Tua Tagovailoa is practicing well but nothing means a thing until season
By Brian Miller
Tua Tagovailoa is having a good training camp and some believe it is borderline great. Others? Not so much. Either way, it doesn’t matter.
Right now, Tagovailoa is making some nice plays with his arm. He is showing his arm strength and accuracy. Consistently? Hard to say unless you watch every practice session from start to finish.
Fans see it one way, media sometimes sees it another. Who is right? No one. Until Tagovailoa stands on the field for a game in the Mike McDaniel system, we don’t know.
Against the Buccaneers at the end of the week, Dolphins fans might get to see Tua against someone other than his teammates but his body of work on Saturday night should be low and potentially untested in reality.
Preseason games are not throwaways and we can get an idea of how a player is progressing but until Tua or any other player is in an actual game, we can’t get overly excited about what is or even isn’t happening in camp.
The 2022 season is still a tad bit over the month mark but it is closer every single day. That is when we will know if Tua is getting enough time to throw deep passes and if he has the support of a quality running game. Or if his accuracy is effective deeper than just a slant to Jaylen Waddle.
More importantly, we will know what Mike McDaniel is bringing to the Dolphins offense outside practice highlights and fun media interactions after and before practices.
This year seems different is something that is being said quite a bit lately but I remember when that was said about Brian Flores and Adam Gase and even one time with Joe Philbin. What actually feels different is the highlight reels look a lot nicer but those are picked by the team and the ones released by the fans tend to only show the successful passes and not the missed ones.
Tempered enthusiasm I would call it and I shamelessly have it. I’m excited to see what this year will bring and what Tua and McDaniel can do in their first season together but I would be lying if I didn’t have my doubts as well. I’ve been around too long to buy into the hype this early in camp but sure do hope I’m wrong.