One of Tua Tagovailoa’s former teammates offered rare insight into what’s really changed with the Dolphins’ QB — and Miami’s hopes hinge on a lasting fix
There are few people who could better explain what’s going on with Tua.
The Tua Tagovailoa experience in 2025 has been a lot like his overall experience as the Miami Dolphins‘ starting quarterback. There’s been ups and there’s been downs. The downs have been a little too frequent this season — there’s been multiple three-interception games and Tua has passed for over 205 yards once in a game in the last month and a half.
But the Dolphins’ starting quarterback is coming off a high, posting four passing touchdowns and a season-high passer rating (138.6) in a 34-10 romp over the Atlanta Falcons in Week 8. The big question for Miami and Tagovailoa for the rest of this season? How stable can his play be amid a questionable future?
At least one of his former teammates recently offered some insightful context in to what has happened to his game…and if he thinks Tagovailoa can recapture his form with consistency.
Ryan Fitzpatrick offers some insightful context to what’s going on with Tua Tagovailoa
“So here’s the thing with Tua…Tua’s always been great at timing throws, rhythm throws. Accuracy, anticipation — those are like his elite traits and I think what we’ve seen in the last few years, which is crazy, (is) he’s holding on to the ball a little bit more from two years ago, which was his best season, but his yards per attempt has gone down from nine to six yards.
You’ve got a less explosive offense and a guy that’s holding on to it a little bit more. He knows what his superpowers are and unfortunately, with his injuries and things, he went from a guy that hasn’t been able to create great when you get outside the confines of the offense, to (now) really there’s not a whole lot coming at all because he’s worried about staying on the field…but you see the greatness that’s still in there — that touchdown to Waddle last week. Go back and watch that throw, and watch the anticipation, when that ball leaves his hand, where he throws it, where Waddle is on the field when he throws that football.”
— Former Dolphins QB Ryan Fitzpatrick discussing Tua Tagovailoa on ‘The Fitz & Whit Podcast’
Tua Tagovailoa’s Miami Dolphins career by the numbers through Week 8 of the 2025 NFL season
- 40-30 record as a starter
- 17,024 passing yards
- 115 passing touchdowns
- 97.1 passer rating
Few NFL players are more likely to understand Tagovailoa than Fitzpatrick, given the time they shared together in the quarterback room in Miami for Tua’s rookie season in 2020 — plus the overlap between the two as NFL quarterbacks.
There’s not a lot about his assessment of Tua Tagovailoa’s play that you probably haven’t heard some variation of before — but what makes this all so fascinating was the schematic changes Miami made in Week 8 to their offense and how it allowed the team to tap into that same superpower element of Tua’s game that Fitzpatrick talked about.
Tua was back to dealing the ball quickly against the Falcons, much more so than any game this season. So is the changes to the personnel and the run game evolution a key to helping them get back to accessing more areas of the field that this offense usually hums in? Was the Week 8 performance catching middle of the field throws a one off? Fitzpatrick will get a chance to see Miami’s next chance at tapping back into Tua’s strengths along with the rest of us on Thursday Night Football against the Baltimore Ravens.
There’s a whole lot riding on his play with Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson returning to action. Let’s see which Tua we get.
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