Former NFL QB discusses Tua Tagovailoa. And Dolphins get a 17th game, add new linebackers
As expected, NFL owners on Tuesday approved the expansion of the regular season from 16 to 17 games, beginning this upcoming season.
The Dolphins’ extra game this season: at home against the Giants. The dates and times of all games will be announced at some point in May.
At home, the Dolphins also will play New England, Buffalo, the Jets, Atlanta, Carolina, Houston, Indianapolis and Baltimore.
On the road, the Dolphins will play New England, Buffalo, the Jets, Tennessee, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Jacksonville and the Raiders.
Couple other notes from this week’s league meetings:
As more people continue to get vaccinated, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said, in a conference call with media: “We expect to have full stadiums in the coming season. We want to see every one of our fans back”... The fourth preseason game has been eliminated.... Teams will be required to play one international regular-season game every eight seasons.... The NFL will encourage players and team employees to be vaccinated but won’t require it.
TUA FEEDBACK
Former two-time NFL MVP Kurt Warner offered an insightful film breakdown analysis of Tua Tagovailoa in his Study Ball, NFL Rookie quarterbacks.
The takeways:
He said Tagovailoa was very good recognizing when he had to make quick throws and not “to take a negative play. Tua did a nice job recognizing where his quick throws were and getting it out of his hands. He throws really, really well on the move. He’s got accuracy. Really good on quicker decisions. When he had quick-hitter type plays, he did a nice job. Look how quickly he gets the ball out of his hands.”
But Warner said on plays deep downfield, “things that took a little longer, he struggled sometimes with the reads.”
He encouraged Tagovailoa to more often read downfield opportunities first and then going to shorter patterns if nothing is available downfield.
Warner said Tagovailoa “needs to process things a little bit faster” with downfield throws and “trust what you’re seeing. Be ready to throw it. It’s the difference between college and pros. If you’re a little bit late... in the pros, somebody is going to make a play on that and you’re going to find yourself in trouble.”
Warner cited Tagovailoa’s “impatience in the pocket, especially when he’s trying to make these chunk throws. It’s something he needs to work on. If there’s one thing, he needs to get better on, it’s his patience and be aggressive enough to be able to attack some of these throws down the field, where he was very hesitant to make those throws and it hurt this football team that needed more of those [big plays] from the quarterback position.”
Warner said: “He needs to get better at the chunk throws. We saw moments. If you’re going to be great in this league, you have to always be aggressive, always look to make that big play even if it leads to a couple mistakes. It puts pressure on the defense. A lot of people say he’s only a game manager. That’s not true.”
Warner showed a vertical throw that Tagovailoa made successfully to Mike Gesicki.
“He needs to do this a little bit more,” Warner said after showing tape of that play. “Don’t sit back and say Tua can’t do it. He can do it. He just needs to be more aggressive like this. So many times last year, he’s holding the football and trying to find that checkdown....
“He can do this. He needs to trust himself, trust his arm, his eyes more often and make more of these throws for the Dolphins. Too often, he was willing to settle for the short throw. I need to see Tua more aggressive if he’s going to reach his full potential.”
Warner cited the perception that Tagovailoa is “just trying to get completions instead of waiting and trying to make one of those big second-level throws.... I’d rather see him be aggressive in these situations. Put some fear in the defense by making some of those second-level throws we’ve seen you make. Don’t just settle for the little checkdowns. You’re so worried about making the reads that you miss these game-changing throws your team needs to find yourself in the playoffs.”
NEW LINEBACKERS
So what are the Dolphins getting with their two new outside linebackers? Some perspective:
DUKE RILEY
▪ The contract: One year for $1.127 million with $637,500 guaranteed.
▪ The metrics: Had 55 tackles, a forced fumble, an interception and half a sack in 13 games, including five starts last season. Pro Football Focus rated him 38th of 83 linebackers; Dolphins free agent Elandon Roberts ranked 83rd, by comparison.
PFF rated Riley 33rd among 83 linebackers against the run and 78th as a pass rusher. The former Falcons third-round pick from LSU has only a half sack in 57 games and 24 starts for the Falcons and Eagles over four seasons.
In fact, he rushed the passer only 30 times last season and outside of the half a sack, he had no quarterback hurries.
In pass coverage, Riley permitted a 93.8 passer rating in his coverage area, allowing 25 completions in 30 targets for 215 yards (8.6 yards per catch), with one touchdown relinquished and the one interception.
He missed six tackles last season, which was tied for 14th most among linebackers.
Riley played 52 percent of Philadelphia’s defensive snaps last season (by far a career high) and 58 percent of the Eagles’ special teams snaps.
▪ The view here: Good value signing. Riley should be one of the Dolphins’ top special teams players and provides decent depth behind whoever starts opposite Andrew Van Ginkel at outside linebacker. (That player could potentially come high in the draft.) Riley is not much of a pass rusher but decent in pass coverage.
▪ Quotable: Former Eagles coach Doug Pederson: “Duke has great speed. He’s not the biggest linebacker in the world, but he does have good movement skills and good speed.”
BRENNAN SCARLETT
▪ The contract: One year for $1.27 million with $637,5000 guaranteed.
▪ The metrics: Last season, Scarlett (6-4, 260 pounds) had 28 tackles in 11 games, including four starts. If he had enough snaps to qualify (he played 286), he would have ranked 38th among NFL linebackers.
But in PFF’s pass rush effectiveness metrics last season, he tied for 120th of 156 linebackers. He rushed the passer 70 times last season and had no sacks and three hurries. He has just 5.5 sacks in four seasons, with 3.5 of those coming in 2019.
He tied for 103rd of 149 linebackers in PFF’s run stop metric, which measures the percentage of plays that are hurtful to the offense and constitute a “loss” for the offense, such as holding a team to a 2-yard gain on 3rd-and-3. Scarlett made those types of plays 5.6 percent of the time.
By comparison, Kyle Van Noy made such plays 5.8 percent of the time and Jerome Baker 5.3.
Scarlett was used just 38 times in pass coverage; he allowed five of seven passes to be completed for 28 yards and a touchdown (117.9 passer rating).
Last season, he played 26 percent of Houston’s defensive snaps (down from 46 percent the previous year largely because of injury) and 46 percent of the Texans’ special teams snaps.
▪ The view here: Like Riley, this is a depth signing. It would be surprising if the begins the season as a starter; the career sacks numbers seemingly wouldn’t warrant that. But he could be a rotational edge player if he stays healthy. That’s a big if because he has finished four his past five seasons on injured reserve.
▪ Quotable: Former Texans defensive coordinator and interim head coach Romeo Crenell: “He works really hard, and he’s a good effort guy.”
In a 6-part series, we’re assessing what the Dolphins have landed so far in free agency and via the trade market.
Here’s part 1 on linebacker Benardrick McKinney, part 2 on four offensive additions (Jacoby Brissett, Malcolm Brown, Robert Foster and Cethan Carter) and part 3 on new center Matt Skura and part 4 on Adam Butler, Justin Coleman and punter Michael Palardy.
Here’s my Wednesday Miami Hurricanes 8-pack of notes.
Here’s my Wednesday story on the new name for Marlins Park.
This story was originally published March 30, 2021 at 4:07 PM.
