AFC East Notes: Tua Tagovailoa, Dolphins, Jets

Tua Tagovailoa

Dolphins’ first-round QB Tua Tagovailoa said he is entering the offseason program with the mentality that he will be competing for a starting role. 

“That has to be the mindset. Competition is usually always healthy. You get the entire quarterback room better that way,” said Tagovailoa, via Adam Beasley. 

Tagovailoa said he has “checked off all the boxes” with his recovery from a dislocated and fractured hip. 

“What the doctors have told me. As far as medical rechecks, I’ve checked off all the boxes. That’s what I’ve been standing on and what I’ve been going with,” said Tagovailoa, via Beasley. 

Dolphins

• Miami GM Chris Grier said of rumors surrounding the team leading up to the draft: “Brian (Flores) and I had a few laughs on some of the stuff that came out… For us, it was noise on the outside. Work through it and go through our process.” Flores added: “We didn’t know where a lot of this stuff was coming from. It was very interesting to say the least.” (Adam Beasley)
• Regarding potential trade options, Grier said: “We’re calling everyone and just doing homework. We talked to everybody. There was nothing definitive with anyone.” (Adam Beasley)
• Grier made it clear the team preferred to draft Tua Tagovailoa over Justin Herbert: “The decision to take Tua, Justin’s a really good player, but at the end of the day, we liked both players a lot but we thought Tua was the guy for us.” (Adam Beasley)

• Adam Schefter reports that the Dolphins never made an offer to trade up to either the Lions at No. 3 or Giants at No. 4 and were “content to stay” at their respective spot.    

Jets

New Jets OT Mekhi Becton failed a drug test at the Combine, but he says it was a “one-time mistake.”

“It was just a messed-up drug test, you know,” Becton told reporters, via Rich Cimini of ESPN. “I made a mistake, a young mistake that won’t happen again. It was a one-time mistake that’s never going to happen again.”

“The more I got honest with teams that asked about it, the more I felt better about it,” Becton continued. “They were just telling me, ‘Just be honest about it. Don’t try to lie.’ It was better for me to be honest about the whole situation.”

• Ian Rapoport notes that some teams around the NFL compared Jets’ first-round OT Mekhi Becton to former Ravens’ Hall of Fame OT Jonathan Ogden.