‘[If] you have a terrible person that’s telling you things that you don’t want to hear … you’re gonna start to believe that about yourself’
By Kari Anderson, Contributing Writer
Fresh off a new four-year, $212.4 million deal, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is heading into the 2024 season with a lot of confidence. Some of that confidence is spreading into how he speaks about his NFL experience, including under former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores.
In an interview with “The Dan Le Batard Show” on Monday, the fifth-year quarterback opened up about about training with his former coach. Tagovailoa was incredibly candid when explaining the difference between Flores, his former coach, and his current head coach Mike McDaniel.
“To put it in simplest terms,” Tagovailoa said, “if you woke up every morning and I told you, ‘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.’
“And then you have somebody else come in and tell you, ‘Dude, you are the best fit for this, like you are accurate, you are the best whatever. You are this, you are that.’ Like how would it make you feel listening to one or the other?”
Flores coached Tagovailoa, who was selected by Miami fifth overall in 2020, for his first two years in the league. McDaniel took over as head coach in 2021 after Flores was fired.
Tagovailoa spoke about gaining confidence and being more outspoken between his rookie season and now, saying that part of that was due to coaching changes.
“There’s been a lot of growth between Year 2 and then going on to Year 5 now,” Tagovailoa said, saying that he didn’t think he was “mature” enough when he was a rookie to be as blunt as he is now. “I’m not the same person I was last year,” he added.
And now, Tagovailoa is being open about his experience with Flores and how it affected how he thought of himself and his game.
“You hear it — regardless of what it is, the good or the bad — and you hear it more and more, you start to actually believe that. I don’t care who you are, you could be the President of the United States. [If] you have a terrible person that’s telling you things that you don’t want to hear, or that you probably shouldn’t be hearing, you’re gonna start to believe that about yourself,” Tagovailoa said.
Prior to becoming head coach of the Dolphins, Flores spent a decade in various roles with the New England Patriots under Bill Belichick, a coach known for being incredibly blunt and straightforward, with mixed results. Flores, who has spent the past season as a defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL in 2022, which is ongoing.
The 26-year-old quarterback said that he is now incredibly comfortable with McDaniel, who has been encouraging and has also been receptive to his ideas. That comfort has not come easy, with Tagovailoa having to move past some of those comments that Flores put into his head.
“It’s basically been, what, two years of training that out of, not just me but a couple of the guys as well that have been here since my rookie year,” Tagovailoa said.
Tagovailoa played well in his first two seasons, but started to come into his own on the team under McDaniel. He had a great season last year, throwing a career-high 29 touchdowns and a league-leading 4,624 yards.
Tagovailoa will head into this season hoping to cure the Dolphins’ playoff woes: The Dolphins have not advanced past the first round of the playoffs since 2000.