Tua Thoughts: QB Talks About Comfort Level, the Hip, the Next Step and More
Tua Tagovailoa met with the South Florida media after the Miami Dolphins OTA on Wednesday, the first time he's spoken to the team's beat writers since the 2020 regular season finale.
While he repeated earlier statements on national outlets that his rookie season wasn't up to his standards, Tagovailoa also made some interesting revelations.
For Dolphins fans, maybe the best comment involved the health of his surgically repaired right hip.
"I think my hip feels 10 times better than it did last year," Tua said. "and the confidence level for myself, I feel really confident coming into this second year after that injury two years ago.”
Having said that, Tua indicated he did not feel he returned to action too quickly and refused to use his hip as any sort of excuse for his rookie season, which while it featured a 6-3 record as a starter was overall fairly underwhelming.
“I think that brings up a lot of ifs and buts," Tagovailoa said.
"What happened last year, it happened. That’s what my rookie year looked like. It wasn’t what I expected. That’s why I’ve been working really hard this offseason to help our team this Year 2 for me but this upcoming season.”
Maybe the most eye-opening comment came toward the very end when he was asked about building chemistry with his offensive teammates.
“I think last year for me, I wasn’t as comfortable just in general," Tua said. "I wasn’t comfortable calling plays. I think the guys that were here last year were phenomenal. I just didn’t have the comfortability of checking plays, alerting plays, and doing that. I just rode with the play, even if I knew it wasn’t going to work. I was going to try to make it work still."
The last part of that comment prompted another question asking to clarify what he meant.
“Actually, what I’m saying is: I didn’t actually know the playbook necessarily really, really good and that’s no one else's fault but my fault," Tua said. "Our play calls were simple when I was in. I didn’t have alerts and checks. where now I feel comfortable and I can maneuver my way through these things now.”
In one sense, it's good that Tua can "maneuver" through those things now, though it's fair to wonder why that couldn't get done last year, particularly after he was put into the starting lineup.
Tua declined to talk specifically about the additions of Will Fuller V and Jaylen Waddle, whose speed clearly will make his job easier because he instead wanted to focus on the overall wide receiver group.
That's somewhat expected from Tua because he's the ultimate team player who's not about to put any teammate above another.
As he did his national interviews, Tagovailoa said he wasn't concerned about outside noise this offseason, whether it be criticism of his rookie season or even talk of a potential Deshaun Watson trade.
When it comes to getting added motivation from that talk, Tua said: "I would say there's no extra motivation for me. It's really just playing to the standard and the level of expectation of this organization, and also the standard that I have for myself and expectation I have for myself."
Finally, Tua addressed his new look, which features a little bit longer hair and a beard, which teammates Austin Jackson and Mike Gesicki made a point to note during their own Zoom media sessions.
"I don't know, what do you guys think?" Tua said about the beard. "My mom and my grandmother have been telling me to shave it. ... I'm not too sure. My dad likes it. You never know. One day I might come in with all of it shaved off."
