Naturally here’s some big AFC East quarterback news for the Buffalo Bills. But double that importance since… the Bills and Miami Dolphins faceoff early in the upcoming season, Week 2 to be exact.
The Dolphins entered their current training camp with a quarterback battle, of sorts. As the fifth-overall pick by the Dolphins, Tua Tagovailoa is going to eventually see snaps and probably at some point this upcoming season.
However, it appears that the Dolphins will be rolling with Ryan Fitzpatrick to start things off. A new report from NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo indicates that we should expect to see Fitz under center Week 1 as things currently stand for Miami at training camp, which increases the chances he’s still in there for their second game of the season against the Bills, the Dolphins’ home opener.
Per Garafolo:
“[Miami head coach] Brian Flores comes from the Bill Belichick school of competition. He wouldn’t declare a starting quarterback in this competition this early. But the expectation is you’re looking at the starter in Ryan Fitzpatrick.”
Garafolo went on to indicate that Tagovailoa will have to beat out Fitzpatrick in the coming days in order start over him. That’s an important note because Tagovailoa enters the NFL after suffering a brutal hip injury toward the end of his career at Alabama. But evidently his health is not playing a role here, this is just a straight-up QB battle.
Our friends at Dolphins Wire suggest to Miami fans there’s no reason to worry. Working the rookie in slow is OK, especially during a pandemic, DW’s Kyle Crabbs writes:
Early reports from Dolphins camp suggest that Tagovailoa hasn’t been bad by any means, but he’s also hasn’t been able to blow things out of the water during his time on the practice field. Some of his issues have fallen at the feet of working with backups and some of his reps, especially on Monday, were conservative. But don’t push the panic button just yet, Dolphins fans. Remember, this is as untraditional of an offseason as you’ll ever see — and Tagovailoa hasn’t taken snaps since last November. All reports indicate that he looks fluid and mobile, which is more important than questioning if he’s mastered his offense without ever taking a single snap in a game setting.
But as mentioned, the Bills, as things currently sit, will probably see their former starting QB in Fitzpatrick start against them in Week 2. But the second time these two AFC East foes see each other is in Week 17 in Buffalo. Who knows what could happen by then? Most would suggest that’d be Tua’s first start against the Bills, but if we see some FitzMagic going on and the Dolphins have a much stronger year than many anticipate? The jury will be out then.
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