Dolphins' Brian Flores: Tua Tagovailoa Isn't Facing 10-Game Audition After Debut

The Miami Dolphins aren't going to determine Tua Tagovailoa's fate as their quarterback of the future based on what happens over the rest of this season. 

Head coach Brian Flores told reporters on Thursday that the team wasn't "auditioning" Tagovailoa to potentially select another quarterback early in the 2021 NFL draft:

"I'm just going to tell you about my thinking. We brought Tua here because we believe in him, same as all the other draft picks. We believe in developing players ... and improving players on a daily basis. That would be the opposite of giving someone a 10-game audition. That's just my thinking on that, just so everybody's clear."

Flores was addressing a report from ESPN's Adam Schefter that said the Dolphins made Tagovailoa their starting quarterback last week because they "need to know what they have in Tagovailoa as they enter the 2021 draft with two picks in each of the first two rounds."

The idea is that Miami's extra draft capital would allow it to move up in the draft to potentially select a top quarterback prospect like Clemson's Trevor Lawrence or Ohio State's Justin Fields.

Tagovalioa was the Dolphins' first pick in the 2020 NFL draft (No. 5 overall). The former Alabama star does have injury concerns stemming from his college days. He underwent surgery to repair a dislocated hip and posterior wall fracture in November 2019 after suffering the injury during a game against Mississippi State.

It's not unprecedented for a team to move on from a quarterback after one year. The Arizona Cardinals selected Josh Rosen with the 10th draft pick in 2018 but decided to take Kyler Murray No. 1 overall the following year. 

One notable change for the Cardinals in that year was at head coach. Steve Wilks was fired after going 3-13, leading to the hiring of Kliff Kingsbury.

There's no indication that Miami is considering a change at head coach, especially with the team sitting at 4-3 through its first seven games this season.

Despite winning three out of their last four games with Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback, Tagovailoa was given the starting job coming out of the bye last week against the Los Angeles Rams. He finished 12-of-22 for 93 yards and one touchdown in Miami's 28-17 win.