The Miami Dolphins will stick with rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa as their starter for their season finale against the Buffalo Bills.
Dolphins head coach Brian Flores made the declaration in the post-game news conference following the Dolphins shocking last-second win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday night.
“Tua is a young player,” Flores said, according to ESPN’s Cameron Wolfe. “He’s developing. He’s improving on a daily basis. He’s learning from these experiences. He’ll be better next week.”
Tua was benched in the fourth quarter in favor of veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick after Tagovailoa struggled to move the offense despite completing a number of passes. Tagovailoa stuggled with holding the ball too long, and seemed tentative to make throws in coverage, which was a part of a flat offensive output.
With Fitzpatrick in, the Dolphins made an improbable comeback in the late seconds, aided by the Raiders blunders both on the field and on the sidelines, and gave Miami their 10th win of the season.
“It wasn’t really that shocking in a way what happened. They call him FitzMagic for a reason,” Tagovailoa said. “This is the second time [getting benched has] happened. It’s just something you got to learn from. When Fitz is in there, I’m going to support him.”
“There’s a lot of people in that locker room who are trying to win. That’s at the forefront of the decisions I’m going to make here today and moving forward as long as I’m here,” Flores said. “Tua is a resilient kid. He’s a tough-minded kid. He’s happy that Fitzy went in there and we won the game because he’s a selfless, team-first guy; that’s why he’s here.”
