Dolphins: Tagovailoa to start next game
Time to fly, Tua.
The Dolphins have named Tua Tagovailoa their new starter, multiple league sources told the Miami Herald, ushering in a highly anticipated new age of Miami Dolphins football.
Brian Flores is turning to the No. 5 overall pick during the team’s bye week, and Tagovailoa will make his first start on Nov. 1 against the Los Angeles Rams at Hard Rock Stadium. ESPN first reported the move.
The seismic news comes less than 48 hours after Ryan Fitzpatrick — who ranks in the top 10 in QBR — threw three touchdowns, but two interceptions in the team’s blowout win over the Jets.
Tagovailoa saw his first NFL action in the game’s final moments, completing his only two passes for nine yards.
Tagovailoa will become the third of four rookie first-round quarterbacks to start for their respective teams in 2020.
But none of the other three has overcome what Tagovailoa has: a major, November 2019 hip injury that threatened his career and likely cost him millions of dollars.
The Dolphins, showing great caution, had him mostly sit behind Fitzpatrick and absorb ever since players reported to camp in late July.
Both the team and Fitzpatrick knew this day was an inevitability. What no one on the outside knew was that it would come at this point in the season.
“He’s been thrown into a very difficult situation in that he didn’t have any preseason, he didn’t really have an offseason,” Dolphins offensive coordinator Chan Gailey said Tuesday before ESPN’s report went public.
“I think he has a basic understanding (of what we want to get done), but you don’t get the specifics if you don’t get out there. The specifics of things, and feeling the speed of the game, and all that kind of stuff is hard. Hopefully as time goes on, we can continue to have him develop and see how quickly he can get ready to play whenever that may be.”
Gailey hinted that Tagovailoa’s time might be near earlier Tuesday when he wondered allowed “how much can we get him to continue to improve, getting the reps he gets in practice, getting him whatever snaps we can get him?”
So the decision might be less about how Ryan Fitzpatrick has played than it is about getting on with the business of the franchise’s future.
Fitzpatrick completed 70.1% of his passes for 1,535 yards, 10 touchdowns and 7 interceptions in the season’s first six games. He ranks 17th in NFL passer rating at 95.0, is tied for 13th with 10 touchdown passes and is 18th in yards passing per game (255.8).
But only Kirk Cousins (10) and Carson Wentz (9) have thrown more interceptions than Fitzpatrick this season.