Remember when Sean Payton said that Tua Tagovailoa would be benched?
May my words be ever soft and low, for I may have to eat them. — Norman Lamont
So. In 2022, when Tua Tagovailoa still had an uncertain future with the Miami Dolphins, and Sean Payton was in between coaching gigs, Payton appeared on the Colin Cowherd show and put it right out there — that Tagovailoa would be benched at some point.
Here's now-Broncos coach Sean Payton, 375 days ago, saying Tua Tagovailoa would be benched for Teddy Bridgewater starting a QB controversy for the Miami Dolphins.
Dolphins 70 | Broncos 20 pic.twitter.com/ZZVywSy61f
— Adam Silverstein (@SilversteinAdam) September 24, 2023
“I think at some point, we’ll see two [quarterbacks] in Miami,” Payton said last year. “They played well yesterday with Tua, but Teddy Bridgewater, who I’ve had before [in New Orleans], he’s an outstanding player. And I think that’s one of the unique things about this year — I counted eight teams where I believe we’re going to see multiple quarterbacks play. Not relative to injury, but just a controversy, if you will.”
Maybe Payton was engaging in some pre-emptive wishful thinking, because in Miami’s 70-20 beatdown of the Broncos on Sunday, Tagovailoa completed 23 of 26 passes for 309 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 155.8 — and the Dolphins became the first team in the history of professional football to score 10 offensive touchdowns in one game.
