Greg Olsen played 14 years in the NFL. He knows what dysfunction looks like, and he saw all the warning signs when Tua Tagovailoa stood at the podium after Miami’s loss to the Chargers and called out his teammates for skipping player-led meetings.
Olsen appeared on Wake Up Barstool on Monday and explained what player-led meetings actually mean when they start happening in Week 4 or Week 5. And while from an outsider’s perspective it might look like a sign of leadership taking hold, Olsen maintained that it’s more of a sign that everything has already fallen apart.
“I think player-led meetings are usually when all hell has broken loose, and there’s nobody running the show, and things have just gotten completely out of touch,” Olsen said. “That’s my experience around locker rooms that felt the need to do those.”
.@gregolsen88 and @BarstoolGruden weigh in on player-led meetings https://t.co/daE5Aw6CWY pic.twitter.com/uXU1ord6dA
— Wake Up Barstool (@wakeupbarstool) October 13, 2025
Olsen had an old NFL saying for this exact situation. If player-led meetings are happening this early, you might as well pack your stuff because everyone’s getting fired. It’s not a rallying point. It’s a last-ditch effort that rarely works. By the time players are organizing their own accountability sessions outside the formal team structure, the problems have already spread too far.
The Dolphins are 1-5. Mike McDaniel was already on the hot seat coming into the season. The team looks nothing like the squad that went 11-6 three years ago, and now there are multiple player-led meetings happening, meetings some guys aren’t even showing up for.
At least that’s what Tagovailoa decided to tell the world after Sunday’s loss.
“Well, I think it starts with the leadership and helping articulate that for the guys,” Tua told reporters. “And then what we’re expecting out of the guys, right? We’re expecting this —are we getting that —are we not getting that? We have guys showing up to player-only meetings late, guys not showing up to player-only meetings. Like, there’s a lot that goes into that. Do we have to make this mandatory, do we not have to make this mandatory? So it’s a lot of things of that nature that we’ve gotta get cleaned up, and it starts with the little things like that.”
Tua Tagovailoa tells reporters that Dolphins players have been late and/or skipping players-only meetings in recent weeks.
Eye-opening example of problems with 1-5 Miami Dolphins. Tua begins answer: “it starts with the leadership.” (H/T @MiamiDolphins). pic.twitter.com/qVbFLVLxAT
— Cameron Wolfe (@CameronWolfe) October 12, 2025
Tagovailoa was asked about leadership, and instead of giving the standard answer about staying together and being better, he aired it all out. Guys showing up late. Guys not showing up at all. The clip went viral immediately, and McDaniel had to clean it up the next day, calling the post-game presser the wrong forum and describing Tagovailoa’s comments as a “misguided representation” of the player-led film sessions.
Too late.
That’s where Olsen had a problem with how Tagovailoa handled it. Not the honesty portion of it, being that Olsen has been in that spot before, standing in front of cameras and admitting his team wasn’t good enough. The issue was execution.
“I don’t mind him being honest,” Olsen said. “There’s been many times in my career where I stood in front of a camera and I said, ‘Listen, we stink. We haven’t been good.’ But I think you have to include yourself in the negative.”
Tagovailoa talked about guys showing up late, guys not showing up at all, and the need to clean up the little things. But he positioned himself outside the problem. It sounded like Tagovailoa versus the rest of the locker room, and that’s never a good look for a quarterback, especially one whose leadership has been questioned throughout his career.
Olsen explained his rule for handling these moments. If you’re going to stand at the podium and be critical, you include yourself in the group. You don’t stand there talking about what other guys aren’t doing unless you’re willing to own your part in the mess. Behind closed doors, you can be as direct as you need to be. In public, when things are falling apart, you put yourself in it.
“I always believed that if I’m going to stand there and be critical, I’m going to include myself in the group,” Olsen said. “It can’t be ‘Those guys are not doing a good job. Those guys are being late. Those guys are not paying attention to detail.’ Whatever it is. So, that was his mistake. I don’t mind him being honest. I don’t like the fact that it appeared he was talking about everyone other than himself.”
As the quarterback of a 1-5 team, whether the problems are your fault or not, you have to position yourself as part of the problem. If you don’t, it becomes divisive. It becomes me versus you. And that only makes things worse.
McDaniel tried to walk it back on Monday, but his quarterback inevitably placed him in a tough spot. Now there’s an entire media cycle trying to figure out who Tagovailoa was talking about and whether the locker room is fractured beyond repair. Tagovailoa has spent most of this season defending himself and his teammates from various criticisms. This time, instead of defending, he went on offense.
Whether it works or backfires depends on how the rest of the locker room responds, and whether Miami can somehow turn this season around. But if Olsen’s experience means anything, player-led meetings in Week 5 don’t usually end with everyone keeping their jobs.