Why Dolphins Offense Can Thrive With Teddy B
While Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel didn't officially rule out quarterback Tua Tagovailoa for the team's Week 17 game against the New England Patriots, he did say he was taking the approach that veteran Teddy Bridgewater will be the starter.
As McDaniel has said, it's situations like these the Dolphins had in mind when they made Bridgewater one of the highest-paid backup quarterbacks when signing him in the offseason.
It's a tough spot indeed for Bridgewater with the Dolphins needing to stop their losing streak if they want to avoid an epic collapse and make the playoffs.
RELATED: COMPLETE DOLPHINS PLAYOFF OUTLOOK THROUGH WEEK 16
But the narrative that the Dolphins can't win if they don't have Tagovailoa for the New England game or the Week 18 game against the New York Jets simply doesn't pass the smell test.
And all anyone has to do to realize that is go back to the last time Bridgewater appeared in a game for the Dolphins.
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BRIDGEWATER'S LOW-KEY IMPRESSIVE OUTING AGAINST THE VIKINGS
The Dolphins ended up on the wrong end of a 24-16 decision against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 6, their third consecutive loss with Tagovailoa sidelined with his first confirmed concussion, and a lot of folks point to that three-game losing streak as exposing a major gap between Tua and his backups.
Never mind that the Dolphins defense did not force a turnover in any of those three losses — against the Bengals, Jets and Vikings. Never mind that the Dolphins had double-digit penalties against the Jets and Vikings, the only two times it's happened this season. Oh, and never mind that left tackle Terron Armstead missed the last three-plus quarters against the Jets and the entire game against Minnesota.
Let's also not forget that the Dolphins had a chance to take the lead in the fourth quarter of all three of those losses before an interception, missed field goal and fumble ended those scoring threats.
But, according to some narrative, that three-game losing streak was all about "the Dolphins lost because they didn't have Tua."
Hogwash.
Take the Minnesota game, and Bridgewater's performance that day.
Because he missed practice time that week after being yanked from the Jets game after one play, the Dolphins decided to go with rookie seventh-round pick Skylar Thompson as the starter against the Vikings.
After Thompson left the game with a thumb injury, Bridgewater came in at quarterback when the Dolphins started a possession with 11:38 left in the first half.
Bridgewater ended up going 23-for-34 for 329 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions and a 93.9 passer rating.
Let's first start with the passing yardage and what that would have looked like over a full game, which projects to 470 yards over 60 minutes.
Let's then factor in that Bridgewater — and Thompson before him — was under pressure most of that game because, let's face it, the Dolphins pass protection just isn't terribly impressive when Armstead is out of the lineup.
Along with being sacked five times, Bridgewater was pressured on 27.5 percent of his pass attempts that day, according to Pro Football Reference — by comparison, Tua has been pressure on 20 percent of his attempts this season. And Bridgewater was hit five times, matching Tua's season high.
One more for the analytics crowd, Bridgewater was assessed a bad throw percentage of 9.4 percent that game, again per Pro Football Reference; Tua's season percentage is 15.8 percent.
And then let's also realize that one of the two picks came when Jaylen Waddle misplayed an easy catch to tip the ball over to Vikings safety Harrison Smith.
DOLPHINS CAN WIN WITH TEDDY
The above stats aren't meant to disparage Tagovailoa, but rather to dispel this notion that the offense can't function without him and that Bridgewater can't make the offense work.
Go back again to that Minnesota game and remember that the Dolphins trailed 16-3 in the fourth quarter before Bridgewater led a scoring drive to make it 16-10 and had the Dolphins on the move again when he connected with Waddle on a pass that would have converted a third-and-14 and put the ball inside the Vikings 30-yard line.
It wasn't Bridgewater's fault that Waddle was stripped of the ball, the Vikings recovered and Dalvin Cook then ran 53 yards for a touchdown.
In that fourth quarter against Minnesota, Bridgewater passed for 237 yards with a passer rating of 133.5 — despite an interception. If you wish, you can take away that final drive after it was 24-10 (because you might say it was garbage time), and Bridgewater still passed for more than 100 yards in that quarter alone.
In that Minnesota game and in his earlier extended appearance — against Cincinnati after he came in for Tua late in the second quarter — Bridgewater made several of the same kind of completions we've seen all year, with deep passes over the middle to Tyreek Hill, Waddle and Mike Gesicki, a shot over the top to Hill, and some plays off schedule.
The bottom line is this offense is driven, first and foremost, by the speed of Hill and Waddle and then the scheme.
Look at what's happened in San Francisco, where the system is first and foremost, and see how they've continued to thrive now with their third quarterback.
It's the same thing with Miami.
This isn't to suggest that Bridgewater is going to pass for 450 yards against the Patriots because the New England defense is pretty good and will present a challenge, particularly with McDaniel suggesting at his Wednesday media session that the Dolphins might have to do without some key players.
But it would have presented a challenge for Tua as well.
And it says here that Bridgewater has just about the same kind of chance, or close to it, of making good things happen for the Dolphins offense.
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