Dolphins’ Tagovailoa era begins as switch from Fitzpatrick is made
Tua Tagovailoa now has a role to match his jersey number. He’s the Miami Dolphins’ No. 1 quarterback.
The Alabama alum will make his first NFL start Nov. 1, supplanting Ryan Fitzpatrick, a person familiar with the team’s decision confirmed Tuesday.
The change by head coach Brian Flores will come after the Dolphins’ bye this week and has been long anticipated, but the timing is surprising because the team won its past two games to improve to 33.
Fitzpatrick, 37, carved apart the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium with a threetouchdown, 350yard performance in a 4317 rout Oct. 11. On Sunday, he tossed three more touchdown passes in a 240 shutout of the Jets.
Nevertheless, Tagovailoa will start at home against the Rams a week from Sunday.
Tagovailoa made his pro debut in mopup duty at the end of Miami’s victory Sunday over the Jets. He will become the 22nd quarterback to start for the Dolphins since Dan Marino retired following the 1999 season.
At Alabama, Tagovailoa wore Marino’s No. 13. That Dolphins jersey is retired, and so Tagovailoa now wears No. 1.
Touted as a potential franchise quarterback, the dynamic lefthander raises the profile of a team that has been off the NFL radar for much of the past two decades. He was drafted in April with the fifth overall pick — the highest choice Miami has devoted to a QB since Bob Griese in 1967.
Tagovailoa is coming back from a serious hip injury that cut short his Alabama career in November.
Fitzpatrick is being benched even though he ranks fifth in the NFL in completion percentage ( 70.1), and the Dolphins are on pace for their highestscoring season since 1986 at 26.7 points per game.
The Rams signed kicker Kai Forbath from Chicago’s practice squad after a rocky start to the season for rookie Samuel Sloman.
The Rams kept Sloman on their active roster Tuesday. They also placed linebacker Ogbonnia Okoronkwo ( elbow) on injured reserve.
Los Angeles drafted Sloman in the seventh round out of Miami of Ohio, but he has missed three of his 18 extrapoint attempts this season, including a blocked try against the 49ers on Sunday night in the Rams’ 2416 loss. Sloman also has missed two of his nine fieldgoal attempts.
Saints can have fans: New Orleans will start having fans in the stands for home games after the mayor agreed with the team on a phased plan starting Sunday against Carolina.
The plan will start with 3,000 tickets for Sunday’s game, increasing to 6,000 fans for November games with the 49ers and Atlanta and up to 15,000 in December for games against Kansas City and Minnesota barring any changes in local health and safety guidelines.
The Saints had started talking with LSU about playing at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge to get fans into the stands for their games.
Briefly: Two days after scoring a gamewinning touchdown in the final minutes, rookie linebacker Tae Crowder was placed on injured reserve with a hamstring injury by the Giants. The current Mr. Irrelevant as the last player taken in the NFL draft, Crowder scored on a 43yard fumble return with 31⁄ minutes to play to give New York a 2019 win over Washington. ... Carolina placed starting safety Juston Burris ( ribs) and reserve wide receiver Keith Kirkwood ( shoulder) on injured reserve.