No reason Miami Dolphins Tua Tagovailoa shouldn’t be in MVP race
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins won’t get the year-end recognition they deserve and neither will Tua Tagovailoa but he should still be in the MVP talk.
When it comes to MVP discussions, there are a few in the media who see Tua as the hot-button candidate who should be the mid-season MVP but there is a lot of season to go and a lot of things can happen between now and then. If Tua hadn’t missed part of two games and a third entirely, would that change the narrative? It could.
Had Tua not missed time this year the Dolphins could very well be looking at a different record. We see social media today debating what games Miami may have won with Tua completing the game. Some believe it could have been all three. It doesn’t matter, honestly, the Dolphins lost and you can’t change the past.
When we hear MVP talk, we hear the names Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes and since Jalen Hurts has the Eagles perfect through the first half of the season, we hear his name as well. We don’t hear Tua’s name nearly as much.
Tua will need to keep the Dolphins in the race all season long and he has to do it with near perfection. There is no room for error for Tua. That isn’t fair because Allen could throw four picks in a losing game and still be in the hunt. Hurts could lose his first game in horrible fashion and still be in the water cooler chatter and yes, Patrick Mahomes can throw three picks in a loss to the lowly Lions and still be a favorite. Tua? Tua could throw two interceptions and complete only 50% of his passes in a win and many in the media would wipe his name off their tongues.
Why? That’s a question no one can seem to answer. He continues to be bullied in the media with no respect for no reason. Week in and out, Tua continues to prove that not only is he a franchise QB but an NFL stud in the making.
Tua isn’t given the same leeway that others are. He can’t afford to lose to the Browns this week. He can’t afford to lose to the Texans or Packers and when the Dolphins play the Bills for a second time, that is when he will have a chance to show the NFL that he is here for real but even that will be on the lighter side.
For Tua, it’s all about time. It’s about consistency, not from one game at a time but from one year at a time. Tua will need to do what he has done this year, next year, and then again the following year. That is the mark of a franchise quarterback and if he can, there is no reason why he shouldn’t enter the season as the odds-on favorite because of all the QBs, he is, as Tyreek Hill said, one of, if not the most accurate QB in the league right now.
Tua doesn’t need to win MVP and he doesn’t need to be in the conversation. Tua just needs to keep being Tua. A quarterback that fans are rallying behind and a quarterback that his teammates love and respect. To hell with what the rest of the NFL believes.