{"id":842404,"date":"2026-03-30T05:38:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T05:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/842404\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T05:38:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T05:38:27","slug":"how-tua-tagovailoa-kevin-stefanski-relate-before-pairing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/842404\/","title":{"rendered":"How Tua Tagovailoa, Kevin Stefanski relate before pairing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/atlanta-falcons\/falcons-news-tua-tagovailoa-expected-to-sign-with-atlanta-after-dolphins-release\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Atlanta Falcons bringing in Tua Tagovailoa<\/a> to the team after being let go by the Miami Dolphins, he&#8217;s looking to have a fresh start under new head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/kevin-stefanski\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kevin Stefanski<\/a>. As <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/atlanta-falcons\/falcons-news-tua-tagvailoa-expects-compete-starting-qb-job\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tagovailoa will compete for the Falcons&#8217; starting job<\/a>, Stefanski would reveal how he and the former Dolphins star are similar in a lot of ways.<\/p>\n<p>If there is one thing for sure that both defenders and naysayers of Tagovailoa can agree on, it&#8217;s that he&#8217;s been doubted his whole NFL career. Now entering a new team, he has the \u2018chip on his shoulder&#8217; as Stefanksi said,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/falcons-hc-kevin-stefanski-shares-chip-on-shoulder-with-tua-tagovailoa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> something that he can relate to<\/a> after he was fired by the Cleveland Browns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere&#8217;s something to be said when you&#8217;re fired,\u201d Stefanski said, according to NFL.com. \u201cI can attest to that. You want to prove people wrong. You have a chip on your shoulder. I think where I&#8217;m coming into this, where Tua&#8217;s coming into this is, listen, this is not exactly how you thought it would go, but guess what, that&#8217;s the reality, and how are we gonna respond? I think that&#8217;s what he&#8217;s made of. You look back at his career, you look back at his college career, he&#8217;s responded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kevin Stefanski talks about the fit with Tua Tagovailoa and the Falcons<\/p>\n<p>With the<a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/atlanta-falcons\/falcons-news-atlanta-adds-qb-michael-penix-jr-tua-tagovailoa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Falcons quarterback room also featuring Michael Penix Jr<\/a>., there is no doubt going to be a competition between the left-handed signal-callers. Tagovailoa has shown promise, like when he led the NFL in passing yards in 2023 with 4,624 to go along with 29 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, but with injuries and a regressed 2025 season, there are questions.<\/p>\n<p>However, Stefanski is confident that Tagovailoa is a \u201cgood fit\u201d in Atlanta.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the football fit, the personal fit, I think he&#8217;s looking for a place where he can go and compete for a starting job, and that&#8217;s what we are offering to him,\u201d Stefanski said. \u201cHe wants to do what&#8217;s best for this football team. We&#8217;re excited to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen if Tagovailoa wins the Falcons&#8217; starting gig and if he&#8217;ll bounce back.<\/p>\n<p>With the Atlanta Falcons bringing in Tua Tagovailoa to the team after being let go by the Miami Dolphins, he&#8217;s looking to have a fresh start under new head coach Kevin Stefanski.  As Tagovailoa will compete for the Falcons&#8217; starting job, Stefanski would reveal how he and the former Dolphins star are similar in a lot of ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Atlanta Falcons bringing in Tua Tagovailoa to the team after being let go by the Miami&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,8591,1879,6,3452],"class_list":{"0":"post-842404","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-kevin-stefanski","14":"tag-michael-penix-jr","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-tua-tagovailoa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116316517658283812","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842404","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=842404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}