There’s a fine line between abuse and coaching, and more than enough evidence is beginning to stack up that Brian Flores' style did more harm than good during his tenure as head coach of the Miami Dolphins.
Tua Tagovailoa has openly discussed how damaged his confidence was as a result of Flores’ treatment. The Dolphins' starting quarterback often refers to Flores, who coached Miami to a 24-25 in his three seasons before being fired after the 2021 season, without saying his name.
Just this week Tagovailoa addressed the transformation starting right tackle Austin Jackson has had this season, and praised him for overcoming the harsh criticism he received from Flores and his staff.
FITZPATRICK'S STRONG COMMENTS
During Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” pregame show, former Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who played with and mentored Tagovailoa during his rookie season, made an eye-opening analysis of the Flores and Tagovailoa relationship.
While discussing the regression of New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones, and whether the Patriots' benched 2021 first-round pick has been “broken,” he compared Jones’ situation to that of Tagovailoa.
“Tua Tagovailoa, who I was with, Brian Flores — same New England way — he was broken (from) Brian Flores the way he treated him, the way that he coached him,” Fitzpatrick said. “And what happens? Mike McDaniel comes in. He restores his confidence. He gets it back, and now he’s an MVP candidate.”
While Tagovailoa hasn’t said much about Flores since his firing, he has spoken about how the arrival of McDaniel and his staff helped instill confidence in himself and allowed him to be himself as he leads the team.
Tagovailoa choked up Thursday when speaking about right tackle Austin Jackson’s contract extension and said that there were things that were said about Jackson by the previous coaching staff “that you know aren’t true but they get planted in your head.”
“And then you have someone like Mike and his coaching staff come in and basically build you back up,” Tagovailoa said. “And it’s not just Austin. It’s really everyone that’s been here for some time and [to] kind of give you that renewed confidence in yourself to just go out there and play the way you’ve played.”
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