New Dolphins QB coach Bevell addresses team’s plan for Tagovailoa, what he likes about Tua
The Dolphins’ commitment to Tua Tagovailoa isn’t simply about public praise by management and snazzy social media videos of Mike McDaniel conducting a FaceTime session with his new quarterback.
The organization is ready to formulate an entire offensive scheme around their third-year quarterback.
“The first thing is to get him ingrained in the system,” new quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator Darrell Bevell said Wednesday. “Once we are able to do that, then I think the system is going to be built and tailored to him, and... bring out all the positives in his game.”
Bevell said with quarterbacks, it’s vital “to tailor the game to them, to their talent, rather than fitting the round peg in the square hole. We can tailor the offense to bring out the strengths of each guy.”
So what leaves Bevell encouraged about Tagovailoa, who was seventh in the NFL completion percentage at 67.8 last season?
“I think he’s a really accurate passer,” said Bevell, who began last season as Jacksonville Jaguars’ offensive coordinator and ended it as their interim head coach.
“That’s the thing that jumped out at me right away is looking at him. I haven’t done like a complete deep dive yet. But I’ve looked at enough tape that I like the accuracy that he has. I like his ability to make some off-schedule plays. He can get outside the pocket. He’s not going to be a major runner, but he can run and make plays with his feet. I really like those kinds of things.”
Asked if he believes Tagovailoa has limited arm strength, Bevell said: “I think it’s important for me to be able to see the ball coming out of his hand in person. I can see it on tape. I can see him making some of the throws. There are questions that I have. But I want to see the ball come out of his hand in person.
“That’s the one thing for me, always on tape, is it’s hard to tell the true velocity, so I want to get him out here on the grass and see exactly what it looks like. From what I’ve seen we’ll definitely be able to have high success from him being able to throw the football. He can make many of the throws that we’re going to ask him to do. And the ones that he can’t then we’re going to do something different.”
Bevell, 52, coached Pro Bowl quarterbacks in Green Bay (Brett Favre), Seattle (Russell Wilson) and Detroit (Matt Stafford), Favre in his role as quarterback coach and Wilson and Stafford as offensive coordinators for those teams. In that regard, he brings far more experience to the job than predecessor Charlie Frye, who wasn’t retained.
Tagovailoa, like Wilson, is accurate and can extend plays.
Are there parts of Wilson’s game that Bevell would like to replicate with Tagovailoa?
“Russell is a very driven player,” said Bevell, who was the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator during Wilson’s first six seasons, with Wilson never missing a start in that time.
“He wants to be great in every way. And he’s a tireless worker to be able to get that done. I don’t know Tua as well as I want to yet but we have had a conversation. The first thing is the preparation and the dogged determination that I am going to be great. And I don’t care what anyone else says. I think that’s a great starting point. Because then when you have that belief in yourself you start acting in accordance with that. You put in the time. You work. And you do all those things you need to get your game to meeting expectations.”
Bevell will work with Tagovailoa on mechanics – to an extent.
“A lot of it starts with their base and their feet,” Bevell said. “Your feet are really what communicates to you on the timing of the play. I’ve had guys try to mess with their motion and change things.
“Your motion is your motion. It’s going to be that way for a long time. It’s like, ‘hey walk over there, pick up a rock and throw it,’ that’s your motion. And so I’m not going to mess with that. It’s footwork. It’s timing. Seeing things. Presnap reads. Post snap reads. He throws the ball fine. I’m not going to tinker with that too much.”
McDaniel wants to build an offense that runs the ball effectively and takes some pressure off the quarterback.
“Any time you run the football, that’s a quarterbacks’ best friend,” Bevell said. “It opens up so much when you turn around and hand the ball to the quarterback it takes a lot of pressure off of you. But then it affects the defense in a positive way when you can play-fake them and distort the defense.
“We’ll have many different ways to do that. Being able to get the quarterback out on the edge, movement to create space for them are things that have been a major staple of the offense.”
By NFL rule, McDaniel cannot work on field yet with players, but he and Tagovailoa “had a great conversation,” Bevell said, noting the job was appealing because “it was a great opportunity to stay in Florida. Just moved here a year ago. To be able to get into this offense [and] a great opportunity to work with Tua and to get back into a position meeting room.
“Get my hands on the players. I’m excited about that.”
Here’s my Wednesday piece on defensive coordinator Josh Boyer and what he and the other retained coaches had to say on Wednesday.
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 8:22 PM.
