When Mike McDaniel was hired as the Dolphins head coach, he famously told Tua Tagovailoa over FaceTime that his job was to get the best out of the quarterback.
There are months before the Dolphins open the season at home against the Patriots. But Tagovailoa has drawn some strong reviews from McDaniel to this point during the offseason program.
McDaniel has implemented a practice player of the day system within the team, where the individual who earns the honor wears a special jersey and gets to pick the practice music playlist. Tagovailoa has earned it this spring, part of his overall strong performance.
“I’ve seen a guy that’s attacking the moment, a guy that really likes to play football,” McDaniel said of Tagovailoa during his Tuesday press conference. “In the process of college evaluations and in the National Football League in a different conference, you hear people describe a quarterback’s ‘instinctiveness.’ It’s kind of probably how it hits your ear, it hit mine, where that’s intriguing but I didn’t quite know what that meant. And now, I have a better idea of what that meant. I still don’t have a better way to describe it besides ‘instinctiveness,’ but you can tell the player’s played the position for a long time and that he thinks about the game of football through the lens of the quarterback position.
“So, I’ve been very excited about his development in terms of the offense and playing and being the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins.”
It’s a key season for Tagovailoa, as the club has surrounded him with plenty of talent. And the Dolphins will have to decide whether or not to exercise his fully guaranteed fifth-year option next spring.
