Brian Flores tangled in contradiction concerning Tua Tagovailoa as Ryan Fitzpatrick starts | Opinion
Allow me to tell you how Brian Flores contradicted himself Monday afternoon when he discussed the possibility of replacing starting quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick with rookie Tua Tagovailoa.
The Dolphins head coach conceded during his press conference that playing Tagovailoa or not is a decision that needed to be finalized. But he suggested the player’s November 2019 hip injury, ensuing surgery and rehabilitation weigh into the decision.
And that made Fitzpatrick the coach’s presumptive choice to remain Miami’s starter.
It eventually made Fitzpatrick the actual starter because the team announced Tuesday morning on Twitter that Fitzpatrick would start.
But before Miami’s Twitter spokesman spoke clearly, Flores spoke in circles.
“Look, I understand where everybody’s coming from with Tua,” Flores said. “I get all that. At the same time, he’s a young player, he’s coming off the injury. So we’ll make the decision on the starter, but I would presume it’s going to be Fitzpatrick.”
Flores was pressed about whether Tagovailoa has checked all the health boxes the team has required so far or whether there’s still a lingering question regarding his hip or mobility.
“No,” Flores said. “He’s checked all the boxes from a medical standpoint. He has.
“Look, the honest thing from me is if he was my kid and he had a serious injury like that, I wouldn’t want his coach to be in a rush to throw him in there because of media pressure or anything like that. That’s kind of how I approach this situation and really all situations with the players.
“Essentially they are my kids. No one is going to pressure me into doing anything. When we feel like he’s ready to go, we’ll put him in.”
And now Flores was off the rails making zero sense.
In one breath he was saying Tagovailoa is healthy. But in the next breath, thinking of him as one of his kids, he didn’t want to press the player into action because of the serious injury he had 11 months ago.
The problem is before this season began, the Dolphins cut third-string quarterback Josh Rosen and kept two quarterbacks — Fitzpatrick and Tagovailoa — on the roster. They have a developmental quarterback, rookie Reid Sinnett, on the practice squad.
So the Dolphins are telling everyone if Fitzpatrick were to be out for any reason on any week, Tagovailoa would be their next man up, as the team likes to say.
Again, during a pandemic, the Dolphins have Tagovailoa as their No. 2. They did this. They decided this. And that decision means Tagovailoa plays if Fitzpatrick cannot.
And now Flores says he is not “rushing to throw” Tagovailoa in a game?
What if COVID-19 forces the issue, as it did for the New England Patriots this past week?
What if Fitzpatrick travels to San Francisco and on his way to his hotel room, the night before the game, he gets his epic beard caught in an elevator door and requires an emergency beardectomy, but no gifted barber/surgeon is available for days, making Fitzpatrick unavailable to play?
Is the Flores explanation about fathering Tagovailoa going to factor then?
Of course not.
Because the explanation contradicts facts the team has laid out in its roster decisions.
By the way, what happens in a game if Fitzpatrick is injured? Tagovailoa has been active every game so far this season, so the Dolphins obviously have planned to insert him if they need him.
What happens to the Flores injury worries then?
Answer: Nothing. The worries become moot.
The coach bringing up the injury issue as a reason to keep Tagovailoa on the bench is disingenuous when one understands the team has made roster moves before the season and every week of the season that highlight a plan to play Tagovailoa if necessary.
That’s a direct contradiction of what Flores suggests he wants to do.
The Dolphins were indeed considering a change at quarterback this week — at least they were until their Twitter spokesman made the call Tuesday morning.
And it won’t be the last time this season the decision has to be made, regardless of how the team announces its decision.
“We’re a quarter of the way through the season now, so we’re going to obviously do an evaluation of our team from that standpoint,” Flores said. “We try to play the guys we feel are going to help us turn this thing around and play better in situations like red zone and two-minute and in the fourth quarter. And that’ll be at all positions.”
Flores was speaking of every position being under review. But please tell me what position has the most effect on the offense in the red zone, in a two-minute drill, and in the fourth quarter?
Yeah, quarterback.
This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 12:19 AM.
