Over the past two seasons, there are few NFL quarterbacks who have flourished quite as much as Tua Tagovailoa.

With coach Mike McDaniel and a new top target in Tyreek Hill, the former Alabama star has blossomed into one of the sport’s most productive quarterbacks. Last season, while guiding the Miami Dolphins to the playoffs for a second consecutive season, Tagovailoa threw for an NFL-best 4,624 yards while piloting an offense that averaged a league-high 401.3 yards per game.

According to Tagovailoa, his improvement over the past two seasons isn’t a coincidence.

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In an interview with “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” that aired Monday morning, Tagovailoa contrasted playing for McDaniel with his experience under former Dolphins coach Brian Flores, who was Tagovailoa’s coach his first two seasons in the NFL.

When making that assessment, he didn’t hold back.

"To put it in simplest terms, if you woke up every morning and I told you [that] you suck at what you did, that you don't belong doing what you do, that you shouldn't be here, that this guy should be here, that you haven't earned this right, and then you have somebody else come in and tell you, 'Dude, you are the best fit for this,'" Tagovailoa said. "How would it make you feel listening to one or the other, you see what I'm saying? And then you hear it, no matter what it is, the good or the bad, you hear it more and more, you start to believe that.

“I don't care who you are. You could be the president of the United States, you have a terrible person telling you things that you don't want to hear or probably shouldn't be hearing, you're going to start believing that about yourself. And so that's what sort of ended up happening. It was, it's basically been what two years of training that out of not just me but a couple of guys as well that have been here my rookie year all the way until now."

After being drafted by Miami with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, Tagovailoa joined a middling Dolphins organization desperate for its first franchise quarterback since Dan Marino retired 20 years earlier.

He began his rookie season behind veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick and even once he got the starting nod about midway through the season, he was benched twice by Flores in the fourth quarter. That uneasy relationship between Tagovailoa and his new team continued into his second season, when the franchise was reportedly among the potential suitors trying to swing a deal for Deshaun Watson.

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Despite guiding the Dolphins to a 19-14 record in his final two seasons, Flores was fired in January 2022 after three seasons at the helm.

He was replaced by McDaniel, whose innovative offense has unlocked a much more potent version of Tagovailoa than what was shown in his first two professional seasons. In two seasons under McDaniel, Tagovailoa has thrown for 8,172 yards, 54 touchdowns and 22 interceptions. Last season, he made his first Pro Bowl.

He has been rewarded handsomely for that production. In July, Tagovailoa and the Dolphins agreed to a four-year, $212.4 million contract extension, with $167.1 million of that guaranteed.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Tua Tagovailoa slams former Dolphins coach Brian Flores for his coaching style