After giving fans a glimpse of his playmaking ability on Sunday—and I mean a glimpse considering he played all of like two minutes—the Miami Dolphins have pushed the eject button on journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick and rookie Tua Tagovailoa will be their quarterback moving forward, according to ESPN.
If you’re over there scratching your head, wondering why in the hell the Dolphins (3-3) would do this with Fitzpatrick riding a two-game winning streak and actually playing well (for his standards), your guess is as good as mine. It’s not like Fitz Magic played himself out of the job.
Has Tua been balling out in practice? Is Brian Flores just tired of staring at the crumbs in Fitzpatrick’s beard? Hell if I know, but I guess we’re about to find out.
With the Dolphins enjoying their bye week, Tua is officially on the clock. He’ll have two weeks to prep for his first NFL start, which will fall exactly 351 days after he suffered a career-threatening hip injury at Alabama that forced him to fall to No. 5 in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Expectations are high, however, as many believe Tua will be the one to resurrect a franchise that’s seen much better days—and quarterback play—in the past.
And if he’s able to become the transcendent athlete that so many believe he’s capable of, he’ll have Fitzpatrick to thank for keeping his seat warm and helping to mentor him.
“I’ve made enough mistakes for plenty of quarterbacks combined with the things that I’ve been through and done,” Fitzpatrick said on The Adam Schefter Podcast last month. “And to be able to share those experiences, the good and bad, with some of these young guys, if I could be a part of helping them in their career and making them a better player, then that makes it worth it for me. [...] I feel happy and privileged to be in the position that I’m in now to be able to pay it forward to someone like Tua.”
Shoutout to Fitzpatrick for being exactly what a young, talented player like Tua needs, and for the Dolphins’ sake, hopefully it will translate into more wins on the field.
It’s Tua Time, y’all.