Why Ryan Fitzpatrick believes Miami Dolphins' Tua Tagovailoa can be an elite prospect

Former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores took two different approaches to dealing with quarterbacks Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tua Tagovailoa in 2020, Fitzpatrick said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters.

Fitzpatrick, speaking on a call to promote Amazon Prime Video's coverage of Thursday night's Dolphins-Bills game, was asked about comments Tagovailoa made on Dan LeBatard's show last month. Tagovailoa sharply criticized Flores for telling him he “sucks.” He concluded that Flores was a “terrible person” to him during his rookie season. Fitzpatrick, an analyst for Amazon, was Miami's starting quarterback for six games in 2020 before the team was handed over to Tagovailoa.

“I would say there's a certain style that Flo trained, and he trained me differently than Tua,” Fitzpatrick said. “I would say Flo's intention was to get the best out of Tua, and I think when you put his training style with Brian Flores in context with what Mike McDaniel did, which was come in and love him and tell him how great he is, it probably made it seem even worse than it probably was at that point.