Miami Dolphins’ recommitment to QB Tua: Was it smart? And what it means for ’21 draft | Opinion
It took about 10 seconds for Chris Grier to render the Miami Dolphins’ offseason a heck of a lot less interesting. There had been tendrils of smoke beginning to arise from the fan base, wanting to catch fire. Your Friend the Media sat happily ready to fan them into flames. Into a bonfire.
Grier, the Dolphins’ general manager, snuffed all that out, mashed it out as neatly as a cigarette smoker crushed a butt into an ashtray (back when people smoked cigarettes).
“Tua we’re very happy with,” Grier said simply, in this week’s season postmortem media availability via Zoom. “He’s our starting quarterback.”
That’s when the air left the offseason — when what might have been became a nonfactor.
All the tweets and other social media posts about how the Dolphins should set an NFL record for collective impatience by moving on from quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. All of the media pundits, far and near, opining on who Tagovailoa’s replacement should be with the third overall pick in the NFL Draft on April 29.
We might have looked forward to almost four months of juicy debate and speculation (lifeblood of sports, I remind you), had Grier and coach Brian Flores been anything but unequivocal this week about where Tagovailoa stands with the franchise moving forward.
“We need to improve at every position.” Something as banal or vague as that from Grier or Flores, when asked about satisfaction with Tagovailoa, might have been enough to fan the flames and leave the door ajar in the buildup to the draft.
Instead? The Dolphins did not do the interesting or fun thing, but the right thing and the smart thing, in publicly recommitting to Tagovailoa.
It was calculated, meant to leave no room for doubt.
At one point Grier heard himself say the goal is “competition at every position” — then quickly added, “But I always want to make clear that Tua is our starter, and we’re very happy with his development so far.”
Now I’ll go and say aloud what the Dolphins brass knows believes about Tagovailoa but won’t say directly.
He wasn’t good enough as a rookie. Showed enough promise to reinvest in, but needs to be better.
The path to that requires a lot of things — and one of them happened Wednesday with the sudden resignation of offensive coordinator Chan Gailey.
I say “sudden” because earlier this week Grier and Flores said they expected the entire coaching staff back.
Yet Gailey leaving does not surprise. I am told the parting suited both sides; that no great measures were taken to coax Gailey to stay. They’d hauled him out of retirement. And his play-calling with Tagovailoa was stifling, especially compared to the more wide-open offense seen from Miami when Ryan Fitzpatrick was at QB.
Tagovailoa was fine as a rookie. Did enough to earn confidence and hope. He was 6-3 as a starter. Had 11 touchdown passes vs. five interceptions. Had an OK-not-great 87.1 passer rating.
His improvement, his big strides in Year 2, must come from three areas:
1. Experience and time. Coming off major hip surgery as a rookie, few players in the NFL suffered more than Tagovailoa from what the COVID-19 pandemic wrought. The fractured offseason, the erased preseason. He needed that. Badly. The lack of it should buy him patience from fans who were expecting an instant morph of Dan Marino and Patrick Mahomes.
2. Confidence in him with creativity. This is why Gailey “resigning” is a good thing. Tagovailoa averaged only 9.75 yards per completion as a rookie, sub-10 a rarity in the NFL. That’s play-calling. Short, safe passes. Dinks-and-dunks. A lack of confidence to let it fly. Tagovailoa also took too many sacks. Some of that was rookie indecision. But some of it was relegating Tagovailoa to a pocket passer and not rolling him out more to take advantage of his mobility.
3. Help! A better supporting cast. Running back Derrick Henry turned Ryan Tannehill from a Dolphins discard into a Pro Bowl QB. Philip Rivers was reborn this year because Indy’s great offensive line gave up the second-fewest sacks. Josh Allen made the big leap to stardom because Buffalo gifted him Stefon Diggs. Tagovailoa needs help. Which brings us to the draft in less than four months:
Miami picks third overall (thanks to the Laremy Tunsil trade to Houston). Players highest on the radar should be, in order: Alabama’s Heisman trophy-winning WR DeVonta Smith; Oregon OT Penei Sewell; Penn State ILB Micah Parsons; and LSU WR Ja’Marr Chase. Why? Fins need a dynamic receiver to relegate DeVante Parker to being the No. 2 guy.
Miami selects 18th overall with its own pick. Highest on the radar in this range should be: Clemson RB Travis Etienne and Miami DE Gregory Rousseau. Why? Balance on offense would be Tagovailoa’s best friend. (But don’t ignore a dynamo on defense if he’s there.)
Bottom line:
Thanks to the Dolphins’ recommitment to Tagovailoa this week, we look forward to a blessed four months bereft of howling about Miami drafting Ohio State’s QB Justin Fields or BYU’s Zach Wilson.
Tagovailoa had his own message to fans on his Instagram this week. It ended with the promise expressed in cryptic, trippy poetry that will serve as the last word here:
“Roses will bloom again.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 11:06 AM.
