Tua Tagovailoa finally said out loud what we’ve long suspected about the 2025 Miami Dolphins
“It was unique.”
The Miami Dolphins are looking forward after a disastrous 2025 campaign.
But with the individual parties all shuttering off in their own new directions, they’re getting a chance to say hello to their new homes. For former Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, that meant an introductory press conference on Tuesday. And during his hello to Atlanta, he was asked (a lot) about his final season in Miami. Tagovailoa was generally not willing to say too much — but he finally said out loud what we suspected all season long. Folks were not on the same page.
Tua Tagovailoa (kind of) takes the high road when asked about the 2025 Dolphins debacle
Q. “You were vocal at times about things that were going on with the team…with your teammates. Can you give us some insight into what it was like last season in Miami and how that might have shaped the season that you had?”
A. “I don’t want to get too in depth with things that were going on — more so in terms of players to coaches than it was players to players. But it was unique in a sense. It was unique.”
Let’s start here: everyone involved in the 2025 Dolphins experience is probably going to be better off on their own headed in different directions moving forward. That includes Tua and that includes head coach Mike McDaniel. It also, most importantly, includes the Dolphins franchise — who was tethered to both and decided to hit reset with wholesale changes.
Half-resets too often don’t yield the necessary change and bring scar tissue that can linger. The Dolphins found that out the hard way when they moved on from Brian Flores while retaining former general manager Chris Grier and Tagovailoa in 2022. Everyone, including the franchise, is better from a wholesale change.
Yet it is worth noting that this isn’t the first time there’s been an allusion to issues between the coaching staff and players (or at least Tagovailoa) from 2025. It’s just the first time that has been said directly and out loud. The friction was evident last year between Tagovailoa’s post-game comments after losses to the Patriots and Chargers, while there was at least one occasion where McDaniel and his quarterback didn’t seem to be on the same page in the aftermath of a game about what went wrong — a loss to Buffalo in Week 3.
Perhaps we’ll never know the full extent of the issues at play — although Tagovailoa did say out loud that they existed. And I’m not one to judge who was in the right and the wrong, as I don’t know the full story, either. One thing that I do know? I’m glad it’s behind us.
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