{"id":832615,"date":"2026-03-25T07:36:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T07:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/832615\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T07:36:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T07:36:27","slug":"falcons-qb-tua-tagovailoa-addresses-unique-dysfunction-with-dolphins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/832615\/","title":{"rendered":"Falcons QB Tua Tagovailoa Addresses ‘Unique’ Dysfunction With Dolphins"},"content":{"rendered":"

In July 2024, Tua Tagovailoa<\/a> agreed<\/a> to a four-year, $212.4 million extension with the Miami Dolphins<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Miami selected Tagovailoa at No. 5 overall in the 2020 NFL Draft, and the Alabama alum found his stride with then-head coach Mike McDaniel. In 2023, Tagovailoa led the NFL with 4,624 passing yards, paired with 29 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, on 69.3% completion. The 11-6 Dolphins made the playoffs for a second straight season but lost to the eventual champion Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Wild Card.<\/p>\n

Less than two years later, the Dolphins released<\/a> Tagovailoa at the start of the new league year on March 11, and the 28-year-old quarterback signed<\/a> with the Atlanta Falcons<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Tagovailoa held his introductory press conference on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Tagovailoa was tight-lipped when asked about dysfunction within the Dolphins last season. <\/p>\n

“I don’t want to get too much 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,” he said. <\/p>\n

Tagovailoa declined to specify what he meant by “unique,” and instead just giggled.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Otherwise, Tagovailoa was an open book.<\/p>\n

“If you’re looking at last year, my play wasn’t up to the standard of the way I’ve been playing football the past three years since the new contract,” Tagovailoa told reporters<\/a>. “I just gotta play better football. That’s what that really means. There’s no other way to sugarcoat that or go around that.”<\/p>\n

Tagovailoa also detailed his thought process as he surveyed the league after becoming an unrestricted free agent:<\/p>\n

“You don’t choose a team based off of whether I’m gonna be starting or not,” he said. “I think you look at the entirety of the group, right? As I was looking at the other teams, I knew I had to compete regardless of what that was gonna look like. Coming here, I kind of know [Falcons quarterback] Mike [Penix Jr.] a little bit based off of his relationship with my little brother as they were coming out for the draft. In that sense, I got in contact with Mike and whatnot, talked with him. <\/p>\n

Moving forward from there, competition is just a thing in the NFL<\/a>. I am no stranger to competition. Had it in college, and I would say competition is just gonna be there. Competition enhances the play of everyone that you’re surrounded with. Last year wasn’t the best year for me, and I’m looking for a fresh start. But ‘fresh start’ in the sense of being able to compete, being able to go back out there and play football \u2014 good football \u2014 and I think the best football is still ahead of me.”<\/p>\n

Tagovailoa struggled immensely in 2025. He threw the second-most interceptions (15) in the NFL against just 20 touchdowns across 14 games. By mid-December, the Dolphins benched<\/a> Tagovailoa. <\/p>\n

Tagovailoa’s release was designated as a post-June 1 cut to allow for the Dolphins to spread out his NFL-record $99.2 million<\/a> in dead salary cap across two years.<\/p>\n

Falcons general manager Ian Cunningham told NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport that Tagovailoa “knows he’s coming in to compete<\/a>” with Penix Jr. for the starting job. Atlanta drafted Penix Jr. eighth overall in 2024.<\/p>\n

Penix Jr. underwent ACL reconstruction surgery<\/a> last November, so there are solid odds that Tagovailoa will be the Falcons’ Week 1 starter while Penix Jr. works back to 100%. Penix Jr. and Tagovailoa are both left-handed QBs.<\/p>\n

The Falcons finished 8-9 last season and fired<\/a> head coach Raheem Morris. Atlanta hired<\/a> former Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, who brought<\/a> offensive coordinator Tommy Rees with him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In July 2024, Tua Tagovailoa agreed to a four-year, $212.4 million extension with the Miami Dolphins. Miami selected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,251,6,3452],"class_list":{"0":"post-832615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-atlantafalcons","11":"tag-falcons","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-miami-dolphins","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-tua-tagovailoa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116288671734260813","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}