The Miami Dolphins made a huge announcement that after their bye week, Tua Tagovailoa would be starting in place of Ryan Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick led the Dolphins to a solid 3-3 record, and put the team in a position to be fighting for a wild card spot. Emotions were running high, especially for Fitzpatrick,after this announcement and there have been varied rumors about this decision.
The first thing that we must note before taking sides on whether Fitzpatrick should have been benched, is that Tua was the future of the franchise. He was the number 5 selection in the draft and the Dolphins were going to get him onto the field at some point. Fitzpatrick should have known this was going to come at some point, and saying that he was surprised by this move might be too much.
After getting that out of the way, we are now going into the real debate about whether Fitzpatrick should have been benched or not. Fitzpatrick had led the Dolphins to a very solid 3-3 record going into the bye, and with the pieces that this team had Fitzpatrick was doing a very good job. He has thrown for 10 touchdowns and 1,535 yards with a 70% completion percentage. With these numbers it would be expected that Fitzpatrick would be able to continue to fight for his job, and yet the Dolphins thought otherwise. They obviously wanted to test out their new guy, but it seemed like they might have gotten a little impatient. While I have no true idea about how well Tua has been performing in practice, I do know that Fitzpatrick has been performing well and having Tua sit behind him and learn how to be an NFL quarterback would be beneficial to the Dolphins. The timing of this move also is a little surprising because after the bye the Dolphins will be facing the Los Angeles Rams and one of the best pass rushers in the game, Aaron Donald. The Dolphins offensive line is nowhere near the top of the league in protection and throwing a young QB out into the waters against a stacked d-line like the Rams is questionable. Especially when you have a veteran like Fitzpatrick who can handle the blitz and make smart decisions when under pressure, makes this timing look even worse. I know that they will have the bye to adjust to their new QB, but I still don’t think putting Tua in against the Rams is the right decision.
While we can debate this decision all we want, it has been made and we will be seeing Tua in the next Dolphins game. It will be exciting to see what this young QB is made of, and if he proves the Dolphins right for calling his number.
Top Image:AP Photo/Lynne Sladky