Miami Dolphins history: Tua Tagovailoa closing in on best since Marino
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins have not had a standout quarterback since Dan Marino retired. Many consider this some sort of curse but Tua Tagovailoa is out to change it.
Currently, Tua Tagovailoa is ranked as the 9th best quarterback in Miami Dolphins history. He has passed Matt Moore, Chad Pennington, and a slew of other quarterbacks that have started for Miami since 1999.
In front of him? Ryan Fitzpatrick, David Woodley, Chade Henne, Jay Fiedler and of course, Ryan Tannehill. If you want more to be excited about, let’s look at the numbers.
- Don Strock – 4,613 yards – 163 games
- Ryan Fitzpatrick – 5,620 yards – 24 games
- David Woodley – 5,928 yards – 42 games
- Chad Henne – 7,114 yard – 36 games
Those are the next four quarterbacks ahead of Tagovailoa. He currently has 4,467 yards passing and he has done so in only 23 games, that includes the Buffalo game last year that saw him out of the game after the second play.
By the end of the 2022 season, barring injury, Tua should pass Chad Henne for 5th place all-time in Dolphins history. He only needs a little over 2,600 yards. If he can accomplish that, he will set his sites on the next three.
- Jay Fiedler – 11,040 yards in 62 games
- Ryan Tannehill – 20,434 yards in 88 games
- Bob Griese – 25,092 in 138 games
We won’t mention Dan Marino as the likelihood of Tua reaching 61K passing yards right now is very unlikely. The stats do show how bad it has been for the Dolphins since those days. 11 thousand yards isn’t all that much and it is attainable in a few years if Tua hangs around.
For this year, it’s about moving up and proving that Tua can be the franchise quarterback of the future for Miami. The training wheels are off, there are playmakers on the roster, there is a coaching staff supporting him, and there are no excuses remaining.
Another statistical category to watch for is touchdowns. Tua currently has thrown 27 touchdowns and if he can throw 20 this year he will move from 10th place all-time in Miami history all the way up to 5th where he will have passed Moore, Henne, Fitzpatrick, Woodley, and Don Strock. It would put him a handful behind Fiedler at 66.
Stats are great to talk about the real stat that matter in all of this is winning. Tua ranks 9th in Dolphins history with 13 wins and 8 losses. Only six players have more than 13 wins in Dolphins history, another extremely sad statistic. Marino, Griese, Tannehill, Fiedler, Woodley, and Don Strock who has 14. Chad Henne finished his career with 13 wins and 18 losses.
Needles to say, the pool of competition for Tua this year isn’t deep but he can still climb the ladder and inch closer to the top five statistically. Hopefully, that win total increases by a lot this year. 11 wins move him up to fifth.