Tua Tagovailoa disses Brian Flores: What did the QB say about the former Dolphins coach?

The Miami Dolphins beat the Washington Commanders over the weekend to extend their preseason record to 2-0 heading into the final week of tune up games. Tua Tagovailoa has played in just one series over those two games, but he is making headlines for something he said off the field.

Tua told he “sucks”

Talking on The Dan LeBetard Show, the quarterback who has thrown a bit of shade at his former coach Brian Flores. Flores was the coach of the Dolphins when Tua got drafted back in 2020, and the current QB1 in South Beach says he wasn’t the biggest fan of his former boss’s coaching style.

Tua is now regarded as one of the top quarterbacks in the game and the leader of one of the most potent offenses in the league. It hasn’t always been like that according to the quarterback who just got a massive contract extension worth $212.4 million for four years.

“To put it in simplest terms, if you woke up every morning and I told you [that] you suck at what you did, that you don’t belong doing what you do, that you shouldn’t be here, that this guy should be here, that you haven’t earned this right, and then you have somebody else come in and tell you, ‘Dude, you are the best fit for this,’” Tua told the Podcast host. “How would it make you feel listening to one or the other, you see what I’m saying?

Tua tops the passing yards list

After winning a National Championship as a freshman, Tua was taken with the 5th pick in the NFL Draft by the Miami Dolphins. He played under coach Flores but was benched midway through the season as Ryan Fitzpatrick took his place. After that season, rumors began to swirl that the Dolphins wanted to trade for Deshaun Watson which would have booted Tua out of Miami.

“And then you hear it, no matter what it is, the good or the bad, you hear it more and more, you start to believe that. I don’t care who you are. You could be the president of the United States, you have a terrible person telling you things that you don’t want to hear or probably shouldn’t be hearing, you’re going to start believing that about yourself. And so that’s what sort of ended up happening. It was, it’s basically been what two years of training that out of not just me but a couple of guys as well that have been here my rookie year all the way until now.”

Obviously that hasn’t been the case for Tagovailoa lately. Flores was fired after the 2021 season, despite seasons of 9 and 10 wins. Mike McDaniel replaced Flores as the head coach and since then Tua has established himself as a top passer in the NFL.

Two years ago he had the highest passer rating in the league, despite missing significant time due to concussions he suffered throughout the season. He got back to full strength last season and ended up leading the league with 4,624 passing yards.