Mike McDaniel’s pod of Dolphins was a huge hit. In the pre-season finale, Miami dropped 48 points against the Philadelphia Eagles and Tua Tagovailoa completed 6/7 121-yard passes and led three goalscoring runs.
The Dolphins leading last season in scoring is a good start for the new coach. Still, the preseason is still a glorified XFL game. The regular season is where the waves of monsters hit.
If early returns are any indication, Tagovailoa’s trajectory is looking. In his first play of the Miami Dolphins from the script, Tagovailoa’s slightly poorly completed shot to Hill ate up 51 yards, but was brutally dissected as a testament to Tagovailoa’s relatively small arm strength.
Never mind that there are countless examples of Mahomes underthrowing Hill or Tagovailoa hit the latter in stride. However, Tagovailoa doesn’t have an MVP on its shelves. In the second play, Tagovailoa connected with Hill gaining a 13-yard advantage. Message has been sent. Hill will be making every penny of his $120 million contract extension to kickstart Tagovailoa’s career. Hill comes after five consecutive Pro Bowls as the recipient. Two deep layers of safety became a defensive trend across the league because of Hill’s strength.
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Tagovailoa’s third season is about to be a cross between tempered expectations and unrealistic expectations. There is no formula to translate pre-season numbers. Still, topping the league is a positive start. We can only hypothesize whether these pre-season morphologies are aberrations or forecasts of what’s to come. The Dolphins are ESPN NFL’s Super Bowl sleep analyst Dan Orlovsky’s pick on Monday morning, so take advantage of that for what it’s worth.
23 games in his career, Tagovailoa has been said to play below expectations without turning into a crushing defeat. A story that held Tua and refused to let go. He’s the quarterback that mothers often date their daughters with. Basically, he’s a safe bet. Last season, Tagovvailoa ranked 27th in intended aerial yards per goal and 29th in every match. He won’t take any chances down the pitch and he’ll foul you in range before the curfew.
However, he is a midfielder who started on a rookie contract. Miami have gone all out for Tagovailoa and are running out of their resources to surround him with talent. The 24-year-old midfielder’s break season is often not as attractive as Tagovailoa’s promotion. For the first time, he was not an easy starter. As a rookie, he teamed up with Ryan Fitzpatrick. In 2021, Deshaun Watson’s trade rumors swirled and whirled into trading deadlines. The flirting became so serious that a report from Houston Chronicle’s John McClain (Yippee-Ki-Yay!) Points out that Roger Goodell’s inclusion of Watson on the commissioner’s exemption list was the only thing standing between the Dolphins flushing the first three times down the toilet in an exchange.
After it failed, Tagovailoa was nearly stabbed in the back by a Machiavellian plot involving owner Stephen Ross to get Tom Brady to end his career at 347 Don Shula Drive. Instead of watching Brady warm up to Hill, Dolphins fans were a little surprised that they were settling for Tagovailoa launching deep balls. But Taovailoa should be more excited than ever.
Tagovailoa’s best case for 2022 is that the pre-season fun continues as Hill and McDaniels inspire a renaissance similar to the script by Dan Fouts, Charlie Joiner and strike expert Bill Walsh in the year. 1976.
Before Fouts’ crucial fourth year as a full-back for the Chargers, he was mid lane, prone to alterations and a mechanically flawed pitcher. Then, in the pre-season spring of 1976, San Diego traded the last defensive Coy Bacon to the Bengals for a 5-foot-11, 185-pound Joiner. Fouts reached new heights following head coach Don Coryell’s ‘Air Coryell’ foul, but the real jewel was Walsh – and Joiner, who scored the first of many 1,000-yard seasons of the season. himself in 1976.
At the same time, Stefon Diggs arrived in Buffalo at a time when Josh Allen was in low form. Allen had the opposite problem as Tagovailoa after his second year campaign. Allen can cross a brick wall, but you can’t predict whether his projectile will hit the field first. In Allen’s second season, he averaged 193.1 yards per game and fans counted consecutively 200-yard matches as a milestone. His diminutive numbers and 58.8% completion rate put him somewhere between Bake Bortles and Blaine Gabbert’s second season.
Modern peers found their way before regressing. Jared Goff took a giant leap after the mode change. Baker Mayfield briefly showed signs of life in his second year. Perhaps Tagovailoa was destined to operate in the space between the fringe star and the border star occupied by Goff, Mayfield, and others. But if the Dolphins’ offense whimpers, rookie coach Hill or Jaylen Waddle won’t be hit back. Taggovoiloa’s blockbuster or bust season is upon us. His 2023 sequel hopes to largely rest on the shoulders of his collectors, but if he can’t get the job done, Miami’s wandering midfield eye will return.
