Mike Florio believes Deshaun Watson rumors affected Tua Tagovailoa’s play
The Miami Dolphins have been on a roll the past four weeks, winning each of their contests and improving to 5-7 on the season.
Through this stretch, it’s been Miami’s defense that has carried them to victories, but their quarterback has shown signs of improvement as well. Tua Tagovailoa has played in three of the wins, starting two of them, and with his opportunities, he’s completed 81% of his passes for 661 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception with a passer rating over 100.
It’s interesting that their string of victories coincides with the passing of the trade deadline. On Wednesday, PFT’s Mike Florio mentioned that he believes that the quieting of trade rumors has impacted Miami’s quarterback.
“I think that he has improved significantly in recent weeks due in large part to the fact that the door has slammed on the Deshaun Watson talk,” Florio said. “I believe that affected him. I believe it was an issue. I believe he felt undermined. He felt the team didn’t believe in him. He felt he didn’t get a fair chance. And, once the window closed on a potential Deshaun Watson trade maybe he internalized his feelings and decided you know what? I’m going to go out there and prove to them that they don’t need Deshaun Watson.”
Florio is probably right in some ways. It can’t feel great to have everybody around you questioning your ability and asking someone else to take your job. At the same time, however, it’s the NFL, and that is going to happen throughout most players’ careers.
If this is the motivation that Tagovailoa needs to take the next step, maybe the team will stop having trade rumors leak out in the offseason.
