The Miami Dolphins made waves on Wednesday when Mike McDaniel announced that Tua Tagovailoa would be benched and that rookie seventh-round pick Quinn Ewers would start in Week 16 against the Cincinnati Bengals.
This comes off the heels of the Dolphins' lopsided loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. While the game ended 28-15, it was even more lopsided than the 13-point differential made it out to be, as Miami trailed 28-3 in the fourth quarter.
The loss eliminated the Dolphins from playoff contention, but it was the aftermath of the game that caught the attention of a future Hall of Famer.
Tagovailoa was seen joking and laughing with former teammate Jalen Rams ey. Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show, J.J. Watt says he didn't like the look of that.
"I know that this is old man get off the lawn type-situation where it's old school," Watt said. "I'm a believer in there is at least a minimum responsibility on the optics and everything with the fanbase and understanding how everybody is feeling after a certain game or after the way the season is going. I'm not sitting here saying don't laugh [or] you can't talk to a friend after a game or anything like that. But like, I do think there are some optics of when you're cracking up, belly laughing on the field after you just lost a huge game in that way to be eliminated from the playoffs. That's a look that doesn't go over well."
Tagovailoa's future with the Dolphins is very up in the air. Should they move on from him, Miami eats a $99 million dead cap hit, which would be the largest in league history.
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