Omar Kelly: Are the Dolphins getting cold feet with Tua?

MIAMI — Healthy marriages are built on love, trust and compromise.

The Miami Dolphins organization claims it loves love Tua Tagovailoa, believe he’s the franchise quarterback and stands behind the statistically elite passer.

But where is the proof?

Was it when the franchise publicly courted Deshaun Watson and gave Tagovailoa a dysfunctional offense with very little weaponry around him in 2021?

Or was it when Brian Flores was fired at the end of that season — despite rebounding from a 1-7 start to win eight of the season’s final nine games — because of his inability to work collaboratively with others, which included Tagovailoa, whom Flores had a falling out with in front of the team after a critical 34-3 loss to Tennessee in Week 17, which extinguished Miami’s chances of making the playoffs that season?

How about when owner Steve Ross and general manager Chris Grier secretly, and illegally courted Sean Payton and Tom Brady to coach and quarterback the team in the offseason that followed, right before they hired Mike McDaniel?

And now, despite Tagovailoa leading the Dolphins to the playoffs the past two season while orchestrating one of the NFL’s best offenses, despite him leading the NFL in passer rating (105.5) in 2022, and passing yards (4,624) in 2023, the franchise is nickle and diming its AFC Pro Bowl-starting quarterback on the multiyear extension it claimed was the organization’s top priority this offseason.

Can Tagovailoa really trust the Dolphins?

Last year, when all his peers — Jalen Hurts, Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow — were getting lucrative multiyear deals, Grier and Co. gave Tagovailoa the cold shoulder. Miami wouldn’t even make an offer, and told the quarterback who has delivered four straight winning seasons for the first time in franchise history since Miami managed seven straight winning seasons from 1997 to 2003, to prove himself by staying healthy for an entire season.

Tagovailoa did that, and was an MVP candidate heading into the season’s final week. Yet here we are, a month from the start of training camp, and a deal hasn’t gotten done.

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