Brian Flores Should Have Just Lied About Reason For Pulling Tua Tagovailoa

Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores made headlines on Sunday when he pulled rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa from the team's game against the Denver Broncos. Most assumed Tagovailoa had been injured, but after the game Flores said he wasn't hurt and was benched for performance. He should have just lied and said his rookie was hobbled.

Flores has now created a controversy by saying Tua was fine and Ryan Fitzpatrick was brought in to try and win the game. Sure, the head coach should have been honest with his players, but there was no reason to tell the media he was pulling his rookie for performance issues. Now he'll have to answer questions about it for the rest of the year.

On Monday's episode of NFL Live, Ryan Clark agreed, saying Flores should have just lied and said Tagovailoa was banged up and that's why he was replaced:

Two things will happen now, the media will constantly be asking Tagovailoa and Flores about the team's quarterback situation and Tagovailoa will be looking over his shoulder every time he makes a questionable decision. Which is awful because he's a rookie and is supposed to work through poor decisions.

This was mismanagement by Flores. The Dolphins are now 6-4 and do have a legitimate shot at the playoffs, but Tagovailoa's development should be far more important to the franchise than a wild card berth. Flores has created controversy where there shouldn't have been any.