From rubble of a failed Dolphins season, here’s why QB Tua has earned a big-money extension | Opinion
The Miami Dolphins’ 58th season ended too soon and cloaked in disappointment, as usual—- as just about all of this franchise’s seasons have for far, far too long.
The Detroit Lions’ playoff win left Dolfans alone for the first time on football’s island of shame, alone to mourn the NFL’s now-longest current drought without a postseason victory. Miami’s last came on December 30, 2000. We all have our own way to put in personal context how long ago that was. My two boys were then 13 and 9. The oldest is now 36, and I have been a grandfather for six years.
The ongoing ignominy doubly hurts because this club and these fans — as at least the aging ones — have known the pinnacle like nobody else can: The Perfect Season fronting back-to-back Super Bowl wins in 1972-73.
I have written before about the Dolphin Curse. Historical evidence mounts that the franchise’s soul was sold to the devil in exchange for those back-to-back championships that included included the Perfect Season.
The Curse is why Miami had a long career of record-setting Dan Marino and still never won another Super Bowl.
The Curse is why this Dolphins team had the NFL’s passing yards leader, receiving yards leader and touchdowns leader and yet somehow wound up in a road playoff game in sub-freezing cold.
Let us pound the gavel here on two matters as we put this season to bed and watch eight surviving teams try to win a Super Bowl:
1). The success-or-failure verdict on this Dolphins season.
2). The future of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
Bang! goes the gavel on the first order of business.
This season is found guilty of failing. No equivocation. No lenience on the sentence. And don’t parse it by calling it a disappointing success or an encouraging failure.
Yes, the Fins won 11 games and made the playoffs. And if your bar is low enough, that’s a success. But if that’s a success, raise your damned bar. Expect and demand more ... especially from this team, this season.
The first half of the year the Dolphins were an “it” team offensively, talk-of-the-league stuff. Scored 70 points in a game. Tyreek Hill was on pace to be the first receiver ever to 2,000 yards in a season. Raheem Mostert was en route to scoring more touchdowns than any Dolphins player ever.
At 11-4 after a win over Dallas, the Fins’ and Dolfans’ hopes were Super high.
Then a 56-19 loss in Baltimore. Then a 21-14 home loss to Buffalo that blew the AFC East and doomed the season. Then the arctic 26-7 loss in Kansas City.
That triple fail at just the wrong time ruined the season. So did a 1-6 record against playoff teams. So did a continuing litany of presnap penalties in dire need of a major cleanup.
Miami won two more games than last year; no matter. That’s progress. But that isn’t enough.
Dolphins general manager Chris Grier, asked in the season-ending news conference to grade his performance over his five years in charge, said, “It’s a little mixed. I think we’re building something good that we feel good about. There’s been a lot of successes, lot of things we’re happy about.”
That’s fair.
But the way this season ended turns up the heat on Grier and on coach Mike McDaniel to end that 23-year drought next season — or else, perhaps. If in a year we’re talking about a 24-year drought, Grier might be out. Both could be.
Bang! pounds the gavel. On to the second order of business. Should the Dolphins embrace Tagovailoa with a long-term megacontract?
Albert Einstein is said to have coined the phrase, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Here is a saying you may attribute to me: “Insanity is having a young quarterback who just made the Pro Bowl and led the NFL in passing yards (frst Fin to do so since Marino in ‘92) and still doubting whether he’s good enough.”
Many overreacting Dolfans are looking to scapegoat the end of this season, looking for somewhere to put all their hurt, and going to the easy places: the head coach and the QB.
Neither is perfect.
I was encouraged to hear McDaniel this week when asked about his own play-calling: “You’re always assessing things. After the roller coaster ride we’ve just been on, nothing is off the table, ever. We failed to reach our goals this season. Play-calling wouldn’t live outside [the things we’ll look to improve].”
Tagovailoa must get better, too. He must find a way to be more elusive in the pocket, extend a play and find a secondary receiver when his bread and butter — the quick release pass — is not there.
Tagovailoa this season when he threw in 2.5 seconds seconds or faster: 279 for 373 (74.8 percent), 19 TDs and six interceptions (3.17-1 ratio).
Tagovailoa when he had to hold the ball longer before throwing: 109 for 187 (58.3), 10 TDs and eight picks (1.3-1 ratio).
Tua is 25, not the fastest, biggest or most athletic quarterback, but still one who can develop a run-pass option element to his game. (He doesn’t have the strongest arm, either, but was third in the league with 11 completions of 40-plus yards.)
The 2020 draft class included Tua, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and Jalen Hurts. Only in the dual-threat categorty, not in passing, is Tagovailoa a distant fourth vs. his natural rivals.
Led by Hurts, the other three have 4,109 combined career rushing yards and 62 rushing TDs. Tagovailoa has 381 yards and six TDs.
With Tagovailoa’s concussion issues evaporated by a full, healthy season, Miami must find a way to expand his overall game beyond the accuracy and quick release.
But even with the shortcoming and areas that need improvement, Tagovailoa is worth a major contract extension, worth the keys to the Dolphins’ future.
Burrow, Herbert and Hurts in the past year all signed extensions worth between $255 and $275 million.
Tagovailoa is signed through 2024 at $23 million for the coming season. Miami can extend his contact this offseason, pay him at least double that per year, or let it slide for ‘24, let him become a free agent and then either move on from him or negotiate against other teams that want him.
“I don’t feel any pressure at all. I have full trust in myself,” Tagovailoa says. “I have full trust in what I’m capable of doing for our organization.”
The organization should trust and believe that, too.
Says McDaniel of Tagovailoa: “Let’s make sure the curve is exponential and we see him improving. He’s as good a learner as I’ve ever seen. He continues to thirst to find and create new edges in your game.”
Says Grier: “The goal is to have him here playing long term at a high level.”
So make it happen.
If you truly believe Tua is your franchise quarterback, tell him, no, show him.
Pay him like one.
