Tua on Praise and Why the Offense Clicks
Anybody who's observed Tua Tagovailoa over the past few years shouldn't have been surprised that he deflected praise during his weekly media session Wednesday.
The third-year quarterback from Alabama not only is having a breakout season, his name is being mentioned in the NFL MVP conversation and oddsmakers have put him among the top half-dozen favorites for the award.
But after saying the way he deals with the attention is simply to keep working, Tagovailoa made sure to give a shout-out to head coach Mike McDaniel for the scheme that has allowed him and teammates Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle to put up big numbers so far in the 2022 season.
"I think Coach Mike does a great job putting us in great situations offensively," Tagovailoa said. "He has a lot of — people would say window dressing; he doesn't like that term — because it's just a part of our offense is with the movement. Shifting, motioning, it's part of what we do.
"It's a lot of credit to what our head coach has done within installs and things like that to help put us in those situations. And we can say that, I go out there and throw, Tyreek and Waddle and all these other guys catch and run, but he continues to give other people praise, but he doesn't get as much praise as I think he should. A lot of that is because of him."
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DOLPHINS OFFENSE AMONG THE NFL'S BEST IN 2022
Without question, credit for the success of the Dolphins offense this season — Miami is fifth in the NFL total yards and second in passing yards — can be spread in a lot of different directions.
And that most definitely includes McDaniel's scheme and play designs, which actually maybe have been surprising given that he arrived in Miami with this reputation as a running game guru.
And for those complaining that the Dolphins running game, ranked 29th in the NFL hasn't produced enough, that might be fair, but it also should be obvious that the biggest playmakers on offense are Hill and Waddle — with all due respect to Raheem Mostert and now Jeff Wilson Jr.
And it would be borderline negligence to focus on the running game and make Hill and Waddle have supporting roles when they clearly needs to be front and center with Tua getting them the ball.
"Well, the thing that Coach Mike has helped us offensively with is he's kind of tailored the offense towards what we do best," Tua said. "And if you look on film, he tries to tailor it to what Tyreek runs the best, what Jaylen likes running, what I like throwing, what I'm good at throwing and things like that. As you watch their film from when they were with the Niners, they did things a little different because of what those guys were good at and what they like, so I really think it's just things that are tailored to our strengths, and then he builds off of that, so not much of, why are we doing it like this? Or why are we doing it like that? It's more so, how do you see that play if they get this or if they get that, how do you see him running it and where do you think I should go with all of this? Just more of that kind of conversation."
Yep, in San Francisco, the major talents on offense when McDaniel was there were multi-purpose wide receiver Deebo Samuel, tight end George Kittle and the offensive line, and that's why the 49ers played a more run-oriented, short-passing style.
TUA AND HIS OFFENSIVE TEAMMATES HAVING FUN
With the Dolphins, it's about getting Hill and Waddle open downfield, which has happened on a regular basis this season. And then Tua has done his part by getting them the ball, and the result has been an offense that's helped the team reach the 30-point mark three times in eight games after it happened three times all of the 2021 season.
"I think we're all having fun," Tua said. "We're all having fun, where we're feeling comfortable in this offense that we've had to all learn that's been new for us. So it's cool to see that all the hard work throughout OTAs and training camp has paid off to this point. It's not something that we're satisfied with. We're gonna continue to learn and build off of things we need to but we'll continue to find ways to do things that we're good at and try to do well continuously."
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