Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa pushes back on notion he's playing to keep his job

David Furones, South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Nov 5, 2025

Published in Football

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — For the first time since Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has been under coach Mike McDaniel, the question of whether he will soon be benched is legitimately in the public sphere.

An NFL.com report over the weekend indicated that, if Tagovailoa continues to play poorly in this 2-7 season in which he has thrown a league-leading 11 interceptions, the team could look to see what it has in backup quarterback Zach Wilson or third-string rookie Quinn Ewers.

While that is what’s in the media, the Dolphins’ left-handed passer said Wednesday that’s not what he’s hearing inside team facilities.

“I haven’t heard about any of that,” Tagovailoa said. “No social media for me, so that’s the first time I’m hearing it.”

McDaniel addressed the report Monday. He was unwilling to speculate into the future and maintained that he’s sticking with Tagovailoa to start at quarterback for Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills.

“We are certain that Tua gives us the best chance to win,” McDaniel said. “I think it’s pretty simple. We play the players that give us the best chance to win and, when that changes or if that changes or if somebody else gives us a better shot, then we adjust there.”

Tagovailoa pushed back on the notion that he’s playing to keep his job.

“I wouldn’t say I’m playing to keep my job. I would say I’m playing to help my team win every time,” Tagovailoa said. “I think that’s the objective for every quarterback that’s playing, for every football player.

“I would say my performance needs to be better, and my performance doesn’t reflect me trying to keep my job, because that’s not the standard in which I’ve been playing all these other years.”

McDaniel said Wednesday his message to his quarterback this week has been “just bringing it back to the nuts and bolts of football.”

What does that look like for Tagovailoa?

“Just the basics and the fundamentals of what got me playing the way I was playing last year, the year prior and so forth. It’s the footwork, matching that up with each play, and then the confidence within that,” he said.

As for Wilson and Ewers, Tagovailoa said Wednesday, “they’re doing really well with scout (team), they’re rotating through that and they’re competing.”

Tagovailoa reacted Wednesday to last Friday’s news that general manager Chris Grier, who drafted him in 2020, was let go.

“I really appreciate that he gave me the opportunity to get drafted here. All I can say is this is the nature of the NFL. That’s just the business aspect of it, but I appreciate Chris, I appreciate his wife, Paige, and the things they’ve done for this organization.”

He said it was tough to see outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips, whom he was teammates with for five seasons, get traded Monday.

“It’s the nature of the beast, and we all understand that. It’s the nature of the business,” Tagovailoa said. “I wish JP well, and hope he does well over there, but that’s just the nature of it.”

But Miami’s signal-caller was pleased to see most of his teammates remained past the deadline, especially on offense.

“Of course,” he said. “Those are the guys that I’ve been playing with for (several) years. When you can have those guys stay, it helps with everything — the game plan, just me being able to say the plays in the huddle normally and not worrying about, ‘am I going to have to tell this guy what to do on every play?’ ”

Tagovailoa is no longer on the team’s injury report for either his thumb injury on his throwing hand or “illness,” his eye issue that caused swelling Oct. 26 before the team’s win against the Atlanta Falcons.

The left eye still had redness in it Wednesday.

“It’s still red,” he said. “Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on with that. Taking all the antibiotics and whatnot, but it still hasn’t changed color.”