Antics season: Why Miami Dolphins play coy on QBs in general and Tua in particular | Opinion
The NFL season ended a week ago and soon antics season begins.
Antics season is when NFL teams begin interviewing, working out, visiting with, wining and dining players they’re highly interested in adding while hoping no one learns of the interest.
Antics season is when teams and agents talk about things such as contract restructures or pay cuts or outright releases. Antics season is when those teams and those agents also talk about the possibility of doing future business for players on other teams when the period for such discussions has not officially begun.
I love antics season.
And it has begun for the Miami Dolphins.
It actually kind of started early for the Dolphins -- before the regular season ended.
And how do I know antics season began that early with something of a pre-antics season? Because I have ears.
I listen to things people say and then run that through my brain while trying to understand not just what they’re saying but why they’re saying it.
And every once in a while stuff raises flags.
And my personal flag corps was working overtime a few weeks back every time the Dolphins talked about drafting quarterbacks in general and Tua Tagovailoa in particular.
Before the season ended, Dolphins general manager Chris Grier began telling people it wasn’t really necessary for the Dolphins to draft a quarterback in the 2020 draft. He made the point that the Dolphins wanted to find the “right guy” and if that “right guy” wasn’t there, he would feel no pressure to pick another quarterback, or for all practical matters, any quarterback at all.
Grier said this multiple times and the day after the season ended he tried to temper the idea drafting that quarterback was the most important, paramount, crucial, do-or-die issue the club faces this offseason.
“Quarterback, we understand that’s the focus for everybody but we’re going to go through the process and make smart decisions and work through it and do what’s best for the organization,” Grier said.
Yeah, um, so is finding the franchise QB the priority?
(That was the actual next question, which makes me smile because it’s like no one was buying the point Grier had made just moments prior.)
“Like I said, it’s finding pieces everywhere,” Grier said, repeating the point everyone just ignored.
“Again, I’m not trivializing the quarterback position. We’re going to investigate that hard just like every position in the draft and free agency.”
A few weeks later the Dolphins adjusted their approach. It wasn’t we’ll not be pressured into drafting a QB anymore. It was now ... We’re interested in Tagovailoa? Who said that? We’ve heard of him but we might not be interested in him because he’s just another guy to us.
“We’ll evaluate him just like every player,” Grier said as the Senior Bowl in late January. “...To say one player was attached to us, you can’t control what fans and people in the media say. So there’s no pressure for us. The pressure for us is to find the right guy to be the quarterback for the Dolphins, whether it’s him or someone else.
“That’s the pressure. Finding the right guy to lead the organization.”
I can hear it now: “With the No. 5 overall selection in the 2020 draft, the Miami Dolphins select Right Guy!”
The problem with picking Right Guy is everyone thinks that’s another way of saying Tagovailoa.
Multiple national media mock drafts came out the weeks after the Senior Bowl. And practically all of them had the Dolphins picking Tagovailoa.
Tagovailoa came to Miami during the Super Bowl and everywhere he was recognized, people treated him as if he’s already the Dolphins’ next quarterback.
And that’s a connection the Dolphins would prefer didn’t exist because it’s problematic in a way I’ll explain in a minute.
But first, the situation called for more Dolphins distancing. Enter club owner Stephen Ross.
Ross wants a franchise quarterback out of the 2020 draft more than he wants air to breathe.
And yet, there was Ross during Super Bowl week telling us Tua Tagovailoa comes with serious concerns.
“Tua’s a great player,” Ross said of the former Alabama quarterback at a Pro Football Hall of Fame function. “I just worry about his health.”
Later that same day Ross repeated the sentiment to a group of reporters.
“We have to look at what his health is and everything else,” Ross said. “And see what the alternatives are.”
Now, it’s fair to note Tagovailoa’s health is the question. I’m going to write that multiple times between now and the first round of April 23 draft.
Because Tagovailoa dislocated and fractured his hip in mid November. Acetabular fractures, a break in the hip joint socket, is more common after high speed auto accidents. But that is what Tagovailoa suffered when he was sacked by two Mississippi State defenders.
He had surgery, which along with two ankle surgeries, bring the number of game-costing surgeries the past two seasons to three.
The ankle surgeries are not the most worrisome issue. The hip is deeply problematic because Tagovailoa may not be fully 100 percent and football ready for quite some time -- perhaps 12 months after surgery, according to some medical opinions -- and it calls into question his long-term viability.
But all that aside, the player continues to be tied to the Dolphins and, as you’ve read, the Dolphins have been working to distance themselves.
So why?
I believe the Dolphins are distancing themselves from the idea of needing to draft a quarterback in general and drafting Tagovailoa in particular because they don’t want to be held up in any potential trade where they may try to do exactly what everyone believes they’ll do -- trade up for a quarterback, especially one named Tagovailoa.
So it benefits the Dolphins to talk about Tagovailoa’s uncertain health because that gives other teams the idea the Dolphins aren’t interested. Remember, during antics season, if you’re interested, you say you’re not. If you’re not, you say you might be.
This can help if the Dolphins are trying to trade up for Tagovailoa from the No. 5 slot in the first round. And it can also help in case Miami passes on Tagovailoa at No. 5 but would like to trade up from their lower first-round picks to grab him if he falls to the 10ish-12ish spots.
The problem with this is no one is buying it.
The national mock drafts are going to keep banging the Tua-to-Miami drum until your ears ache. Other NFL teams, meanwhile, also are seeing this as just noise because it really doesn’t matter how much the Dolphins deny interest if eventually they try to trade up in the draft.
If the Dolphins try to trade up with either Detroit or Washington from their No. 5 spot, everyone will know immediately it’s for a quarterback. Otherwise, why pay such a premium for a jump of only one or two spots?
If the Dolphins don’t have a QB at No. 5 but start trying to trade up using their latter first rounders (No. 18 from Pittsburgh and No. 26 from Houston) every team will assume it’s for a QB and try to negotiate with that in mind.
The point is there’s no hiding Miami’s need at QB no matter how much the Dolphins deny it and no matter how much they mention Tua Tagovailoa being hurt.
No one believes the Dolphins are uninterested.
Those are the rules of antics season.
This story was originally published February 10, 2020 at 3:46 AM.
