Tua Tagovailoa continues to prove he is better than Justin Herbert
By Brian Miller
Tua Tagovailoa continues to prove that he isn’t just a good quarterback but that he is on the verge of being elite, maybe he already is.
It’s hard to get on the Tua bandwagon 100%. Not because fans don’t have faith in him but because this is the Miami Dolphins and we are not allowed to have nice things. Tua Tagovailoa? He is a very nice thing.
On Sunday, Tua became the first QB in NFL history with a minimum of 30 passing attempts to finish a game with a 135 passer rating for the third consecutive game. He was 15 yards shy of joining Dan Marino as the only player in Dolphins history to have three consecutive 300-yard games.
Correction: Tua is the 7th QB in 56 years to accomplish the 3 games, 3 TDs over 135 rating.
Correction again: There are multiple reports that Tua is the only one so let’s go with that because it’s so much better!
On Sunday night, fans of football who stayed awake to watch the Chargers and 49ers play got a chance to see Justin Herbert again throw a late-game interception in yet another loss.
Herbert is a gunslinger and he has a very big arm but Herbert isn’t making the leap in year three that Tua is. He isn’t making a leap like Josh Allen made in his third season. It makes you wonder if what we see in Justin Herbert is all there is. Is there a larger ceiling he hasn’t reached or is this as high as he can go?
The media want you to believe that Herbert’s problems are personnel. He is without Mike Williams and Keenan Allen and yes that hurt quite a bit but Tua, last year threw for 2,253 yards in 12 games. Threw for 16 touchdown passes and had a 7-5 record as a starter. He did this basically with Jaylen Waddle and Mike Gesicki.
DeVante Parker played 8 games, Mack Hollins was the third-best WR on the team, then there was Albert Wilson, Isaiah Ford, Preston Williams, and Will Fuller. None of them but Hollins played the entire season. Good quarterbacks make use of what they have.
Tua hasn’t thrown an interception since week four against the Bengals. Since that game, Josh Allen and Justin Herbert have thrown for a combined 12. On Sunday, Allen threw an overtime INT to end the game and give the Bills a loss.
In reality, Justin Herbert is good and probably will become a great quarterback. Comparing the two of them will be something that goes on as long as both are in the NFL. That is what happens when players from the same position are drafted one after the other. For Miami, it will always be whether or not they made the mistake to take Tua over Herbert, they didn’t.
L.A. doesn’t have that question. They took who Miami didn’t.
As each week goes by, Tua is proving his doubters wrong. He is proving that not only is he big enough for the NFL, but the game isn’t all that fast anymore, aside from his WR’s speed.
Next. 10 Observations from Sunday win over Cleveland. dark
Tua is showing he is the better quarterback and it doesn’t matter who is helping him do it. It’s just a fact. His accuracy is the best in the NFL and that isn’t being debated, Tyreek Hill was 100% correct.
Tua currently trails Herbert statistically in yards, 2,265 to 2,450 but his 18 TDs to 3 interceptions are superior to Herbert’s 14 and 6. but the bigger statistic that matters the most? Tua is 7-1 on the season and perfect in games that he finishes. Herbert is 5-4.
It’s a great time to be a Dolphins fan and for those of us old enough to remember Dan Marino’s heyday, this is what it felt like year after year! It feels great to experience this again.