Long-time Miami Dolphins beat reporter and now Senior NFL writer for OutKick Armando Salguero wrote a piece on the Dolphins’ current situation Friday with a breakdown of the relationship between Brian Flores and Tua Tagovailoa. 

In the article, it was reported that one of the issues former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores had with Tua was that Flores questioned his work ethic and told some people Tua’s work ethic was “sh-tty” and he didn’t like that Tua didn’t put in extra work on Monday’s and Tuesday’s during game weeks and would play golf on his off days.

Per Armando, Flores was hard on Tua about it and Flores wasn’t quiet about it and made it known he didn’t like this (the golf and not putting in extra work) even when others were around.  According to Armando’s sources when Flores found out Tua was golfing on his off days in the season he would become upset and criticize him for that.

You could make the case that Tua felt unwanted as the Watson rumors wouldn’t end and started in late February/early March and lasted up until the trade deadline in early November, and the head coach, general manager, and owner wouldn’t squash them so he felt the need to not go above and beyond to put in extra work as the organization was trying to move on from him and not treating him right. It would be a normal human reaction to feel that way and act out that way. But, when you factor in May of 2021 Tua during a media session said he didn’t fully know the playbook as a rookie, it does put Tua in a bad light with this story on top of that. And it does make some wonder if he does lack the necessary work ethic and drive to be a top-flight starting NFL quarterback who can lead a team to the playoffs and Super Bowl.

Also per the Salguero article, “At one point in the 2021 season, he told people within the organization, “We’ll never win a championship with this guy,” referring to Tagovailoa.”

This is bad optics for Tua any way you slice it and this will stick to him that he isn’t putting in extra work and that he doesn’t know the playbook completely, and until he proves it’s not true and has success on the field to back that up, this will stick to him moving forward.

It has been confirmed by numerous sources, and again by Armando in this article, that Brian Flores in 2020 prior to the draft did want Tua as his quarterback and did support and want Miami to select him with the 5th overall pick. But Flores soured on Tua fast and fell out of love with him quickly.

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