Where Dolphins’ Tua improved dramatically this season. And veteran back added
4:15 PM UPDATE: The Dolphins have claimed running back Philip Lindsay on waivers from Houston, giving Miami’s struggling running game another veteran option.
Lindsay has averaged 4.6 yards per carry in his career, while rushing for 2680 yards and 18 touchdowns.
Undrafted out of Colorado, Lindsay did his best work for Denver, where he spent the first three years of his career. He ran for 1037 and 1011 yards in his first two seasons - averaging 5.4 and 4.5 yards per carry in 31 games and 24 starts those seasons - before dropping to 502 yards and 4.3 per carry in 2020, when he appeared in 11 games and started eight for the Broncos.
He signed a one-year, $3.25 million deal with Houston in March but ran just 50 times for 130 yards (2.6 per carry) and was released earlier this week. He appeared in 10 games and started one for the Texans.
The 5-8, 180-pound Lindsay has been a decent as a receiving threat out of the backfield in his career, catching 80 passes for 502 yards and two touchdowns.
He also has returned three punts and seven kickoffs in his career.
Lindsay joins Myles Gaskin, Salvon Ahmed and Patrick Laird as running backs on the team’s 53-man roster. Duke Johnson (who was elevated for the Jets game) and Gerrid Doaks are on the practice squad.
The Dolphins had an open roster spot when they claimed Lindsay, meaning nobody had to be cut.
TUA’S DEEP THROWS
Tua Tagovailoa hasn’t answered questions about whether he can stay healthy for an entire season.
But the Dolphins’ second-year quarterback has answered a few questions that lingered after his rookie season, including this one:
There’s no need to worry about his vertical passing skills. This season, he has been accurate on his intermediate-to-deep passes on the limited occasions he throws them, though only one has resulted in a touchdown.
Last season, Tagovailoa completed only 10 of 29 passes that traveled at least 20 air yards, with three of those passes dropped.
This season, Tagovailoa has completed 9 of 17 of those types of passes for 352 yards, one touchdown (the 65-yarder to Mack Hollins against the Jets) and one interception.
Tagovailoa’s 52.9 completion percentage on those 20-plus-yard-air throws ranks second in the NFL among quarterbacks who have thrown at least five such passes, per Pro Football Focus.
Only Arizona’s Kyler Murray has completed a higher percentage of such attempts — 61.1 (22 for 36).
Has being another year removed from his major hip injury helped on his deep ball?
“It helps,” he said. “It starts in practice. A lot of the looks in practice entail us to take shots. If it doesn’t present itself, we never want to force it.”
His 65-yarder to Hollins against the Jets “felt really good. We haven’t had much of those when I played. Those feel really good, especially when it ends in a touchdown.”
For perspective, the Chargers’ Justin Herbert has completed 50 percent of such 20-plus-air-yard throws (15 for 30, four TDs, no interceptions), Kansas City’s Pat Mahomes 40.8 percent (20 for 49, six TDs, two interceptions), Tampa Bay’s Tom Brady 38.3 percent (18 for 47, four TDs, two interceptions) and Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers 36.2 percent (17 for 47, four TDs, three interceptions).
Among other recent Alabama quarterbacks, Tagovailoa’s deep ball accuracy has been superior to New England’s Mac Jones (34.2 percent, 13 for 38, three TDs, three interceptions) and Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts (33.3, 16 for 48, three TDs, four interceptions).
Among the league’s worst with the deep ball this season: Tennessee’s Ryan Tannehill, who has completed just 9 of 34 such throws (26.5 percent), with two TDs and two picks, and Detroit’s Jared Goff (6 of 30, 20 percent, with one TD and one pick).
Tagovailoa likely hasn’t received more credit nationally for his improved deep ball metrics because the Dolphins, at 4-7, are off the national radar; Tagovailoa doesn’t throw a lot of deep balls; and he has only one touchdown on such throws.
Thirty-two quarterbacks have thrown more of those 20-plus-yard attempts than Tagovailoa, who has missed all of four games and parts of two others. Derek Carr leads the league in such attempts with 53.
Tagovailoa — who has led the Dolphins to touchdowns on four of his six opening drives this season — admitted Wednesday: “What haunts me is after the first series, the second, third, fourth series, shooting ourselves in the foot, me turning the ball over on the second series.” He said he needs to be better in the second quarter.
This season, Tagovailoa has a 94.1 passer rating in the first quarter, 67.8 in the second, 105.5 in the third and 105 in the fourth.
Tagovailoa’s fourth-quarter numbers have been very good. “It’s hard to rattle him,” Jaylen Waddle said.
THOMAS A SEMIFINALIST
Former Dolphins linebacker Zach Thomas was named a semifinalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame for a fourth consecutive year. He’s one of 26 modern-era players still in the running for the 2022 Hall of Fame class, which will be announced the night before next February’s Super Bowl in Southern California.
The group of 26 will be reduced again — to 15 finalists — before the final vote. Thomas made the final 10 the past two years.
Between four and eight people — typically players, coaches or owners — must be enshrined annually.
Thomas was named to the NFL’s 2000 All-Decade team, made the Pro Bowl seven times and was a first-team All-Pro on five occasions. Thomas — whose 1,734 career tackles are fifth in NFL history — played 12 seasons for the Dolphins and his final season for the Cowboys.
THIS AND THAT
▪ Tight end Adam Shaheen was absent from practice because of a knee injury, and Elijah Campbell didn’t practice because of toe and knee injuries. Jevon Holland (knee/ankle), Brandon Jones (elbow/ankle), Elandon Roberts (hip), Christian Wilkins (quad) and Trill Williams (hamstring) were limited. Xavien Howard and Byron Jones were given a veteran’s rest day.
▪ Dolphins safety Eric Rowe relishes Sunday’s matchup with Carolina’s Cam Newton because “he gets us pissed off and that gets us going. Every time you play him, he brings all the energy. He’s one of the most competitive quarterbacks I’ve played. He talks crap to everybody. I like that. Most quarterbacks don’t talk. Only ones are him, Philip Rivers.”
Rowe joked that “you want to smack him.” He once heard Newton tell a defensive back “you’re too small.”
▪ Linebacker Vince Biegel — who missed all of 2020 with an Achilles injury — on Wednesday returned to the 53-man roster for the first time this season after sustaining a calf injury and landing on injured reserve in August.
He reached an injury settlement with the team, which allowed him to return to the Dolphins this season. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to play this season. Biegel said the Dolphins raised this possibility when they put him on IR in August.
Biegel, who said he’s fully healthy, joined the Dolphins’ practice squad last month after a few other teams inquired about him. He said he preferred to return to Miami, noting he has “unfinished business” here after a solid 2019 season.
“It was cool to come back and see my locker wasn’t cleared out,” Biegel said. “My nametag was up there. That speaks volumes about the organization.”
Here’s my Wednesday piece with news from Brian Flores on Will Fuller, DeVante Parker, a signing and more.
This story was originally published November 24, 2021 at 2:46 PM.
