The eyebrow-raising data of how little help Tua Tagovailoa received with Miami Dolphins
On a day that the Miami Dolphins publicly committed to Tua Tagovailoa as their quarterback in 2021, let’s be clear: He must perform at a higher level than he showed in the final two weeks of the season.
But to understand how handicapped Tagovailoa was by what surrounded him on the Dolphins offense, consider these final metrics, from my analysis of data from Pro Football Focus, Pro Football Reference, Next Gen Stats and Football Outsiders:
WIDE RECEIVERS
Dolphins receivers achieved an ignominious double/double of ranking among the worst in the league in both yards after catch and separation gained from opposing defensive backs when they ran routes.
Dolphins players averaged just 4.4 yards after catch, which was 30th in the league. Among 197 NFL receivers, DeVante Parker’s 2.7 YAC, on average, was 173rd (and second-worst among players targeted with at least 100 passes, ahead of only Detroit’s Marvin Jones). Preston Williams was 177th in YAC at 2.5 before his season-ending foot injury. Isaiah Ford also was tied for 177th at 2.5.
Lynn Bowden was 107th at 4.2. Jakeem Grant was the only Dolphins receiver in the top-half of the league in average YAC at 5.1 per catch.
Then there’s the separation issue. So many of the passes delivered by Tagovailoa needed to be thrown into tight windows because Dolphins receivers weren’t getting open.
Parker’s 1.7 average yards of separation from the player covering him (on passes thrown to him) was tied with AJ Green for worst among receivers, and Mike Gesicki’s 2.0 was worst among tight ends. The numbers for the rest of his receivers and tight ends were average to below average.
The result was that Tagovailoa threw into tight coverage (where a defender was within one yard of the receiver at the time of the completion or incompletion) on 20.3 percent of his throws. Among quarterbacks who made at least eight starts, only Mitch Trubisky and Joe Burrow threw into tight windows more often. Ryan Fitzpatrick was a 21.7 percent.
And there’s this: Dolphins receivers dropped 18 of Tagovailoa’s passes. No quarterback who threw such few passes (290) had as many dropped. Conversely, Dolphins players dropped 14 passes thrown by Fitzpatrick. Miami had the sixth most drops in the league, per stats.com.
Parker’s seven drops were ninth most in the league. Grant had four, which ranked 36th most.
And of the 29 passes thrown by Tagovailoa that traveled at least 20 yards in the air, three were dropped. Only eight quarterbacks had more deep passes dropped.
Keep in mind that Dolphins receivers dropped none of Fitzpatrick’s deep ball attempts, which is one reason why Fitzpatrick is perceived to have had a better year throwing deep balls. In fact, Tagovailoa would have had more deep ball completions than Fitzpatrick if not for those drops.
RUNNING BACKS
The good news is Myles Gaskin established himself as a solid rotational back; he averaged 97.2 yards from scrimmage per game, which was 10th for players with a minimum of five games.
But that tells only part of the story.
The Dolphins averaged just 1.4 yards after contact per rushing attempt, which was worst in the league. By comparison, the Titans (thanks to Derrick Henry) averaged 2.5 and the Bills 2.3 after contact.
Gaskin averaged 2.54 yards after contact, which was 83rd of 142 backs. Salvon Ahmed averaged 2.32 after contact, which was 107th. Matt Breida was at 2.41 (100th) and Jordan Howard, who was cut at midseason, was at 1.89 (130th).
Dolphins running backs broke only 19 tackles all year, per profootballreference. Only two teams broke fewer. The Vikings, conversely, broke 49.
Beyond ranking worst in the league in rushing yards after contact, Miami was just 19th in rushing yards before contact, at 2.5, affirming the notion that Miami’s run-blocking was below average.
Overall, the Dolphins’ 3.9 yards per carry ranked 29th in the league. Miami’s longest run of the year went for 31 yards, worst of any team in that category. What’s more, 17.9 percent of Dolphins runs were stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage, which ranked 21st.
OFFENSIVE LINE
Miami’s line wasn’t awful, but there needs to be growth by the three rookies, better play from Jesse Davis than what we witnessed late in the season, and fewer breakdowns by Ereck Flowers.
Flowers relinquished five sacks; only five NFL guards allowed more. Solomon Kindley permitted four.
Though he allowed four sacks (not an egregious number), Austin Jackson yielded 38 quarterback pressures, the ninth-most overall among tackles and most among players who played as few pass-blocking snaps (543).
Pro Football Focus said Jackson “struggled the most of the [five] first-round tackles who have seen significant snaps on offense, which makes sense given our pre-draft analysis on him as a player who was the rawest and would require the most work. His transition was aided when Miami inserted Tua Tagovailoa into the starting lineup because of how the offense changed to protect their rookie passer, having the added benefit of also assisting the pass protection.”
From a run blocking standpoint, it’s notable that runs behind left tackle (Jackson in 13 games) averaged just 3.79 yards, which was 24th of 32 teams.
Behind Miami’s interior linemen (primarily center Ted Karras, guards Flowers and Kindley and Davis), Miami averaged 4.08 per rush, which was 28th.
But behind right tackle (Davis in the first half of the season, Hunt mostly in the second half), runs averaged 5.23 yards, which was fourth best. That’s an encouraging sign for Hunt.
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 4:36 PM.
