What Miami Dolphins are doing to help Tua Tagovailoa. And Malcolm Perry eyes chance
A 10-pack of Miami Dolphins notes on a Thursday afternoon:
▪ Dolphins receivers have been working overtime with Tua Tagovailoa, hoping it pays dividends Sunday in Arizona and beyond. Jakeem Grant said the rookie quarterback and the receivers have been working on the passing game after practice in part to improve the timing.
“It can range from 5 to 30 minutes depending on what we need to work on,” Dolphins rookie seventh-round receiver Malcolm Perry said Thursday. “I feel like we all got together after practice knowing we need to work on something. It kind of became a trend. It’s day by day how long we stay out there.
“You can’t get anything right unless you work on it. We’ve been working with him since he got here. We’re not too far off. There’s some fine tuning to do. The reps after practice are just as important as reps in practice. We’re getting with him and trying to get things right every day.”
Perry, incidentally, caught several deep balls from Tagovailoa in training camp and said it’s “good to have that history with somebody, throwing and catching with Tua.”
Against the Rams, Perry caught one pass for 10 yards and lost five yards (out of the Wildcat) on one rushing attempt.
Of his first NFL game appearance last Sunday, Perry said: “Extremely happy. It was fun to experience my first NFL game, good to get that under my belt. [As a receiver], I’ve come a long way from training [at receiver] at the Navy pre-draft process.”
There’s an opportunity for Jakeem Grant, Perry, Lynn Bowden Jr. and practice-squad receiver/NFL veteran Antonio Callaway to seize playing time in the slot with the trade of Isaiah Ford to New England.
And Perry said: “I definitely think I can [be an NFL slot receiver]. If I didn’t think I could play in the league, I don’t think I would be here today. Ford was a great role model. I looked up to him a lot and tried to model myself after him.”
Perry, who played mostly quarterback but also some running back and receiver at Navy, said running the Wildcat offense in the NFL “is a lot different than [playing East Carolina].”
Dolphins receiver coach Josh Grizzard said Perry was active for the first time last Sunday because he has kept “improving week to week” and he’s “committed to details. He’s worked so hard since he got here. I was happy for him.”
▪ Per Elias, Tagovailoa is one of only five quarterbacks, over the past five years, to throw for less than 100 yards in his first NFL start.
The others: Nathan Peterman (66 in 2017), Brett Hundley (87 in 2017), Taysom Hill (44 in 2018) and Luke Falk (98 in 2019).
Tagovailoa would have topped 100 yards if permitted to throw more than 22 times and if three or four passes hadn’t been dropped.
And here’s the good news, if that statistic worries you: John Elway went 1 for 8 for 14 yards with a 0.00 passer rating in his rookie starting debut. But as was the case with Tagovailoa, his team won that day.
As we wrote here last Friday, plenty of other very good quarterbacks — including Peyton Manning, Eli Manning and Andrew Luck — had unimpressive debuts.
▪ Former Dolphins running back Kenyan Drake (ankle) wasn’t spotted during the part of Thursday’s practice open to Arizona Cardinals writers. That leaves his status very much in question for Sunday’s Dolphins-Cardinals game. Same with Dolphins running back Matt Breida, who wasn’t at practice for a second day in a row on Thursday because of a hamstring injury.
▪ We hear Dolphins practice squad quarterback Reid Sinnett, the rookie from San Diego, has been impressive. Dolphins legend Dan Marino — a special advisor who is around the team on a daily basis - makes himself available to assist all of the quarterbacks and recently invited Sinnett to play golf.
▪ Per Pro Football Focus’ Mike Renner, the Dolphins have allowed only a 61.5 passer rating and 13.8 points per game in games when both Byron Jones and Xavien Howard have been healthy.
▪ Tagovailoa’s first start was watched by 12.0 percent of Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes with TV sets, up slightly from Dolphins games on average this season. The Dolphins’ previous game against the Jets was viewed in 10.3 percent of homes locally (equaling a 10.3 rating). One ratings point in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale market equals 16,522 homes.
Incidentally, CBS is sending Dolphins-Cardinals to only 6 percent of the country, including five Florida markets: Miami-Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Naples-Ft. Myers, Orlando and Gainesville. The other 94 percent will get Pittsburgh-Dallas.
▪ Grizzard said the fact Tagovailoa is left-handed shouldn’t require any major adjustments by his receivers or lead to more drops.
“I don’t think so,” Grizzard answered when asked about whether the left-handed dynamic might have contributed to Preston Williams’ two drops.
▪ Tight ends coach George Godsey said tight end Adam Shaheen — who got a contract extension last week — has proven to be more than simply a skilled receiving tight end.
Godsey was impressed that Shaheen “has done a good job of finishing plays in the run game. He’s taken a new offense, learned it quickly. That’s nothing easy to do. He’s done a good job when he’s had the opportunity to catch the ball.”
▪ Arizona coach Kliff Kingsbury, who coached Grant at Texas Tech, said: “He had a family, first off, three children and had his partner there. So he’s handling that, he’s handling school and then his football responsibilities. Just to be able to handle that on a daily basis when you’re 20, 21 years old was just phenomenal.
“And to watch him grow up from where he started to where he is now, couldn’t be prouder of the young man. I think we kind of butted heads there at the end of his junior year. I remember we benched him for a game, or didn’t start him, and since that day forward, he practiced his tail off, worked his tail and became a phenomenal receiver. I think he’s the all-time leading receiver in Texas Tech history and you can see what he’s doing now in the pros. A phenomenal story about perseverance and mental toughness.”
▪ Kingsbury said new Dolphins running back DeAndre Washington - who must sit out Sunday’s game because of the NFL’s COVID-19 testing protocols — “is a very talented back, whether running it or catching it. He had a couple of monster years there at Texas Tech with us. I thought he played really, really well last year with the Raiders when he was thrust into that starting role. I think they’re getting a physical runner who can do it with his feet or with his hands.”
This story was originally published November 5, 2020 at 2:01 PM.
