Miami Dolphins’ fans Tua Tagovailoa fever is only going to get worse
By Brian Miller
Miami Dolphins fans want Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa more than anything in recent memory and it is only going to get worse.
Here we are again, prefacing an entire article about the Miami Dolphins fanbase. Not all Dolphins fans are pounding their fists and ready to throw themselves on the sword for Tua Tagovailoa but my lord there are a bunch of them.
The fever over Tua Tagovailoa is crazy right now. It literally has gone from, Miami has to lose all of their 2019 games to draft him, to the disappointment of winning two games and taking them out of the running. Then Tagovailoa got hurt and his season ended and now, those fans are back to “we have to lose the rest of our games because he is going to fall”.
I really want to put a straight face emoji here but I can’t. There are “fans” or “media” guys that I have long respected who are so insanely in on Tagovailoa that I seriously have to question whether they know football at all. They are in turn doing the same thing with me considering that I am not banging my fists on a table screaming for the Dolphins to draft him. In fact, I wouldn’t. Not in the top five of the draft.
If I am being honest, I have never really “loved” Tagovailoa. It is not because of his Alabama supporting cast or my disinterest in anything that Nick Saban brings to the table, there is something about him that I don’t see translating to the NFL. Something that says to me, “This guy is going to be good, not great, and he isn’t going to be winning 10 years from now.”
I want a quarterback that is going to win now. Two years from now. Five years from now. 10 to 15 years from now. I want a Dan Marino.
Social media participants believe that Tagovailoa is going to be the next Drew Brees. The next Dan Marino, the next you fill in your own blanks here with a name. I see a guy that is going to be good. I see a guy that other players are going to like. I see a guy who will be a leader. I just don’t think that he will be great and because of that, I’m not spending a high draft pick on him.
Then there is the injury concern. Two ankle surgeries and now his hip. Pro-Tagovailoa fans will tell you that the hip is a “freak” accident. Naysayers will tell you it is like Bo Jackson’s. Both are wrong. The reality is that no one knows what his hip injury will do to his career long-term. Pro fans are willing to take that risk.
These fans are willing to trade all three of the team’s first-round picks to get him. They are the “whatever it takes crowd”. I’m not. I’m if he falls and you think he is the best then take him, if you like Justin Herbert more, draft Herbert.
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The banging of this drum is loud and it is only going to get louder as the draft, which is still six months away, gets closer. It will almost grow into what the 2020 election will be for President. Turn off the sound, unfollow everyone until it is over.
Tagovailoa may end up being a great quarterback. If he lands in Miami, I hope I’m wrong and many of you will point out that I often am wrong. When it comes to quarterbacks I’m about 50/50. I said long ago that Andrew Luck would be good but never win a Super Bowl. I said that Robert Griffin, III would be a first-round bust. I also said that the Dolphin’s best chance at a franchise QB was Brady Quinn.
Regardless of what side of the fence you are on or what wagon you have hitched yourself to, if the Dolphins do draft Tagovailoa, they are drafting a really high character individual that everyone loves from a team standpoint. They would be drafting a guy that plays 110% all the time and never quits. They would be drafting a guy that has a big arm with a lot of accuracy and touch. None of that is remotely bad. Yet for all that, for me, I don’t see what everyone apparently sees in him. At least not to the point that I am going to obsess about him. And yes, it is an obsession.
What do you all think? Should the Miami Dolphins do whatever it takes to get him or let the chips fall where they fall in the draft? Tell us in the comments.