Dolphins’ DeVante Parker raves about Tua’s mechanics, Waddle’s attention to detail
DeVante Parker is a man of few words, but he has a knack of making those words count.
Some athletes filibuster their way through media availability.
Parker is not such an athlete.
But speaking with reporters Wednesday for the first time in 2021, Parker again revealed some valuable information.
Most significantly:
Tua’s mechanics are noticeably better than they were in 2020.
“Footwork,” Parker said. “The ball’s out quicker. All that.”
That surely is a reflection of his improved health 18 months removed from major hip surgery.
But it’s also a reflection how much he’s worked his game in the past five months. Tagovailoa spent the winter working out with both teammates and passing tutor Wes Carroll, the former FIU and St. Thomas Aquinas quarterback whom Tagovailoa hired after a rookie season that didn’t meet his standards.
“We’re all in a group chat,” Parker said. “Tua put it in a group text. He texted us. We’ll just meet up and start throwing and try to get the rhythm down early.”
That kind of work was not possible this time last year, with the pandemic still in its earliest stages. But there are no such restrictions now.
Which means speedy newcomers Jaylen Waddle and Will Fuller will have a far better feel for the offense and Tagovailoa’s release at the start of the season than Miami’s group of receivers did in 2020.
Parker said he “was excited” when the Dolphins took Waddle sixth overall because it “brings another guy, another weapon to the team, another guy who can help us.”
The Dolphins have kept the specifics of their new offense — crafted by co-coordinators George Godsey and Eric Studesville — largely under wraps, but Parker did reinforce the prevailing belief that the receivers will be asked to do a lot of different things. Expect plenty of motion.
Parker is now entering his seventh season with the Dolphins, making him the team’s longest tenured player — a development that was almost unthinkable in 2018, when Parker battled injuries and didn’t exactly have an ally in then-coach Adam Gase.
Parker caught 24 passes for 309 yards and a lone touchdown on just 47 targets that year. In the two seasons since, Dolphins quarterbacks have thrown to him 231 times, completing 135 of those attempts for 1,995 yards and 13 scores.
“It’s something, it doesn’t happen very often,” Parker said of entering Year 7 with the same team. “I’m just proud I’m still here and able to do what I’m still doing.”
But he’s also not complacent.
He’s spent the offseason striving to “get quicker, faster and more explosive.”
And he seems determined to prove himself — and the four-year, $30.5 million contract extension he signed in late 2019.
Parker wasn’t quite as healthy or productive in 2020 as he was in 2019, but his lower stats were probably also been a function of who was throwing him the ball.
He clicked with Ryan Fitzpatrick, but there’s no arguing that his chemistry wasn’t the same with Tagovailoa, who acknowledged last week that he didn’t know the playbook as well as he should have as a rookie.
“It just comes down to getting a lot of reps in with [Tagovailoa] and just taking it to the game,” Parker said. “That’s what it comes down to.”
