Tua call right on time

TUA TIME in Miami begins on Sunday, and it’s the right time. When Miami coach Brian Flores announced that rookie firstround draft pick Tua Tagovailoa would supplant veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick as the Dolphins starting quarterback, beginning with Sunday’s home game against the Rams, there was an element of shock value.

The Dolphins, after all, are 3-3, riding a two-game winning streak and averaging more than 26 points per game, and Fitzpatrick has played well. When Flores dropped the news bomb, Fitzpatrick spoke of being “heartbroken’’ by the switch, telling reporters he truly felt like these Dolphins were his team.

If you felt badly for Fitzpatrick, that’s perfectly understandable. But the reality is the 37-year-old journeyman, when he was brought to Miami, never was going to be anything other than a stopgap for the Dolphins, a placeholder for Tagovailoa.

Fitzpatrick has started for eight different teams in his 16-year career — an NFL record — and there’s a reason he never stayed in one place for a long period of time. He never led any of those teams to the playoffs.

Tagovailoa is the Dolphins’ future, and the sooner he becomes their present, the better that future will be.

The move by Flores is reminiscent of the one then-Giants coach Tom Coughlin made in 2004 when he replaced stopgap veteran Kurt Warner with Eli Manning despite the fact that they had a 5-4 record at the time.

For the crowd who may argue it’s too soon for Tagovailoa, look at what the other rookie starters are doing this season.

Joe Burrow passed for a careerhigh 406 yards with three touchdowns and ran for another TD for the Bengals against the Browns last Sunday. Chargers rookie quarterback Justin Herbert passed for a careerhigh 347 yards with three TDs, no interceptions and added a rushing TD in a win over Jacksonville.

The Dolphins drafted Tagovailoa No. 5 overall. Burrow went No. 1 overall and Herbert at No. 6.

Why not Tua Time now?