If Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross showed up at a local taco shop, I’d buy him a California burrito and whatever he’s drinking.
When his fellow NFL team owners voted for the Raiders to move from Oakland to Las Vegas, Ross cast the lone vote in dissent and went public, saying “we as owners and as a league owe it to the fans to do everything we can to stay in the communities that have supported us until all options have been exhausted.”
In his own stadium game, when a public subsidy was denied, Ross financed a renovation himself and to good effect for the team, Dolphins fans and Miami.
Ross’ football stewardship, however, doesn’t inspire good cheer from Dolphins fans. Or from me.
Doing a disservice to the franchise’s 1970s greatness and awesome uniforms, the Dolphins have gone 25 years without a playoff victory.
Ross, the team’s majority owner since 2009, owns a lot of that misery.
This week one of the franchise’s larger draft-goofs was acknowledged with the announcement the team was parting with its longtime general manager, Chris Grier.
It was Grier who drafted Tua Tagovailoa fifth overall in 2020 in a move that came down to Tagovailoa, an accurate but often-injured Alabama star, and Justin Herbert, a powerful and fast, but sometimes clunky Oregon standout.
A Chargers braintrust led by Tom Telesco, Dean Spanos and John Spanos took Herbert with the No. 6 pick
Second-guessing is often cheap.
But in this case, the first-guessing was substantial.
Ahead of the ’20 draft several NFL scouts and team executives said Tagovailoa’s durability profile argued against taking him in the first round and especially up top, where the financial stakers are much greater.
The pessimism was strong. And it wasn’t wrong.
Tagovailoa has suffered numerous injuries, including three official concussions. He is, through no fault of his own, a finesse player at the highest level of a contact sport.
He’s a tough guy, for sure. His accuracy and touch can be very good.
What he’s not, is a star quarterback worthy of the No. 5 pick or the second contract — with $167.1 million in guaranteed money — that Grier gave him two summers ago. That deal looms as a large overpay through at least 2026.
Many pessimistic predraft critiques of Tua by NFL personnel men are known because they were shared with longtime NFL journalist Bob McGinn. Tagavailoa’s injury history being what it was, the stated doubts came off as authentic.
“There is concern, serious concern, about the durability,” a high-placed personnel man for an NFC team said in McGinn’s article for The Athletic. “The ankle, the hip, the size, you name it.”
“He’s a great college playerer but, wow, he is fragile,” an AFC personnel man said. “He’s a super kid and I don’t wish ill will, but there’s three, four or five red flags staring us all in the face saying, ‘You know what? This guy’s not going to be all that he’s cracked up to be.’ “
McGinn, who was in his 36th year of gathering NFL intel on the draft for a mainstream publication, surveyed 18 NFL executives in personnel, asking them this question:
On a scale of 1 to 10, what would be your level of concern regarding Tua Tagovailoa’s injury history?
With 10 as the high end of the scale, the average for the panel was 7.6. There were three 10s, seven 8s, four 7s, three 6s and one 4.
What can be gleaned from Miami’s failed investment?
Here’s one small lesson: watch how a QB lands on the ground, how he gets up and adjust his grade accordingly.
“When you watch the tape,” said one of McGinn’s experts, “there’s certain guys that get hit and bounce right back up. When Tua gets hit, it looks like a train wreck.”
Early in his NFL career, Tagovailoa indeed landed very hard, contributing to his injury setbacks and affecting the team’s play options. The quarterback, a 6-footer who weighed 217 pounds entering the draft, worked to improve his tumbling skills by training in Brazilian jiu jitsu and other martial arts during the 2024 offseason. He showed improvement. But it still appears the best phase of his career may come as a low-salaried veteran with a second or third club.
The Chargers, meantime, got a true franchise QB in Herbert, three years after passing on Patrick Mahomes when the Chiefs feared they’d take him.
Once again, when it comes to QB luck, few teams can match Spanos luck.