The sky is the limit for the Dolphins, if quarterback Tua Tagovailoa stays healthy. He and the team have made it a priority this year.
So far, it’s working.
Tua has been hit only four times through two games, the second lowest number of quarterback hits in the NFL. Only Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield has been hit fewer times.
The situation is a testament in large part to Tua’s decision-making. At a time when many are pointing out on social media the failure of players like Justin Fields to see open receivers and to deliver the ball, Tua is a machine.
Tua downplays the skills he has brought to the Mike McDaniel offense.
“That’s just understanding pre-snap where we need to go with the ball and then also post-snap adjusting and making that adjustment quick,” Tua told reporters on Wednesday. “That’s basically all it is.”
He makes it sound easier than it is. It’s not nearly that simple. Tua is orchestrating a dance that includes the offensive linemen doing their jobs, and the receivers doing theirs. McDaniel has implemented more fast and sudden motion and shifts, exacerbating Miami’s pre-snap edge.
As good as they’ve been, the Dolphins are still trying to get better.
“I think you have to keep a real perspective on what are we trying to do?” McDaniel told reporters on Wednesday. “Are we just trying to get a win? Or are we trying to build to something special? You either get better or you get worse in this league, and there’s plenty of areas where we see as coaches and as players where I think our vision is pretty grounded, where it’s looking for where can we get better.
“There’s a bunch of stuff to improve upon because as the season progresses, there’s teams that continue to get better. And there’s teams that stay the same or get worse. And at the end of the season, you want to be part of the former, not the latter. And just by staying the same or not improving, is a death sentence really over the long haul of the season.
“So it’s good to have some success. However, the offense definitely knows that they needed other phases of the team to come through to make sure the game was won. The first game we scored with some time remaining on the clock, and maybe if you’re operating your best self, you score with no time left. This past game, we had an opportunity to make it a two-score game, and didn’t get it done. Both games, the defense came through. And you’re trying to have each phase not be completely dependent on each other while depending on each other, if that makes sense.
“Listen, we have some residual scars from last season that you kind of make last season purposeful. It was the first time that a lot of guys had felt some sort of positive hype. Whether it’s correlation or causation, the league humbled them, I think, and us. I think that’s very still alive and awake in our mind. It’s so early in the season. Again, two wins in two games is whatever. Our goals are much, much bigger than that. And that takes continued growth, which will start this week, building on the last.”
That’s absolutely the right mindset. Teams always change between September and January. The best strive to get better, and they do. The Dolphins, under McDaniel, are squarely in that category.
The week-to-week challenge remains minimizing the hits Tua takes. So far, so good.
So far, so great.
