tape shows a quarterback who was just off his game.
When Dolphins head coach Brian Flores made the call to bench quarterback Tua Tagovailoa on the first full drive of the fourth quarter in Miami’s eventual 20-13 loss to the Broncos, it sent a few shock waves through the NFL world. Tagovailoa had not played well — he completed 11 of 20 passes for 83 yards, one touchdown, and one interception that was called back due to a defensive penalty — and he took six sacks for minus-33 yards. So, 50 yards net passing on 20 attempts is not what you want. But given that this was Tagovailoa’s fourth NFL start, you might think that Flores should have kept his quarterback in there to learn from his mistakes if the benching was based on performance as opposed to injury.
Which, Flores said after the game, was the reason for the switch to Ryan Fitzpatrick.
“Tua wasn’t injured. We just felt like it was the best move at that point in the game. We had to get to two-minute mode and we just felt like [Fitzpatrick] gave us the best chance to win the game which we had an opportunity at the end – to tie it, I should say.”
That didn’t happen, either. Denver head coach Vic Fangio and his staff had all kinds of nasty pressure and coverage surprises for the Dolphins, who are used to unleashing those kinds of things on their own opponents. Fitzpatrick finished his day with 12 completions in 18 attempts for 117 yards, no touchdowns, and a game-clinching interception for the Broncos with 1:10 left in the game, when Fitzpatrick tried to hit DeVante Parker in the end zone, and safety Justin Simmons was right there for the pick.
The question is, was Flores right to bench Tagovailoa in the first place? Generally, if a young quarterback is struggling because his receivers are dropping passes and his offensive line isn’t protecting him well and he still has a functional sense of what he’s supposed to be doing, I would say that the coach should not have gone that route. But this performance was on Tua — while his offensive line won’t win any free steaks on film day, I would also say that I have never seen Tagovailoa play this frenetically, or this far outside of structure in a needless sense, and that started from his first two throws of the day.
Both of those throws were deep attempts to receiver Jakeem Grant, and neither were optimal. The first had Tagovailoa eluding pressure, moving to his left, and airmailing Grant (whether this was a bad throw or miscommunication on a route, I do not know)…
…and the second had Tua fleeing a collapsing pocket — through with a lane in which to throw quickly — and airmailing Grant again. Not great.
Tagovailoa’s next throw had him rolling to his right, which is less than optimal for a left-handed quarterback, as he’s then throwing away from his own momentum. Here, he throws flat-footed, and Simmons would have had another interception on the day were cornerback A.J. Bouye not flagged for defensive holding.
The Dolphins escaped disaster there, but we’re talking about process, not outcome. This is a really bad throw out of boot with no pressure to influence the decision-making or mechanics.
You would imagine that Flores is starting to raise an eyebrow about now.
Tagovailoa was also getting his block knocked off. Per Pro Football Focus, he was pressured on 14 of his 26 dropbacks with the six sacks making up the difference between dropbacks and attempts. And while the quarterback was responsible for a couple of those takedowns — I don’t think he had a great day reading coverage at all — you also had plays like this, in which rookie right guard Solomon Kindley, who allowed two sacks, is trying to fend off pressure with whatever this is.
So… yeah. You have a rookie quarterback who’s all over the place, you’re somehow still down just seven points in the fourth quarter, you’re an unexpected 6-3 coming into this, and if you’re Brian Flores, you’re just trying to stop the bleeding and steal a game.
As he has been throughout the process, Fitzpatrick remains a total pro — Flores said that Tagovailoa will be the starter next week against the Jets, which you would think would do wonders for any quarterback’s confidence, though Fitzpatrick threw two picks in Miami’s 24-0 win over Gang Green in Week 6. Miami had a bye the next week, and after that, it was Tua Time.
“Yeah, we talked about it on the sideline,” Fitzpatrick said of the benching. “We talked about it in the locker room. I think it’s probably a conversation that’s over with now. For him, he’s going to put his head down and keep working hard and keep trying to be a better quarterback, keep trying to get better every day; but we’ve got a great chance here and Tua has done a nice job, so it’s about putting it behind you and moving onto the next one. And I know that he’ll do a good job of that, so there’s no controversy. This is his team. He’s going to lead this team and continue to lead the team and we’ve just all kind of got to pull him in the right direction and get everybody continuing to get better.”
As for Tagovailoa, he just wants to get right after those head-exploding moments.
“I think you look at the entirety of the game and you learn from a lot of what defense the Broncos have shown. They played a lot of base to our normal offense. We tried to get them out of their base look. What we were doing, we just couldn’t execute. For me, it was a great learning experience. I felt like I was holding the ball a little too long. I’ve just got to get completions and we’ve got to get the ball in the hands of our guys to make plays for us.”
So while it was the right move to take Tagovailoa out of the game, it’s also the right move to get him back in there. Coaching isn’t always binary; neither is quarterback development.
