Dolphins announce Fitzpatrick as starter.

The Miami Dolphins made the presumed official.

Dolphins coach Brian Flores officially announced that Ryan Fitzpatrick will be the Week 1 starter against the New England Patriots.

The decision to start the season with FitzMagic under center has been anticipated for months.

The Dolphins will allow first-round pick Tua Tagovailoa time to learn from the sideline before getting his feet wet. Tua is recovering from an injury and will surely cherish the time to keep learning the system and the sidelne.

Fitzpatrick's play last year and knowledge of new offensive coordinator Chan Gailey's system made it the logical move over a rookie coming off a major injury who didn't have a full preseason to prep.

Like most highly drafted quarterbacks, we'd expect Tua to see the field at some point this season for a still-rebuilding Dolphins squad. When that is depends on how the season unfolds for Miami. With a rough slate of games to open the year -- at New England, vs. Buffalo, at Jacksonville, vs. Seattle, vs. San Francisco, at Denver and facing both L.A. teams -- the Dolphins could ride out the difficult storm before tossing Tua into the fray.

The Miami Dolphins will allow up to 13,000 socially distancing fans to attend their home opener against Buffalo on 20 September, a decision that divided political leaders and upset Bills coach Sean McDermott.

The same plan will be in place for the University of Miami’s home opener against UAB at the Dolphins’ stadium on 10 September.

Crowd size will be about 20% of the stadium’s 65,326-seat capacity, with the limitation imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Groups of spectators will be spaced 6ft apart.