The Miami Dolphins aren’t ready for a quarterback change, no matter how well Ryan Fitzpatrick plays. Dolphins head coach Brian Flores reiterated Tua Tagovailoa will be his starting quarterback, even after Fitzpatrick completed 24 of 39 passes for 257 yards and two touchdowns in a victory over the New York Jets.
Tagovailoa missed Sunday’s game with a thumb injury, paving the way for Fitzpatrick to take over the starting quarterback duties once again. Fitzpatrick has four games with multiple touchdown passes and zero interceptions, but will remain the No. 2 quarterback behind Tagovailoa.
“Yeah, if he’s healthy, he’s the guy,” Flores said after the game. “I don’t know how many different ways we have to continue to say that. You keep asking, I’ll keep answering the same way. Again, he’s dealing with something with the hand. We’ll take it day-to-day.
“He’s a tough kid. He wants to be out there. Thankfully, we have other guys who stepped up. We can talk about Tua, but we had 52 other guys who went out there and played their butts off today in all three phases. We were able to get a division win on the road. We’re excited to win. We’ll enjoy the win and then turn the page and move on to the next opponent, the Bengals.”
Since Fitzpatrick replaced Tagovailoa in the fourth quarter of a Week 11 loss to the Denver Broncos, he’s 36 for 56 for 374 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. He’s completed 68.5% of his passes for 1,909 yards with 12 touchdowns and eight interceptions on the season (93.1 quarterback rating).
Fitzpatrick has been in and out of the lineup his entire career, so the back-and-forth doesn’t phase him. His job is simple: help the Dolphins win football games.
“I do think that’s important and I think just in the quarterback room in general having each other’s backs and supporting each other,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think that’s very important because it is such a tough position to play. I’ve now been put in a different role and when my number’s called, I’m going to go out there and win games for this team. So Flo (Brian Flores) is the head coach and we listen and respect what he says and we go from there.”
