The Facts: GM Chris Grier said last week that Tagovailoa will be the starting quarterback for 2021, which suggests a long evaluation or deep exam of the starting quarterback position is either complete or not necessary. And that caught the attention of at least three players within the team because they have told the Herald in recent days they didn’t see enough from Tagovailoa in 2020 to promise him, well, anything for next season. “I understand what they said,” one player told Herald staffer Aramando Salguero. “But I don’t understand why.”

Diehards Line: These players told Salguero they remain hopeful Tagovailoa will improve, but admitted he was not outstanding as a rookie, in their opinions. And anyone who watched the Dolphins last season indeed saw Tagovailoa was good at times and not good at others. “I think Tua has made a lot of improvement, really developed over the course of the year, so we’ll just continue to try to make those improvements,” HC Brian Flores said. But the concerning thing to the players who spoke to Salguero is they are not convinced Tagovailoa is going to be great in the future. They said they were unimpressed by Tagovailoa during training camp to the point they thought he wouldn’t be ready to play in 2020. They said they were “caught totally off guard,” as one put it, when Tagovailoa was named the starter the seventh game of the season. Salguero's sourcees all agree Tagovailoa is a great person. But the players also say they don’t see a special trait in Tagovailoa’s skill set beyond his accuracy. This raises questions about the confidence at least a handful of Dolphins players have about their 2021 starting quarterback. It’s unknown if other players agree or disagree. But it also raises the question why Grier and Flores are showing so much confidence in Tagovailoa. Because everything they have seen — the closed practices, the meetings, the preparation Tagovailoa does — is also seen by most of the players. It's an interesting situation. One worth watching.