Tua Tagovailoa Thread

[SteveMaddensShoes]

He was always overrated and I expect he'll bust. There's a strong take for ya!

I drafted him at 1.04 in SF because I was supposed to/getting value, but I've had this fear as well. That said my rookie analysis is normally abysmal. And rookie QBs are nearly impossible to evaluate, imo.

[Dynasty DeLorean]

The benching of Tua raised my eyebrows on Brian Flores handling of the QB situation more than Tua. I think Flores and company have done an awesome job on the rebuild and coaching of this team, but the handling of the QB position has been strange. They benched Fitz for Tua while winning and then inexplicably took Tua out this past week.

I didn’t think it was inexplicable, I thought they were trying to win the game and Tua had shown no ability to move the ball the entire game outside one drive. That was an important game for them and now they are basically out of the division race so I think you see Tua the rest of the way.

He also only threw the ball 20 times in the game though. I would have liked to see him in a hurry up, throw every down type of offense to end the game. Joe burrow threw over 30 attempts every single game. It’s possible tua simply cant run a 2 minute offesne, but if that’s the case then why name him the starter

[Vcize]

The benching of Tua raised my eyebrows on Brian Flores handling of the QB situation more than Tua. I think Flores and company have done an awesome job on the rebuild and coaching of this team, but the handling of the QB position has been strange. They benched Fitz for Tua while winning and then inexplicably took Tua out this past week.

I think the circumstances have been odd here. There were some rumors that came out that seem reasonable saying when Houston was a 1-win team, since they have Houston's pick and it's looking like a really strong QB class they wanted to see what they had in Tua to see if they needed to give him the Rosen treatment or not.

Then on top of that, unlike Arizona at the time, they're actually in playoff contention so when things weren't going well that game they decided they needed to do what they could to try and win it.

[Yarnith]

Nothing to see here with that 4th quarter benching. Less on Tua and more on the coaching staff. They were out coached and had no answers and tossed in Fitz as a Hailmary that he could do something against a defense they couldn't handle as a coaching staff. I would leave him where ever you had him going into that game until you see something change going forward.

[AussieMate]

Yeah I don't think there is much to take from that game, the entire offence couldn't get anything going and Tua was getting hit a bit, maybe it was just a matter of taking him out to keep him safe along with Fitz having a higher chance to win for them with his cavalier throwing style.
After watching Burrow get constantly destroyed then his injury I'm happy for Dolphins to protect him at this point in his career. Like another poster said, I think they get him some WR help in the draft that can get separation and some more O-line help, Tua was always a wait for 2021 to see coming off that injury and I feel next year will be the one to judge him off more so than this year.

[DLF3000]

Look, you just don't bench a guy for getting sacked "to protect him" - give me a break. Who else does that? He got benched because he sucked that game, let's get real. Now we'll see if he continues to suck or not.

[AussieMate]

Look, you just don't bench a guy for getting sacked "to protect him" - give me a break. Who else does that? He got benched because he sucked that game, let's get real. Now we'll see if he continues to suck or not.

Teams pull a QB if a game is out of hand which follows a similar thought process i.e no point letting them get hurt for no reason. I agree he was sucking, I think it was a mix hence why I said Fitz gave them a better chance to win. It's also an interesting situation when you weigh in Tua's previous injury and the fact most people thought he should sit a year.
Lots of QBs also don't get pulled even if they are sucking, that's why I think there are more factors going into it then just playing bad.

[The MAC Machine]

Look, you just don't bench a guy for getting sacked "to protect him" - give me a break. Who else does that? He got benched because he sucked that game, let's get real. Now we'll see if he continues to suck or not.

Teams pull a QB if a game is out of hand which follows a similar thought process i.e no point letting them get hurt for no reason. I agree he was sucking, I think it was a mix hence why I said Fitz gave them a better chance to win. It's also an interesting situation when you weigh in Tua's previous injury and the fact most people thought he should sit a year.
Lots of QBs also don't get pulled even if they are sucking, that's why I think there are more factors going into it then just playing bad.

It seems like he was struggling on the field and they wanted him to have an opportunity to see it from the sidelines and learn. I don’t think he was benched because they wanted to disengage him from the game, I think they benched him to engage him from a different perspective. Watching game tape, watching the game live, and being in the game are all different learning experiences and they probably didn’t want to risk him getting hurt, or the team losing, while he was struggling/learning on the field. He can learn how to play through struggles later in his career. But for now playing through struggles and being injury prone while you’re still learning...isn’t the wisest position for your franchise player to be in.

[Blueboy]

Currently, the best play the Dolphins have through the air is forcing it to Parker. He's the only close to "great" pass catcher they have, Gesicki is fine but way too inconsistent still. Tua isn't the gunslinger type, his game has historically been about exploiting mismatches or taking what the opposing defense gives him.

Losing Williams hurt the Dolphins a lot, they needed someone else to command real attention on the outside. Honestly Albert Wilson would really help them from the slot, too. Getting guys like that back, plus likely adding another WR high in the draft and Gesicki taking another step forward will be big next year. That seems like more of an environment in which Tua can thrive.

[AussieMate]

Currently, the best play the Dolphins have through the air is forcing it to Parker. He's the only close to "great" pass catcher they have, Gesicki is fine but way too inconsistent still. Tua isn't the gunslinger type, his game has historically been about exploiting mismatches or taking what the opposing defense gives him.

Losing Williams hurt the Dolphins a lot, they needed someone else to command real attention on the outside. Honestly Albert Wilson would really help them from the slot, too. Getting guys like that back, plus likely adding another WR high in the draft and Gesicki taking another step forward will be big next year. That seems like more of an environment in which Tua can thrive.

Yeah he needs a WR that can get separation, hoping they get one of Waddle or Chase in this draft. Waddle fits a need more but you don't turn down a talent like Chase if offered up.

[Yarnith]

Currently, the best play the Dolphins have through the air is forcing it to Parker. He's the only close to "great" pass catcher they have, Gesicki is fine but way too inconsistent still. Tua isn't the gunslinger type, his game has historically been about exploiting mismatches or taking what the opposing defense gives him.

Losing Williams hurt the Dolphins a lot, they needed someone else to command real attention on the outside. Honestly Albert Wilson would really help them from the slot, too. Getting guys like that back, plus likely adding another WR high in the draft and Gesicki taking another step forward will be big next year. That seems like more of an environment in which Tua can thrive.

I agree with this though I think with Williams back Grant has shown he can handle the slot as well as Wilson for a lot less money.

[Blueboy]

Currently, the best play the Dolphins have through the air is forcing it to Parker. He's the only close to "great" pass catcher they have, Gesicki is fine but way too inconsistent still. Tua isn't the gunslinger type, his game has historically been about exploiting mismatches or taking what the opposing defense gives him.

Losing Williams hurt the Dolphins a lot, they needed someone else to command real attention on the outside. Honestly Albert Wilson would really help them from the slot, too. Getting guys like that back, plus likely adding another WR high in the draft and Gesicki taking another step forward will be big next year. That seems like more of an environment in which Tua can thrive.

I agree with this though I think with Williams back Grant has shown he can handle the slot as well as Wilson for a lot less money.

Yeah, Grant's fine. Like Albert Wilson, he's just a role player, but he's good at what he does. The Dolphins just went into this year knowing that it'd be a disaster if either Parker or Williams went down, and here we are.

[Forza_Azzurri]

I haven’t changed my opinion one iota on Tua ... he had been been out of action for nearly a year & then started playing in the most absurd year ever. If he doesn’t deserve some extra consideration, then I don’t know what every one else is expecting.

[Ice]

Look, you just don't bench a guy for getting sacked "to protect him" - give me a break. Who else does that? He got benched because he sucked that game, let's get real. Now we'll see if he continues to suck or not.

Agree. I actually like the coach benching him. If he can't take that little dose of humility what good he is as a future leader.

While we don't know, he could have had a bad week of practice or success may have been going to his head a bit.

The last thing Miami needs is a Vince Young situation. Young was the golden boy who was fine as long as things went well but couldn't take criticism at all.

Flores watched Brady get schooled by his coach for a decade so he probably has a system ingrained in his head on how to handle QB's.

[AussieMate]

What did people think of Tua against the Chiefs? Felt like a breakout game against a team who doesn't give away a lot of big plays (I'm pretty sure I've read that about the Chiefs but I could be wrong).

QB isn't an area I'm that skilled at breaking down but I thought he took more shots this game, he threw some receivers open rather than waiting till they were already open, I'm very excited if for him going forward if the Dolphins can somehow score Chase with the Texans pick in the draft because he did this with mediocre receiving options seeing as though Preston is out and Parker got injured again. Get him some weapons and the further development of Gesicki and I'm very optimistic going into the 2021 season.