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Marcel Louis-JacquesESPN
MIAMI — Amid reports of the Dolphins‘ interest in trading for Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, current starter Tua Tagovailoa was asked whether he felt wanted by the team.
He smiled while he answered.
“I don’t not feel wanted,” he said. “That’s what I could say.”
Tagovailoa, a second-year quarterback, has played the best two-game stretch of his career over the past two weeks, completing 75% of his passes for 620 yards and six touchdowns against three interceptions in a pair of losses for the 1-6 Dolphins. Despite his play, Miami continues to be named in reports as Watson’s preferred destination should the Texans trade him before the Nov. 2 deadline.
Following Sunday’s loss to the Atlanta Falcons, Tagovailoa said he and coach Brian Flores had conversations about the reports and that Flores said he reaffirmed Tagovailoa’s status as Miami’s starting quarterback.
Beyond that, Tagovailoa said he largely ignores any outside noise.
“I really don’t think about it,” he said. “The only time I’m really hearing about it, like I’ve said before, is if [the communications staff] is kind of telling me what’s going on within the rumors or if my agent calls me. That’s really when I hear it. Other than that, I don’t really hear it.”
Tagovailoa said he doesn’t “have any control over” whether Flores or general manager Chris Grier will definitively put a stop to any trade rumors. He said he’s focused on the Dolphins’ upcoming game against the Buffalo Bills and that, in fact, he doesn’t even know when the trade deadline is.
Tagovailoa declined to divulge what exactly his conversations with Flores entailed but did say he came away confident in his place on the team.
“Honestly, I don’t base my emotions off of who says anything about me or who is saying what,” he said. “All I can do is my job and do it to the best of my capabilities. Everything else, I mean it’s out of my control. But I have the utmost confidence and trust that I am the quarterback of this team, just off of conversations that I’ve had with Flo and whatnot.
“That obviously stays between us. But yeah, I feel very confident that I’m the person.”