Assorted Tua and OC Thoughts
In case anyone has been wondering how it is that Miami Dolphins quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa and Ryan Fitzpatrick have done numerous interviews this week after being out of the spotlight for a month, it's all about the Super Bowl.
Various companies stage events during the Super Bowl and enlist the help of players to promote them, and that means radio/Internet interviews.
It's the reason you might have heard or seen Tagovailoa this week on Good Morning Football, Pro Football Talk Live, Schein on Sports and The Dan Patrick Show — and we're probably leaving out others.
RELATED: Tua Talks Health, Rookie Season and Future
Invariably, the event the player is promoting will come up in the interview because, well, that's the reason the outlet is getting the interview but there's also plenty of time for other topics to be discussed.
And for Tagovailoa, of course, that means discussing his rookie season, his health and, of course, the Deshaun Watson speculation.
And if anyone hadn't learned this by now, Tagovailoa handled himself in those interviews extremely well from all fronts. He didn't dodge questions, didn't say anything out of line and allowed his big personality to come through at all times.
No wonder Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk commented on Tagovailoa being such a likable kid after he was done interviewing him with his partner Chris Simms, who it should be mentioned was a big Tua critic heading into the 2020 draft.
In summation, Tagovailoa was self-critical of his rookie season, is feeling fine from a health standpoint and is going to control what he can control.
That was his answer to both the Watson questions, and his reply was along the same lines when it came to the question of whether he sees himself as the Dolphins' franchise quarterback.
This isn't going to come as a great shock, but there's an awful lot to like about Tagovailoa when it comes to the way he handles himself off the field and he provided more examples this week.
As for Fitzpatrick, maybe the most interesting he said in his interview with Pat McAfee, which was followed by an appearance on The Jim Rome Show was that he wasn't concerned about what the Dolphins thought of his Zoom media session in the aftermath of his benching.
RELATED: Fitzpatrick Addresses His Future
Fitzpatrick clearly was upset by the move and we said at the time he had every right to be, given how he had played the previous two games in helping the Dolphins win back-to-back games to even their record at 3-3.
It's more than likely that Fitzpatrick has played his last game for the Dolphins because of his desire to compete and because of a likely desire for Brian Flores not to have Tagovailoa looking over his shoulder in 2021, and that's a shame because Fitzpatrick's performance the past two seasons with Miami was very impressive.
THOUGHTS ON THE OC
With Tua and Fitzpatrick, the Dolphins would have a very good quarterback situation again, but the issues it would bring also make it unrealistic.
In essence, the Dolphins had two starting quarterbacks in 2020 and as the old saying goes, "When you have two quarterbacks, you have none."
Well, what about an offensive coordinator?
Does the same thing apply?
As we documented earlier in the week, this is an unprecedented move for the Dolphins to have co-offensive coordinators, but that's only in an official capacity.
RELATED: Dolphins Promote From Within for Offensive Coordinator Position
The Dolphins had a run game coordinator in both 2017 and 2018 to go along with the OC, and it was Eric Studesville who handled that role in 2018 when Dowell Loggains was the offensive coordinator and head coach Adam Gase was the play-caller.
But the reality is that this is a pretty unique arrangement, and former NFL head coach Steve Mariucci weighed in on it during his Super Bowl media session with his current role with NFL Network.
“When I coached with the Rams, when I was just a young coach, we had what you might call two offensive coordinators because we had a run game coordinator and a pass game coordinator, and they actually shared the play-calling," Mariucci said. "It was crazy. It’s been done before. It’s different. It’s not very often that you share that responsibility. Somebody’s got be the play-maker in my mind and get a rhythm going and set plays up for the next series, whatever. That’ll be fun to watch to see how that works out.”
Yes, it will be interesting to watch.
Of course, questions remain, the most obvious being: who will be the primary play-caller?
Flores has not spoken yet on the offensive coordinator move, which actually hasn't even been made official to this point.
It's the second consecutive offseason that Flores has filled a coordinator role by promoting an assistant, with Josh Boyer taking control of the defense in 2020.
That move obviously panned out because the Dolphins ended up sixth in the NFL in scoring defense, this after going into Week 17 leading the league.
Because he's going with two people to split OC duties and because he hired two coaches with limited experience in that role — George Godsey did it for two years with Houston in 2015-16 and Studesville had no prior experience in that role — Flores has left himself open to second-guessing if the offense doesn't produce in 2021.
Ultimately, though, the offensive coordinator's main role is to maximize the talent on the roster, something we argued a while Chan Gailey did very well last season with vastly underappreciated work.
RELATED: Giving Gailey His Due
Godsey and Studesville could end up being a brilliant offensive coordinator combo, but they'll need better individual performances from a whole lot of different people, and that includes whoever ends up playing quarterback.
