Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel confirmed this Monday that Tua Tagovailoa will remain the team’s starting quarterback, despite the worst two-game statistical stretch of his career. Tagovailoa was replaced in Sunday’s loss to the Cleveland Browns by rookie Quinn Ewers, although the change came with about 8 minutes left in the final quarter and the Dolphins were losing 31-6. He completed 12 of 23 passes for 100 yards and three interceptions, his second consecutive game with three interceptions. He is currently tied for the NFL lead with 10 interceptions this season, but McDaniel said the Dolphins (1-6) are not looking to make a change at this time.
Tagovailoa’s passer rating of 24.1 on Sunday was the lowest of his career in a single game. After the game, he said he is “not proud of where he is with his game” this season and committed to reaching the level he has achieved in previous years; the process to do so began on Monday. McDaniel said that he and Tagovailoa watched the film of Sunday’s game together on Monday morning, as they have done several times this season.He’s going to take the snaps this week and he’s going to start this week, and my expectation is that we don’t throw 10 interceptions.
Mike McDaniel
While the Dolphins aren’t making any changes to the starter, the depth chart behind Tagovailoa is less clear. McDaniel said Ewers was promoted to the second position specifically for Sunday’s game, but not necessarily permanently. In his first official action in the NFL, Ewers completed 5 of 8 passes for 53 yards. McDaniel said he will compete with Zach Wilson, the previous second overall pick, for the position behind Tagovailoa.In this case, I thought it was important that we watched the offense together. So we watched the passing game together this morning and had direct communication about the ups and downs of the game and how we can both improve for each other. Because for me, when you go through a performance like that, I don’t see it all in one player or all in one coach. It’s a working relationship and we both have to improve together because that’s not good enough.
Mike McDaniel
Regarding injury news, McDaniel said on Monday that tight end Darren Waller, who leads the team with four touchdown receptions, will likely miss this week’s game against the Atlanta Falcons due to a pectoral injury. A source reported that tests showed Waller has a pectoral strain that is not expected to require surgery and will be considered week-to-week.I hope it’s not something from one week to the next. It will be competitive this week and at the end of the week I will let them know who the substitute is and with the hope that someone takes it and takes advantage of it.
Mike McDaniel
