Dan Patrick couldn’t resist taking a shot at Tua Tagovailoa while the quarterback sits out with an oblique injury.
On his Dan Patrick Show podcast, the longtime sportscaster framed Tagovailoa’s absence as a strange kind of contribution to two teams chasing the same thing. “Congratulations to Tua Tagovailoa, he is actually helping two teams compete for the number 1 pick.”
The joke landed against a real backdrop in Miami. The Dolphins are carrying the weight of Tagovailoa’s contract, and the financial hit has limited what they can do.
Their offseason flexibility is expected to improve next year, with close to $100 million in cap space coming back, but Tagovailoa will still leave behind a sizable dead-money charge. Miami chose to spread that impact over two seasons.
That money situation has already shaped how the Dolphins have operated. Rather than being aggressive in free agency, they’ve been pushed toward cheaper moves, leaning on low-cost veterans, draft picks and undrafted free agents. It’s the kind of roster-building path that can leave a team thin fast - and, as Patrick pointed out, it can also point a franchise toward the top of the draft board.
The Falcons’ mess is different, but the result looks just as ugly. Their problem isn’t the cap; it’s availability.
According to the source material, they haven’t taken a single snap inside the red zone this year. Tagovailoa was given the starting job, then injured his back, which forced Atlanta to turn to Cooper Rush while Michael Penix Jr. was still recovering.
On Sunday, Rush was pulled, and undrafted rookie Jack Strand finished the game.
Meanwhile, Tagovailoa is on the bench watching it unfold, and his absence has already cost the Falcons two chances to win. Kevin Stefanski brought Tua to Atlanta to provide veteran leadership and quality competition for Penix.
The Falcons announced on Monday that Penix will start in Week 3, though they did not say anything about Tagovailoa’s status as the backup. There’s been plenty of speculation that Atlanta could eventually move on from him, especially if Penix plays well, but Penix’s own injury issues complicate that picture.
For now, the punchline is that Tagovailoa’s absence is affecting both sides in very different ways. In Miami, the contract fallout is helping steer the franchise’s path.
In Atlanta, the problem is simply getting bodies on the field. Either way, Patrick’s jab was built on enough truth to sting.
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For Miami, the number matters because it reflects more than just an early stumble. A point differential that ugly puts the Dolphins in the same conversation as the leagues worst teams and leaves them with little room to argue they have been more competitive than the standings suggest, even with a long season still ahead. The AFC has already begun to separate into teams building a cushion and teams scrambling to avoid an early hole, and Miami has work to do before the gap turns into something harder to dig out of. [Read more 🡒]