The Miami Dolphins’ quarterback room is in a drastically different place than where we saw it start at the beginning of this rebuilding effort. When the Dolphins decided to hit the reset button, the team was committed financially to quarterback Ryan Tannehill — who would go on to be traded for an early Day 3 pick in the NFL Draft before finding second life outside of Miami with the Titans. Any seller’s remorse for the Dolphins?
If there is, we won’t know for a while. But what we do know is that the Dolphins have one of the best veteran quarterback mentors in all of football on their side in Ryan Fitzpatrick and boast two former top-10 overall picks at the position as well in Tua Tagovailoa and Josh Rosen. Rosen’s play last season for the Dolphins was disappointing — but never the less he’s still a physically gifted thrower and a more simple approach to offensive football in 2020 may be the boost he needs to speed up his processing. But regardless of what the status is with Rosen, Tagovailoa is expected to be the future at the position after Miami picked him No. 5 overall this past April.
And, for the first time, Tagovailoa met with the South Florida media yesterday and amid the onslaught of questions regarding the expectations that come with being the assumed heir to Fitzpatrick and technically also Dan Marino, Tua was asked about his new relationship with the man he will try to beat out and become the starter for Miami in Fitzpatrick — after Tagovailoa entered the frame of his Zoom call while touting a Fitzpatrick No. 14 jersey.
“But kind of to start it off with ‘Fitz’ – (he is a) very, very down-to-earth person. Very humble,” said Tagovailoa.
“To be behind a professional like that, to me it’s kind of mind-boggling how down-to-earth he is. It’s one of those things where it’s, this guy gets it. I don’t know what it is, but he gets it and that saying goes true. It says ‘if you want to get somewhere fast, you go alone, but if you want to do it with purpose, then you bring people with you,’ and I think ‘Fitz’ has done a tremendous job in trying to help shape and mold me and Josh (Rosen) as well. So it’s been really cool to go through that process with him.”
The praise for Fitzpatrick comes days after Fitzpatrick offered the same publicly about Tagovailoa — and so it seems that this duel for the starting quarterback job will be a gentlemanly one. For Miami to have this much in their quarterback room after years of being complacent with challenging Tannehill is perhaps the best sign yet that things will be different for the Dolphins when this rebuild peaks.