Ignorance is bliss. That is an important phrase that applies to football fans worldwide about quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. There was a perfect example of this last week when one sports anchor from the Boston area claimed Tagovailoa was a mediocre quarterback. The problem with that is that he is on the outside looking in. We’ve all been there when someone who doesn’t live in our house thinks they can tell us what is happening inside our house.
At this point, claiming Tua Tagovailoa is a mediocre quarterback is hyperbole, and those who swear by it are uneducated about how elite Tua Tagovailoa can be with the football. Even though Tagovailoa won multiple games and awards in college against great teams, I will give in to the argument, “This is the NFL, not college.” Despite Tagovailoa being a superstar and having elite talent in college, what he did in college means nothing in the NFL.
The criticisms come from the comparisons of past NFL veterans, quarterbacks drafted a few years before him, and those quarterbacks drafted in his draft class. Joe Burrow and Jalen Hurts have taken their teams to the Super Bowl, and Justin Herbert won Rookie of the Year. The difference in those players was that they weren’t learning how to walk, throw, and run again the way Tagovailoa was after hip surgery. Some Dolphins fans have argued that would have been the reason not to draft Tagovailoa. But those fans lacked the patience for the Dolphins quarterback to heal from the hip injury.
Unfortunately, fans still believe Tagovailoa is not a good deep ball thrower and can benefit from yards after the catch. In a 2022 interview with Muscle and Fitness Magazine, Tagovailoa said they didn’t have plays designed to throw the ball downfield. Even though that was true when fans looked for deep passes from Tagovailoa before the 2022 season, they erroneously discredited Tua’s throwing ability instead of the coach’s poor playbook. In fact, according to Fantasy Points, Tua Tagovailoa led the NFL with a throw rate on deep targets as the most catchable throws at 70.9%.
The fact is, under Tagovailoa’s former coach, Brian Flores, there were a lot of losses that made the highlight reels on sports television. And on those highlight reels were only the plays from Tagovailoa that benefited the other team’s win. Fans and analysts watching those reels gained a false impression of the type of quarterback Tagovailoa was. It didn’t help the national narrative for Tagovailoa either when the noise around the Dolphins under Flores’ tenure was about trying to acquire Deshaun Watson and Tom Brady.
There were numerous reports and rumors that Brian Flores didn’t favor Tua Tagovailoa from the beginning of his draft. Reports were that Brian Flores wanted to draft Jordan Love, not Tua Tagovailoa. One infamous incident was Flores telling the media that Tagovailoa was benched from starting a game against the Baltimore Ravens because he could not make all the throws he needed due to a fractured finger. However, when backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett came out of the game due to a knee injury, Tagovailoa showed he could throw the ball deep in the air when he completed a pass to Jaylen Waddle for 44 yards.
When Mike McDaniel was hired as the new Dolphins head coach after Flores’ termination, he knew who he had in Tagovailoa. Allowing Tagovailoa to be himself, as Tagovailoa once said after McDaniel’s hire, Tagovailoa led the NFL in multiple passing categories. In 2022, he led in passer rating (105.5), passing touchdown per attempt (6.3%), yards per attempt (8.87), and yards per completion (13.70). Most casual fans looking in on the outside think Tagovailoa benefits from yards after catch because of receivers like Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. However, Tua Tagovailoa only benefited from 36% of his passing yards generated after the catch, the lowest percentage in the NFL in 2022.
For some, it was a surprise for Tua Tagovailoa to go into SoFi stadium and defeat the Los Angeles Chargers for the season’s first game by passing for 466 yards and three touchdowns. But for most Miami Dolphins fans, it was no surprise at all. Most Dolphins fans, who’ve watched what Tua endured his first two seasons are already expecting an MVP year for Tagovailoa. And that would be no surprise to any true-believing Miami Dolphins fans.
