Despite the departure of Mike McDaniel and the hiring of new head coach Jeff Hafley, the promotion of Bobby Slowik to offensive coordinator may have come as a shock to some Dolphins fans. As last year’s passing game coordinator however, Slowik grew to be familiar with the QB room and most importantly, the play of Tua Tagovailoa. That’s why, when he spoke to the media this week, he was quick to lend an opinion on him.
Tagovailoa had a particularly rough season last year, throwing 20 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. Still, Slowik was quick to praise him for handling the situation.
“What I can say, you know, last year, that was a difficult year — a difficult year for him without a doubt, for a lot of different reasons. What I think jumped out to me was the grace [in which] he handled that with the way he went about his daily routine through that season, even at the end of the year, the kind of person he was to everybody and to his teammates — you can’t say enough about that, about how good of a person he was and how he handled that situation”, Slowik said of his quarterback.
Slowik Praises Tua’s Leadership Through Adversity
For Dolphins fans, this may not necessarily be reassuring as several of them surely wish to see Tagovailoa gone. Yet Slowik was also quick to acknowledge that with a new coaching staff, they were still in the “evaluation” stages of assessing not just the roster at large, but the quarterback room as well.
A New Regime, an Uncertain Future at Quarterback
Both head coach Jeff Hafley and general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan had made comments about Tua’s situation, saying that they will make a decision at the QB position during the offseason. With Tua still open for a fresh start elsewhere, anything is possible for the franchise moving forward.
Still, for someone to be benched for the final three games of the season, having only thrown for 200+ yards in eight of his team’s first fourteen games, it’s never a good sign. Also, considering the fact that Hafley seems to have a run first mindset and wishes to control the line of scrimmage, he may just want a guy who can step into the role and not make mistakes.
For Slowik, it will be more of a question on whether there will be internal improvement from Tua as much as external. While he certainly believes that Tua can turn his career around, he can’t quite put a finger on one specific thing that will help him achieve it.
“It’s never as simple as one thing, ever,” Slowik said. “It’s always a lot of different things that can go into it, and I could not pinpoint any specific area, not really. I just know it was very difficult year for him, and I know that everything he could control and how we went through the year, he did a phenomenal job of controlling those things.”
Whatever it is, Dolphins fans had better hope it comes to him quick should he be the QB1 next year.
Christopher Sheppard Christopher Sheppard is a passionate and knowledgeable sports journalist based in Englewood, NJ pursuing a role in the sports media industry. He covers the NFL for Heavy Sports, focusing on the Dolphins, Chargers, and Buccanneers. More about Christopher Sheppard
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