As the No. 5 and No. 6 overall picks in the 2020 draft, quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert will always be linked and compared to one another.
Through three seasons, Herbert has been more durable and Los Angeles has committed to him by signing him to a lucrative second contract.
Tagovailoa has a better winning percentage, but injuries have prevented him from playing a full season. The Dolphins picked up his fifth-year option but are hot committed to him beyond 2024.
With the Dolphins beginning the season in Southern California against the Chargers, Tagovailoa was asked on Wednesday if he ever finds himself thinking about the comparison between himself and Herbert.
“No,” Tagovailoa said in his press conference. “Justin is a totally different player than me. Justin can throw the deep balls as far as anyone in this league. There’s things that Justin does that I look at and [say], ‘Oh my gosh.’ Sometimes you can’t help but fan over those plays.
“But we’re just different in our styles and who we are as football players. Got a tremendous amount of respect for him. And, yeah, it’s him going against our defense and our offense going against their defense.”
Herbert came out ahead in last year’s December matchup between the two quarterbacks. Los Angeles’ signal-caller was 39-of-51 passing for 367 yards with a touchdown in that 23-17 victory. Tagovailoa had his worst outing of the season, finishing just 10-of-28 for 145 yards with a TD.
“First off, they had a great game plan for us last year,” Tagovailoa said. “It was tough to get things started in basically the first half and then trying to move on from that in the game, trying to get a rhythm going offensively. But you’ve got to tip your hats to their coaches, their coaching staff, they’re well coached. They took a lot of things away that we would normally run and things that we felt comfortable doing. So, hats off to them.
“But like I said, really excited. This is going to be a good game.”
Sunday’s contest will be the third matchup between Tagovailoa and Herbert and each QB has a victory. When they were rookies, Miami defeated Los Angeles 29-21.
