McDaniel Explains Lessons to be Learned Regarding Tua Comments

Count head coach Mike McDaniel among those who believe Tua Tagovailoa's headline-making comments after the Miami Dolphins' latest loss were inappropriate.

The Dolphins head coach conducted his weekly day-after-the-game media session Monday, and the focus was much more on what happened after the game than during the game, and that obviously started and ended with Tagovailoa saying that some of his teammates had been late to player-led meetings.

"Regardless of intent and what was on Tua's mind after a loss, as the franchise quarterback that's not the forum to displace that," McDaniel said. "I think he knows that now. I do honestly believe there's no ill intention, but you're talking about kind of a misguided representation of player-orchestrated film sessions. And the bottom line is, no one's going to be happy, and always is looking for reasons for failure to succeed.

"So you're trying to look for reasons that you can attribute to losses. And heavy as a crown of being a franchise quarterback."

McDaniel then indicated that Tagovailoa reached out to some of his teammates Sunday night and Monday.

"That's what teammates do," McDaniel said. "And you live and you learn, and ultimately, I look at it like everything else, there's no if ands or buts about it , accountability and our team's performance always lies squarely on my shoulders, so we know that as well. But the focus to beat the Cleveland Browns and fix what we need to get fixed in our game to go attack the next opponent,
there's nowhere in that lies anything but focus on what we can do individually and how we can attack this work week and everything else is is not leading us into the direction of solution."

A big topic of conversation the Miami Dolphins tried to push all offseason and summer was a culture change after it was revealed following the 2024 season that there was a problem with players showing up to meetings on time.

Because Tagovailoa's comments certainly would contradict that narrative, McDaniel said the issue that Tagovailoa referenced was "completely separate."

McDaniel said he wasn't concerned about there being any kind of lingering issue related to Tua's comments.

"I've got a lot of things to worry about, and one of them is not those comments and where our team is lying after that," McDaniel said. "We just had meetings about the game itself, the factual successes and failures that led to the ultimate result, and that's where people's focus needs to be, and I'm confident will be, as we are all very motivated to fix our fix our problems and find a way to win."

WHAT TUA SAID

For those football fans not aware of what Tua, this was his response to a question during his postgame press conference about how the Dolphins can avoid falling into a woe-is-me state of mind: "Yeah, well, I think it starts with the leadership in helping articulate that for the guys, and then what we're expecting out of the guys. We're expecting this. Are we getting that? Are we not getting that? We have guys showing up to player-only meetings late. Guys not showing up to player-only meetings. There is a lot that goes into that. Do we have to make that mandatory? Do we not have to make that mandatory? So it's a lot of things of that nature that we got to get cleaned up. It starts with the little things like that."

When asked to clarify if he was saying players were being late to or missing players-only meetings, he said, "Late. Yeah."

Then this was head coach McDaniel's reaction to those comments when he took to the podium after this quarterback: "Player-led meetings are extra things outside of what I demand. We’ve been very accountable to me. It sounds like there was something on his mind with regard to the specific meetings with a couple individuals that he was trying to get corrected by being direct with communication. I think that’s the only way to lead. As far as where we’ve been at as a program, I think we’ve opened the air on all of that and it’s very clear how we hold people accountable and what’s non-negotiable with all those things. Clearly he’s sending a message, but from my standpoint, everything that I’ve asked of the guys, they have delivered on and so I’m sure whomever he’s talking to, they’ll deliver as well as he’s a direct communicator with his teammates."

THE FORMER PLAYER PUSHBACK

Already this year, Tagovailoa created a stir with comments about saying he couldn't do half the things Josh Allen can do and then later pushing back against Cam Newton criticism by saying it's easy to criticize while holding a clicker.

The reaction to those was a mixed bag, but it was pretty unanimous this time in taking shots at Tua's talking points.

And it didn't take very long.

The common themes among the criticism of Tua's comment included airing out dirty laundry in public, taking a shot at team leadership with maybe McDaniel being an unnamed target, and a lack of accountability.

Former Kansas City Chiefs tackle Mitchell Schwartz made the point that it was odd to criticize leadership considering Tua is one of the team captains.