It has been a rough time for Tua Tagovailoa in recent years, and he needs all the public support he can get, even if it comes from himself.
The Miami Dolphins cut Tua after the 2025 season, following a precipitous drop in form and struggles with injuries. In doing so, they ate an NFL-record $99.2 million in dead cap space to move on and start over.
Tagovailoa was able to find a new home with the Atlanta Falcons, where he is competing with former first-round draft pick Michael Penix Jr. for the starting job. While the Falcons haven’t won the NFC South since 2016, some decent quarterback play to go along with their exciting skill position players could provide some serious competition in an open division.
However, that quarterback play has remained a huge question mark. And after neither quarterback won the job during the preseason, the Falcons have yet to name a starter with the regular season just a week away.
However, Tua Tagovailoa is at least still trying to win Falcons fans over, although his recent post on Instagram was the equivalent of a social media pick-six.
Tagovailoa posted a picture of himself in a Falcons uniform with the caption “For the A.” That is obviously not a story. However, the first comment underneath the post was himself commenting “We’re so proud of you! You got this!” with a heart emoji. The comment was screenshotted and shared several times before it was finally deleted.
Tua forgot to switch to his burner 😭 pic.twitter.com/SrznFjLYJA
— Austin Latham (@AustinLatham25) September 1, 2026
It’s easy to see this, point and laugh, and assume some wider Kevin Durant burner activity is ongoing, with Tua Tagovailoa scrolling the internet trying to silence critics and hype up his chances of winning the Falcons’ starting quarterback job. Of course, a much more logical explanation is that whoever is managing his social media accounts forgot to log back into his or her personal account before leaving the supporting message.
Still though, as innocuous as the truth probably is, it still stands as a symbol of Tua’s fall down the NFL pecking order at quarterback. And it shows he needs all the help and hope he can get to get his career back on track.
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