To say Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa limped to the finish line would be an understatement. The former Heisman runner-up ended his debut season in the worst way imaginable, imploding in a must-win setting at Buffalo in Week 17 (career-worst three interceptions).
Sunday’s humiliation aside, don’t forget Tagovailoa is a rookie coming off a major hip injury that effectively ended his career at Alabama. The COVID pandemic cost him precious offseason reps with his new team. His Miami receiving corps consists of oft-injured DeVante Parker, feast-or-famine tight end Mike Gesicki, shifty but undersized (and older than you’d think) Jakeem Grant and … not much else. But Tua is undersized himself (6’0”/217) with unremarkable arm strength and limited mobility. Compared to his contemporaries in the quarterback class of 2020 including Rookie of the Year frontrunner Justin Herbert (who was drafted immediately after Tua), the 22-year-old has looked painfully ordinary.
Tagovailoa’s recent erraticism, which prompted benchings in Weeks 11 and 16 (he dodged a bullet with Ryan Fitzpatrick unavailable last week), has Dolphins fans understandably wondering how Miami will approach its upcoming draft. Trevor Lawrence won’t be available when the Dolphins step to the podium at third overall (a pick they acquired from Houston in last year’s Laremy Tunsil trade), but one of Justin Fields or Zach Wilson will be (if not both).
Coming off Tua’s disastrous Week 17, you could see why the Fins would be tempted to press the reset button at quarterback. But will they? Not if you ask GM Chris Grier, who adamantly dismissed that possibility Tuesday when addressing the Miami media.
Every quote coaches and GMs give this time of year should be taken with a boulder-sized grain of salt. It’s been two days since Doug Pederson told us with a straight face he played Nate Sudfeld over Jalen Hurts because he thought it would somehow help the Eagles beat Washington (insert obligatory eye-roll emoji). But if we accept Grier’s public vote of confidence at face value, the Dolphins appear to be giving Tua the benefit of the doubt, chalking up his rookie struggles to early-career jitters and an overall lack of seasoning. Another year removed from surgery, will a rejuvenated Tagovailoa flourish the same way Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson emerged in their sophomore seasons? From the looks of it, Grier is ready to test that theory.
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