Flores on Tua: 'We're Committed to Him'

Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores repeatedly has answered questions about the team's reported interest in making a trade for Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson by saying that Tua Tagovailoa "is our quarterback."

As more stories surface, with some suggesting trade compensation between the Dolphins and Texans has been settled, Flores was pressed Friday to take his "Tua is our quarterback" endorsement a step further.

I asked him point blank if he could definitely declare that Tua would be the team's starting quarterback for the rest of the 2021 season.

“Definitively that he’s the quarterback?" Flores began. "Barring, no … I mean, there’s a lot of things …”

With that, I added, barring injury.

“Yeah, barring injury, yeah.”

That declaration is the strongest statement yet that Flores has made regarding Tua, even though it certainly could have been stronger.

And it also wasn't nearly as strong as what he said in August after cornerback Xavien Howard requested a trade on Instagram because of a contract dispute that eventually was solved.

“We don’t want to trade X," Flores said back then. "Write that down. He’s a very good player. He’s a great part of the team. We don’t want to trade X.”

Or we can go back to last October when the team actually released an official statement pushing back against a story saying they had fielded offers for Howard and included the sentence, "We are not exploring any trades regarding Xavien Howard.”

Flores was reminded of that comment Friday and asked why he would handle the Howard situation differently.

“I wouldn’t say it’s different," Flores said. "I would say I’ve answered that question by saying Tua is our quarterback. I’m not getting into speculation, I’m not getting into rumors, I’m not getting into rumor, speculation, distractions. Focus on our team. Focus on our quarterback, and that’s Tua.

“Again, I don’t get into reports or rumors or speculation. I’m focused on our team and the guys in our locker room. And when we get outside of that, that’s not where my focus is. My focus is on our players and helping them improve and get better. That’s where my focus is. That’s where it’s always going to be.”

With reports of the Miami Dolphins' interest in making a trade for Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson surfacing regularly over the past several days,

Whether Flores' comments stop the Watson speculation, as he calls it, is questionable, if not doubtful, because there have just been too many reports out there to completely dismiss Dolphins interest.

And, to be fair, Flores is in a tough spot because he has to balance being honest and forthcoming with trying to support his players as best as possible.

The whole situation has been uncomfortable for the Dolphins, but not nearly as much for anybody other than Tua.

Let's face it, it's extraordinarily unusual for a starting quarterback to be asked during his weekly media session whether he feels wanted by his organization.

“I don’t not feel wanted," Tua replied. "That’s what I could say.”

Then Tua was asked whether he'd like to hear the Dolphins officially say they're not interested in making a trade for Watson.

“Honestly, I don’t base my emotions off of who says anything about me or who is saying what," Tua said. "All I can do is my job and do it to the best of my capabilities. Everything else, I mean it’s out of my control. But I have the utmost confidence and trust that I am the quarterback of this team, just off of conversations that I’ve had with ‘Flo’ (Brian Flores) and whatnot. That obviously stays between us. But yeah, I feel very confident that I’m the person.”

Flores was asked Friday why he hadn't yet made a more declarative statement.

“When I say he’s our quarterback," Flores replied, "that is me saying we’re committed to him.”