thelesterlee
Tua Tagovailoa had a decent rookie season posting a 6-3 win-loss record in his 9 starts for the Miami Dolphins. I,814 yards and 11 TDs to 5 interceptions doesn’t explode off the page but it’s impressive knowing that he was coming off a devastating hip injury that ended his college career.
The keys to the franchise are in Tua’s hands going into his sophomore season. Miami brought in Jacoby Brissett but at this point, Jacoby is a backup in this league so there is no quarterback competition between these two.
Unfortunately, reports from training camp aren’t great for Tua.
Tua Tagovailoa has thrown five interceptions on the first day of Dolphins Minicamp
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) June 15, 2021
Yike.
Naturally, there were instant spin zones from the Dolphins organization as well as fans.
.@MiamiDolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa on the goal of practice today for the QBs/offense.
We wanted to be aggressive in the passing game, see if we could fit throws in. We wanted to be aggressive in these conditions. The emphasis was to push the ball downfield.
— Travis Wingfield (@WingfieldNFL) June 15, 2021
Apparently there were terrential downpours in South Florida on Tuesday but the coaching staff wanted Tua to work on being aggressive downfield. What.
Of course you want your young QB to become comfortable chucking it into deep windows. You want him to both trust his arm talent as well as his receivers. Especially when you look at the rest of his draft class and their playing styles.
Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert have zero problems launching passes 30+ yards down the field. It’s Patrick Mahhomes’s league and now every quarterback needs to have that skill set. Cool.
But Tua was always compared with Drew Brees coming out of college.
Both players are below 6-feet tall and are known for their precision passing and not their deep balls. So yes, you want Tua to get comfortable throwing further down the field but you knew what he was when you drafted him.
So if you want him to develop a new skill, perhaps making him learn that skill in a fucking monsoon that causes him to throw 5 interceptions does absolutely nothing but destroy his confidence and make him skittish whenever he feels a raindrop.
The good news for NFL fans is that this new mental beatdown of Tua is about to transform him into the most exciting player in the league.
Prior to Tua, the most exciting player was the Dolphins starter last season, Ryan Fitzpatrick. Every time he dropped back to pass was must-see TV. He was either going to throw a 50-yard bomb or throw a bullet pass directly into the chest of the opposing team’s middle linebacker resulting in a pick six.
The torch has now been passed on to Tua Tagovailoa. No one will know where his passes are going including Tua himself. Get some rain on the field and we are going to watch a 500 yard, 4 touchdown and 6 interceptions game including a game-winning drive and a final score of 52-48.
Thank you, Dolphins coaching staff, for creating a masterpiece.
