Weekly QB Review: Tua Tagovailoa first start was a little up and down
By Nick Belotto
“Tua Time” officially began in Miami on Sunday with Tua Tagovailoa taking center stage for the Dolphins.
The highly anticipated debut for first-round pick Tua Tagovailoa resulted in a Dolphins win, but not a great performance by the highly-rated rookie.
The talented rookie out of Alabama made his first career start coming off of Miami’s bye week against a talented Rams defense without one of their best playmakers in Jalen Ramsey. This debut was one of the more important moments for this franchise is a long time, as everyone’s fear going into this matchup was whether or not Tagovailoa could perform up to first-round expectations and stay healthy.
While it’s hard to say for certain that he is the answer at quarterback after one game, he did have some moments where his talent was on full display, even if his stat line was a bit disappointing from a strict numbers perspective.
Tagovailoa finished the day going 12 of 22 for 93 yards, 1 touchdown, and a fumble. Nothing about that stat line screams “franchise quarterback.” But, it does need to be taken in the full context of the game.
Miami’s offense struggled in this one. On Tagovailoa’s part, there was clearly some rust from not playing football since his gruesome hip injury that put his entire career in question. He overthrew a few guys who were open and looked flustered a few times by a very good pass rush.
On the other side of things, Tagovailoa didn’t get a ton of help from his receivers. There were multiple dropped passes that stalled the Dolphins offense. Those are plays that receivers like Preston Williams and running back Myles Gaskin have to make to help their rookie quarterback out.
With all the bad out of the way, there were multiple times that Tua threw some great passes, most notably his touchdown to DeVante Parker on a goal-line slant route. This pass, in particular, showed quality decision making and accuracy to get the ball to his number one receiver. He was also helped out a bit from Parker making a tough catch, but the throw was the correct one to make.
The best part about his debut, however, was that he didn’t need to do more than what he did for the Dolphins to win. Miami’s team came to play in all phases of the game yesterday. There really isn’t a better way to get a rookie quarterback acclimated to the NFL than with a dominant performance by your defense and special teams.
Tagovailoa’s debut did leave a lot to be desired overall. But, in the context of the game, he played well enough to warrant a further level of excitement from the front office and fans alike.
Overall QB Grade: B-