One of the Miami Dolphins’ former coaches weighs in on what went wrong for QB Tua Tagovailoa
Former Miami Dolphins offensive tackle Terron Armstead asked the team’s former offensive coordinator Frank Smith about what went wrong with Tua Tagovailoa?
Very few members of the 2022-2025 Miami Dolphins are still around these days.
The biggest, heaviest departures came via former general manager Chris Grier (last fall), head coach Mike McDaniel (January), and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (March). Tagovailoa’s exit will be felt the most, as the team will pay him north of $50 million in compensation to be playing elsewhere. But that big commitment obviously didn’t come from no where. Tagovailoa played well enough to inspire enough folks around the team to commit to a contract.
Which begs the question ‘what the heck went wrong?’. We may never know the full story. But thanks to former Dolphins tackle Terron Armstead, we do have a bit of insight from one member of the staff. Former offensive coordinator Frank Smith joined Armstead on ‘The Set’ and offered his perspective.
Former Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator Frank Smith weighs in on where things went awry with Tua Tagovailoa
“Ultimately I don’t think you can always say ‘hey it’s this one thing, or this thing’. There’s always a collection of things that go on. Every year is unique to itself and that was a challenging year due to obviously not getting the performance we wanted but then also Tyreek (Hill) gets hurt in Week 4 early in the season. Darren (Waller) was supposed to come in and then he didn’t get into the fold until later. We had…a lot of change. Certain parts that were there in 2023, there were also a lot of things that were new. So I don’t necessarily think that you can equate it to one thing.”
— Former Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator Frank Smith on what went wrong with Tua Tagovailoa in 2025
There’s no doubt about it. Multiple variables certainly did play into the offensive performance of 2025. It’s not the standard anyone had come to expect from the quarterback, or the offense as a whole for that matter. Things never really felt aligned from the jump, both from a chemistry perspective and also from an availability perspective. Waller and Hill overlapped this season for less than three quarters of play.
Yes Tagovailoa’s own play, in isolation, did not meet his own standard, too. He’s said it himself. Consider it a potpourri of blame. Plenty of ingredients and plenty to go around.
The challenge for Tagovailoa (and Smith, Mike McDaniel, and everyone else involved for that matter) now will be to pick up the pieces. They’ll all have to do so on their own, scattered across the rest of the league in new roles with new teams.
Miami Dolphins News