Flores on Tua: “If he’s healthy, he’s the guy”

Rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was unable to play on Sunday vs the New York Jets. Which meant it was up to the 38-year-old Ryan Fitzpatrick to step up and lead the team in his absence.

With #FItzMagic at the helm, Chan Gailey’s offense continued down it’s pedestrian path. However, they did enough to compliment the defense and beat out the winless Jets 20-3 at MetLife.

It was a must needed win for a team with playoff aspirations, looking to get back on track after a disappointing loss a week prior.

But while fans were concerned about a potential quarterback controversy, Fitzpatrick really didn’t play well enough to warrant this type of talk.

Not that it would matter anyway.

Dolphins head coach Brian Flores has been very adamant that this is Tagovailoa’s team and that was no different after Sunday’s win.

“Yeah, if he’s healthy, he’s the guy. I don’t know how many different ways we have to continue to say that. You keep asking, I’ll keep answering the same way. Again, he’s dealing with something with the hand. We’ll take it day-to-day. He’s a tough kid. He wants to be out there. Thankfully, we have other guys who stepped up. We can talk about Tua, but we had 52 other guys who went out there and played their butts off today in all three phases. We were able to get a division win on the road. We’re excited to win. We’ll enjoy the win and then turn the page and move on to the next opponent, the Bengals.”

Fitzpatrick completed 24/39 passes for 257 yards and 2 touchdowns. Which looked eerily similar to Tagovailoa’s 20/28 for 248 yards and 2 touchdowns vs Arizona. But we’re not here to compare stats, or point out that Fitzpatrick did this while throwing the ball 39 times, against one of the worst pass defenses in all of football.

I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m not here to point out the obvious.

And I think we can all agree it’s nice to have a backup like Fitzpatrick, who is ready and waiting If Tua is unable to go. But if Tagovailoa was ‘almost able to play’ this weekend like Brian Flores said, this isn’t a debate.

This is Tua’s team moving forward.

Best of all, Fitzpatrick understands how valuable it is for everyone to be on the same page, as he discussed after Sunday’s win.

“I do think that’s important and I think just in the quarterback room in general having each other’s backs and supporting each other. I think that’s very important because it is such a tough position to play. I’ve now been put in a different role and when my number’s called, I’m going to go out there and win games for this team. So Flo (Brian Flores) is the head coach and we listen and respect what he says and we go from there.

Sorry folks, there is no quarterback controversy.

This Tua Tagovailoa’s football team.

And now: “We’re on to Cincinnati!”