Tua Tagovailoa is lesson for other NFL teams: Support the QB you draft!
By Brian Miller
Tua Tagovailoa should serve as a lesson to every other NFL football team who drafts a player that is a key part of their roster and support them.
David Carr was supposed to be a great incoming quarterback but his time in Houston with the Texans wasn’t very good. The Texans didn’t help Carr and after five seasons, he was gone. He spent one year with the Panthers, then two with the Giants, and one more with the 49ers before returning to New York for his final season.
Carr is an example. His 76 sacks during his rookie season remain one of the highest single-season totals in the NFL. He would be sacked 49 and 68 times in his third and fourth seasons. That ruins a QBs confidence.
In Cleveland, the list of first-round QBs is a long one but their failures have more to do with what the Browns failed to do rather than what the players did.
In Miami, this was the future for Tua Tagovailoa. From the moment he was drafted, Tua was the target of media hate and internal strife. He had a coach, Brian Flores, who didn’t want him on the team. He had an offensive system that wanted him to play to his own weaknesses rather than his strengths.
The Dolphins were ready to give up. They were ready to move on and in 2021 they came very close to sending Tua elsewhere in favor of the Brian Flores choice. Stephen Ross has made a lot of stupid moves as an owner but his decision not to trade for Deshaun Watson and instead eventually fire Flores and surround Tua with an organization that supports him is paying off. It very well may be his legacy.
Tua, as Mike McDaniel said after Sunday’s game in the locker room is playing “On ‘expletive’ fire”.
Tua is playing like a new QB. He showed signs that he was capable of being this good. Accuracy isn’t learned and the NFL is a tough place to learn on the fly. The difference between last year and this year is incredible and he wasn’t bad last season, just not used properly.
Too often teams give up on quality QBs. Sam Darnold was shipped out of New York to Carolina, is he as bad as his NFL career has gone, or is he simply another in a long line of young QBs put in bad situations and then shipped off to another bad situation?
Miami stuck with Tua and they are reaping the reward not because Tua suddenly became a great player, that doesn’t happen. It’s because they surrounded Tua with a coach that believes in his ability and is letting him play to his strengths. Having Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle help but Tua showed quality tendencies with Mack Hollins and Preston Williams too.
For Miami, Tua’s “change of scenery” came by staying in Miami and changing the culture and support around him. Other teams may want to think about that too when they start making decisions on young QBs. Unless of course, they are in the AFC East, then…screw you…change QBs every year!