With upgrades, Dolphins’ Tagovailoa doesn’t feel pressure but ‘more of an opportunity’
Before Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa held court for his first news conference in three months, he had a sharp quip.
“I know you guys have a lot of questions,” he said with a smile.
Three months have felt more like three years in South Florida during an offseason Tagovailoa acknowledged was full of “a lot of changes, and a lot of good changes.”
A whirlwind NFL offseason has been dominated by quarterback news — from historic deals to trades to trade requests — and Tagovailoa, one of the league’s more unassuming signal callers, found himself at the center of much of the discourse.
A coaching change, questions about your future with the organization and a spending spree on offense will do that for you.
Shortly after the Dolphins fired Brian Flores, whose relationship as Tagovailoa’s head coach was dissected amid the team’s pursuit of Deshaun Watson, the organization threw its support behind Tagovailoa. It hired an offensive-minded coach in Mike McDaniel and then prioritized upgrading the offense with a number of additions, most notably signing left tackle Terron Armstead and trading for wide receiver Tyreek Hill.
“The locker room feels different. We’re all excited,” Tagovailoa said Wednesday as the Dolphins concluded their second and final day of voluntary minicamp. “This is the first time I’ve seen a lot of guys show up to Phase I of [organized team activities], and a lot of veterans are showing up to it. I think that speaks a lot to Mike and the relationship he has with a lot of the guys on the team and the amount of respect that he has from the players in the locker room.”
Tagovailoa’s first two seasons in the NFL are best described as inconsistent. In 21 starts, he has shown flashes behind a leaky offensive line and a less-than-stellar cast of pass-catchers. He has also been set back by injuries, uneven decision-making and concerns about his ceiling compared to that of draftmates Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert.
The Dolphins’ decision to close the door on Watson hasn’t necessarily rid the organization of questions about Tagovailoa, especially as Tom Brady rumors persist and the team holds on to two 2023 first-round picks, prime draft capital to make a big change at the game’s most important position. Add that to myriad moves the team made in free agency and you have the makings of big expectations entering Tagovailoa’s third season.
“I think pressure is going to be there every time,” Tagovailoa said. “I don’t feel more pressure that we’ve acquired all of these guys. It’s more of an opportunity that I get, that we all get as a team, to show what we can do this year.”
Tagovailoa said a focal point of his offseason was working on his footwork as McDaniel’s West coast scheme will be based on timing. “Really, the biggest thing for us is YAC [yards after catch], he said. “We want to YAC the heck out of teams.”
McDaniel’s scheme is one Tagovailoa is familiar with from his days with Steve Sarkisian at Alabama but will still be a “challenge,” he said. “Learning the verbiage, learning where everyone is going, hearing Mike or [offensive coordinator] Frank [Smith] or whoever it is in the headset trying to give the call and then recalling it to the offense, that’s still something that I’ve got to continue to get better at.”
This is why the team’s voluntary workouts are important stepping stones for Tagovailoa, not only to get comfortable with a new system — he’s set to have his fourth offensive coordinator in three NFL seasons — but to further develop his relationship with McDaniel, especially after the pairing with his last coach wasn’t necessarily cordial.
Tagovailoa declined to comment when asked if he was surprised by the coaching change and when asked about the state of his relationship with Flores, he paused before summarizing his thoughts in one brief statement. “Well, I’ll tell you this: I’m very thankful that he drafted me to come here to play for the Miami Dolphins. That’s what I’d say.”
As for his relationship with McDaniel, Tagovailoa called the first-time head coach “very supportive” and emphasized that McDaniel isn’t looking for him to be anything but himself.
“He wants to hang out,” Tagovailoa said of McDaniel. “I go up there to his office and tell him I’ve got a couple of the guys coming over to hang out, and he feels bad that he didn’t get an invite to come over and hang out. It’s been a really cool relationship. It’s been different but it’s been super cool.”
To this point, the Dolphins are still in the nascent stages of what they will be in 2022, with most of the offense’s installation set to come in training camp. But much of the team’s success will be predicated on the strides Tagovailoa can make with McDaniel.
Even as expectations for Tagovailoa have been debated tirelessly, Tagovailoa has kept his simple.
“Help our team win games and as many games as we can,” he said.
This story was originally published April 20, 2022 at 4:20 PM.
