Tua Tagovailoa getting carrots to go with the stick this time around

Have you heard the story of the carrot and the stick? Tua Tagovailoa will have carrots this time around.

Those proverbial carrots come in the form of improvement on offense for Tua. Tyreek Hill, Alec Ingold, Sony Michel, Raheem Mostert, Cedrick Wilson Jr., Terron Armstead, among others, were brought in to provide help.

Back when the head coach was Brian Flores it was speculated to want quarterback DeShaun Watson, well back then, it was just the stick, and that was the threat of bringing in another quarterback.

Let me reach into my bag of speculation, and try to guess why that was. Brian Flores, during his three seasons as head coach for the Miami Dolphins, appeared to lean toward defense. That is his background as a defensive coach.

If I might risk painting Flores in a good light, and probably get some blow-back from the gauge of fandom toward him, his first season came after a total tear-down. If you remember the leading rusher that season was quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.

The first season Josh Rosen was raw and didn’t work out, but somehow Fitzpatrick could hang in there, as he was a seasoned veteran, with many years under his belt.

In the second season, Flores did make an attempt to improve the offense by bringing in running backs Jordan Howard and Matt Breida, but it was 7th round pick Myles Gaskin who held things down and is now fighting for survival in a very crowded running backs room.

Also during the second season, Tua Tagovailoa was on board, waiting in the wings, Flores had a tightrope to walk, do you start the rookie by throwing him into the fire, or let him sit and learn? This has always been a divisive decision, for there are two camps and both are headstrong.

I can see positives from both sides, and sort of sit on the fence, but when it comes to finding out if you really have an elite quarterback, then you probably have to throw him out there just to see if he can do it with little help.

The third season showed more failed attempts to improve the offense, another running back was brought in who failed in Phillip Lindsay. And there was the Will Fuller fiasco, as the wide receiver played in all of two games.

It is a good thing this time around, there are carrots for Tua Tagovailoa, which the front office showed by standing behind this quarterback, stating so in press meetings, and backing those words up with actions. They built an offense around him, but the stick still lingers, and that is the rumor of Tom Brady to the Miami Dolphins.