If you look at this week’s NFL leaders in quarterback stats, you’ll find that Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is at the top. Eight games through the season, Tagovailoa leads in passing yards (2,416), yards per game (302), touchdowns (18-T), and passer rating (108.8). If you listened to the media, former coaches, and some fans three years ago, their expectations were further away from what reality is today. In a nutshell, the narrative around NFL circles was that Tua Tagovailoa was a bad quarterback and would become a first-round bust.

But why did the narrative around Tagovailoa even get to the point that it suggested he would not be a good quarterback? The reasons were numerous, and most were silly. For starters, most NFL fans and some NFL analysts don’t watch college football. So, the fact that Tagovailoa was the number one dual-threat high school recruit in his recruiting class in the country was an oversight. So was the fact that Tagovailoa was the most efficient college football quarterback in the history of college football, which is based on an actual stat of a career efficient rating of 199.4 (highest in college history).

Therefore, the three seasons Tagovailoa had at Alabama of accurate passes, 87 touchdowns, and numerous 50-plus air-yard passes were never noticed by casuals. The idea of Tagovailoa’s talent and skills only came from those displayed in the NFL.

What many people forgot was that Tagovailoa was coming off a catastrophic hip injury he suffered in college that required surgery. When Tagovailoa made his NFL debut against the New York Jets on October 18, 2020, not only had it not been a year since his surgery, but it hadn’t even been a year since the injury.

When Tagovailoa was put in his first NFL start against the number one-ranked defense, the Los Angeles Rams, on November 1st, 2020, he still was less than a year from the hip injury, and he wasn’t 100% healthy. It appeared that the playbook was only designed for dink and dunk passes, and therefore, Tagovailoa was only able to get 93 yards in 22 attempts. Some have suggested former Dolphins offensive coordinator Chan Gailey wanted to keep the passes short and the game plan simple due to Tagovailoa’s hip injury. Whether that was the case or not, fans and media alike received the false impression that Tagovailoa had a stigma that he could only be a dink-and-dunk passer in the NFL.

Tagovailoa’s off-season trainer, Nick Hicks, once said that when he met Tua following his rookie season, “he was just a shell of his former self.”  That was most likely due to the severity of his hip injury. However, even though Tagovailoa hadn’t fully recovered, the Dolphins coaching staff chose to start him in NFL games his rookie year anyway. Whether it was the coaches’ initial decision or Tagovailoa’s pressing to play, it is far different from the Dolphins’ current coach, Mike McDaniel’s style. Even when injured players are encouraged to return to games, McDaniel has said numerous times that the team has to protect players from themselves by avoiding putting them in unnecessary situations that may hinder their progress.

When Tagovailoa began to have bad games near the end of his rookie season, not only did fans and media forget he was coming off a hip injury, but some also chose to ignore it while others were unaware of it. As a result, those bad games created a narrative throughout the media that Tagovailoa must not be NFL material. Unfortunately, that narrative was all presented without any context or explanation.

When Tagovailoa struggled against Denver in 2020, and Brian Flores benched him in the fourth quarter, some Dolphins fans became critical of Tagovailoa. Most fans had confidence in Flores then, trusted his decisions, and believed in his answers. Flores had said about benching Tua, “We felt it was the best move.” Flores went on to explain that he felt that he thought Ryan Fitzpatrick gave them the best chance to win the game in a two-minute drill. After Flores’ comments about Tua’s benching, many fans were upset that Tua was starting over Fitzpatrick. What fans failed to realize was that Fitzpatrick did worse in the game than Tua did. Eventually, Fitzpatrick ended the Dolphins drive with an interception.

The Denver game was also a game in which ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith said he disagreed with Flores’ decision to bench Tagovailoa. Smith believed that taking Tagovailoa out of a game during adversity may have stunted his growth in learning. He also believed that it was possible that Tagovailoa could’ve possibly come back and won the game since the Dolphins only lost by seven points.

The media and some fans also felt like Tagovailoa wasn’t the answer for the Dolphins as quarterback when Tagovailoa was benched for the second time in the Raiders game. When Tagovailoa threw three interceptions against the Buffalo Bills in the final game of the NFL season, unforgiving fans made up their minds about Tagovailoa. Fans and media alike blasted Tagovailoa as the scapegoat to blame for losing a game that eliminated the Dolphins from being in the playoffs. What nobody ever talked about was that Tua was a rookie quarterback with a lingering hip injury in 36-degree weather, not being 100% healthy, in a poorly designed offensive scheme, behind one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL, playing against the best Buffalo Bills team in 29 years.

Those media members and unforgiving fans who had already formed their opinions of Tagovailoa after starting just nine games held to the philosophy that it’s not how you start but how you finish. Unfortunately, the last thing everyone remembered about Tagovailoa was the horrendous blowout he played in against the Buffalo Bills in the 2020 season. So when Deshaun Watson suggested playing for another team besides the Texans after leading the NFL in passing yards, the 2021 NFL narrative was that Watson could replace Tua.

We now know that there were disagreements with former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores and Dolphins management about Tua Tagovailoa. The inside management and front office believed in Tagovailoa and felt like he was the Dolphins’ long-term answer, while Flores, as a coach, did not. Everyone saw Flores’ comments and perspective on Tagovailoa at the time, while nobody saw what was being said from the management’s point of view. When Flores suggested that Tagovailoa couldn’t make all the throws after a finger injury (although Tagovailoa’s performance against the Ravens revealed otherwise), and there were reports that he wasn’t a good leader, the media ran with it.

Despite that Tagovailoa revealed that there were no plays designed to throw downfield in a 2022 Muscle and Fitness magazine interview, fans and media still believed a false narrative that Tagovailoa couldn’t throw downfield. Now, the narrative has become that Tagovailoa is only successful because of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. But facts are that the Dolphins have started quarterbacks Jacoby Brissett, Teddy Bridgewater, and Skylar Thompson with Waddle and eventually Hill in Tagovailoa’s absence. None were as successful as Tua has been with them. So, the narrative from fans of rival teams isn’t as much of them claiming Tagovailoa is a mediocre quarterback as much as it is just hatred for the rival Dolphins.

We live in a gullible social media generation. People tend to believe if it’s on the internet, it must be true. Fans were manipulated by the media about Tua Tagovailoa’s playing ability. Media members were manipulated by only watching highlight reels of bad plays instead of not being lazy and doing research and finding out what the context was. But because that was the narrative about Tagovailoa for a couple of seasons, fans and media alike were fooled, and they believed it.

For Tagovailoa, he could be put on any NFL team, and the team wouldn’t become worse. Those teams would become better just by his accuracy alone. That is a narrative that nobody wants to tell, yet it is true. But because the false narratives existed about Tua Tagovailoa, fans, and even some media members believed it. Now that Tagovailoa is healthy and has a better coach who understands NFL offenses, the sky is the limit. And it definitely should be no surprise if Tua Tagovailoa wins multiple MVPs and possibly one or more Super Bowls before his NFL career is over.