Ahead of Dolphins-Jags season opener, Tua Tagovailoa and Trevor Lawrence have a lot to prove
Tua Tagovailoa and Trevor Lawrence have been connected since Jan. 7, 2019.
On that date, Lawrence led the Clemson Tigers to a 44-16 drubbing of Tagovailoa and the Alabama Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff National Championship. The Dolphins would draft Tagovailoa to save their franchise later that year while the Jacksonville Jaguars would select Lawrence a year later. Both quarterbacks arrived to the NFL in adverse situations – their first head coaches would be fired within at least two seasons – and both received big contract extensions in 2024. And while Tagovailoa has yet to beat a Lawrence-led team, the Dolphins franchise quarterback downplayed any notion of Sunday’s season opener being a revenge game.
“I’m not playing him; he doesn’t play defense,” Tagovailoa said Wednesday. As far as memories of the 2019 CFP title game go, Tagovailoa was curt. “We lost.”
Only when pressed further did Tagovailoa later open up.
“Any time you lose any of those games, they stick with you, and I wasn’t happy about that performance, the way we came out as a team offensively especially, but it is what it is,” Tagovailoa recalled. “You learn from all those mistakes and you grow from that, but it wasn’t a good memory”
Despite both quarterbacks signing contracts worth more than $200 million apiece, the two enter 2024 with a lot to prove. Tagovailoa had the best season of his career in 2024, leading the league in passing yards en route to earning his first Pro Bowl. Yet the Dolphins lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Wild Card Round. He also hasn’t beat Lawrence since the national title game, losing to Lawrence and the Jaguars 23-20 in 2021.
“That’s how you got to come into the season every year: you’ve ,got to come in with something to prove every time” Tagovailoa said. “Everyone else is. The rookies are. The 17-year vets are.”
Lawrence, on the other hand, will look to bounce back in 2024 after taking a relative step back last year. In 2022, Lawrence won his first playoff game and made his first Pro Bowl.
Added Tagovailoa: “We’ve crossed paths before. I’ve seen [Lawrence] on vacation a couple times in the Bahamas. That’s all I can say, and there’s just a mutual respect between us there.”
Early reports from Miami and Jacksonville indicate that the two quarterbacks have taken a big step forward in terms of leadership. Each is known to have a calm demeanor yet there has been an emphasis on being more vocal in 2024.
“I think everyone’s leadership is a little bit different,” Lawrence told Sports Illustrated’s Ezekiel Trezevant. “For me, I’m not the big ‘rah-rah’ speech, guy. It’s just not my thing. We have guys that do that and are good at it, and it comes natural. I think for me, it’s having those conversations with our group, whether it’s the skill guys, the offense, whatever, throughout the week, but also on game day, and just reinstalling the confidence.”
The same goes for Tagovailoa.
“A lot of the guys know who I am off the field,” Tagovailoa said Wednesday afternoon, later adding that he is now “feeling more comfortable bringing my personality onto the playing field.”
As for Tagovailoa, it’s clear third-year head coach Mike McDaniel has a lot to do with Tagovailoa’s newfound confidence. McDaniel has sung his franchise quarterback’s praises since Day 1, and Tagovailoa’s mind-set has improved as a result. And just like his franchise quarterback, McDaniel didn’t want to make Sunday just about Tagovailoa vs. Lawrence.
“Those narratives are real; it’s what pushes conversation of our great game that we all benefit from,” McDaniel said Friday morning. “However, there is an art in the National Football League to properly prioritizing your motivations. You can have the extra ones that whatever, but if you want your team to be good, you better be focused on doing things for your teammates and welcoming achievement from team operation.”
“You do not play one snap against Trevor Lawerence, Tua,” McDaniel later added. “I know for a fact that his motivations are far superior and they’re all motivated from within the organization, his family and his teammates.”
And McDaniel is right. Tagovailoa’s motivation should extend far past a Week 1 game against the Jaguars. The Dolphins have yet to win a playoff game in more than two decades. The McDaniel-Tagovailoa duo is 0-2 in the postseason. And the Dolphins haven’t been to a a Super Bowl since the 1984 season.
So yes, Tagovailoa might not get any extra motivation going against a Lawrence-led Jaguars squad – to paraphrase McDaniel, he’s focused on “what actually matters” – but a win will kick off what’s surely to be a difficult season (four of the Dolphins’ final six games are against 2023 playoff teams) down the stretch.
