Is Tua the answer for Dolphins? It’s still a question after first full season as starter
Tua Tagovailoa swears he didn’t hear the crowd at Hard Rock Stadium chanting, “Tua! Tua! Tua!” after he scrambled for a first down in the last two minutes to effectively seal the Miami Dolphins’ 33-24 win against the New England Patriots on Sunday.
It would’ve been hard to blame him, though, if he wanted to bask in them at the end of a sometimes-miserable, sometimes-marvelous season. There was a time this season when the Dolphins were pursuing Deshaun Watson and Tagovailoa had to say he didn’t “not feel wanted” by his own team. There was a real chance Miami was going to give up on him before he even got one full season as a starter.
“This season’s been up and down for me,” Tagovailoa said, “for our team, in general.”
It started with a win against the Patriots and then seven straight losses, and then eight wins in nine games to finish with a winning record, but miss the 2022 NFL playoffs.
it was, in some ways, the most vexing outcome imaginable. Miami is good, but are they good enough to make the playoffs, let alone contend for a Super Bowl? Coach Brian Flores rallied the Dolphins after an abysmal start, but what in the world happened in the first half of the year? Tagovailoa is capable and competent, but can he ever come close to living up the hype of being a top-five pick?
The season finale didn’t really help answer any of those questions, particularly the last one.
Sure, Tagovailoa swept New England, but he went just 15 of 22 for 109 yards with one touchdown, no interceptions and 38 rushing yards on five carries.
He was a game manager and, this weekend, it was all Miami needed.
“He made some big plays in certain situations. He got the first downs when we needed them,” Flores said. “I can tell you he’s grown a lot this year.”
It won’t always be all the Dolphins need, though, and this is the dilemma.
While Tagovailoa led Miami to a winning record, his Week 6 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in London ultimately kept the Dolphins out of the playoffs. If he gets credit in the low-yardage wins, then he also needs to shoulder some blame in the 300-yard losses.
It’s a fair question for Miami to think about in the coming days: How many games would the Dolphins have won with Watson or some other Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback? The Houston Texans would still like to trade Watson, who’s still embroiled in sexual misconduct lawsuits, and Miami will have to decide — again — whether it’s worth pursuing him.
“We’ll see what the offseason has planned for us,” Tagovailoa said.
Those fourth-quarter chants were a reminder of how much of the fan base feels. Tagovailoa was the prize from a year of tanking and has been yanked around by the Dolphins since the day he got to South Florida. They benched him twice in favor of Ryan Fitzpatrick as a rookie, then bizarrely had him back up fellow quarterback Jacoby Brissett once this season while injured, only to have him come off the bench and sew up a win against the Baltimore Ravens.
Those chanting fans spoke for a segment of the fan base — a sizable one — that feels Tagovailoa, playing behind the worst offensive line in the league and with no consistent run game, has not been set up for success.
Tagovailoa will be in just his third season next year. He’s only 23, has only started 21 games and has won more frequently than he has lost. He finished the year in the top 10 in completion percentage, had a 90.1 quarterback rating and did it despite having the least time to throw of any quarterback in the league.
Tagovailoa opted not to give a big-picture evaluation of his season and neither did Flores. For now, the grade is still incomplete on Tagovailoa and factions remain divided on whether he’s the long-term answer.
If Sunday was somehow his final time starting in Miami Gardens, he went out with a smile.
They chanted his name again as he strutted into the locker room. This time, he heard them.
