Where does Tua Tagovailoa need to improve in his third start?
The fifth overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, Tua Tagovailoa, made his first start two weeks ago against the Los Angeles Rams. The Miami Dolphins won the game 28-17, while asking their rookie quarterback to do very little in his debut. After a shaky start, Tua settled in and executed the very conservative game plan. The rookie quarterback finished with 93 passing yards on 12/22 passing and one touchdown. He did not throw an interception, but he did fumble.
Now of course, the world was on fire because he did not throw four touchdowns in his first game. Did he play well? No. However, the game plan was very vanilla and Aaron Donald was in his face from the first snap. Going into his third start, he did not have to worry about Chandler Jones on the Arizona Cardinals, and was able to settle in nicely, leading the Dolphins to a 34-31 win.
There has been so talk about Tua in recent weeks, and head coach Brian Flores has shut all of it down. The Dolphins made an investment in him because they believe he is a franchise quarterback. To continue to silence his doubters and get another win, where must Tua Tagovailoa continue to improve in his third start?
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R-E-L-A-X
Salute to Aaron Rodgers and his infamous quote. The number one thing that Tagovailoa needs to do is relax. It’s understandable that there were some game one jitters for the young quarterback. Those jitters led to some overthrows early on, as well as a fumble on his first pass attempt.
He was able to have more time to sit back in the pocket this week, as Aaron Donald and Michael Brockers were in Los Angeles enjoying their bye week. The Cardinals have suffered some injuries to their pass rush unit, and Tua was be able to take his time and go through his progressions.
He finished the day against the Cardinals with 248 yards passing and two scores on the day, completing passes at a clip of nearly 71.5 percent. This was a massive leap forward for Tua from game one to game two.
Make Chan Gailey trust him
Offensive coordinator Chan Gailey called one of his worst games on Sunday. Part of that may have been because of the quarterback change. The biggest indicator of that is the difference between Sunday and the game three weeks ago against the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers were banged up in the secondary and Chan Gailey allowed Ryan Fitzpatrick to take advantage of their backups.
Two weeks ago, the Rams were missing some pieces in the secondary coming into the game and lost All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey almost immediately. Gailey did not allow Tua to test their backups. That could be because of something he saw in practice or simply because it was his first start. Whatever it may be, the rookie needs to be able to threaten defenses down the field.
Get on same page with receivers
There was no shortage of mental errors for the Dolphins offense on against the Rams. The two fumbles are obviously the highlight of the miscues. However, drops were also a problem for Miami in their putrid offensive performance. Preston Williams dropped multiple passes two weeks ago, which is something that many were worried about.
Going from a right-handed to left-handed quarterback takes time to adjust to, and clearly the Dolphins weapons were not ready. Another full week of practice should help tremendously. This past weekend against the Cardinals, the receivers and Tua took a step forward in building chemistry, but must continue to develop that sense of connection as the Dolphins now look to take on Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers.