You might hear that Tua Tagovailoa’s signature moment during Wednesday’s practice — the first of the Miami Dolphins’ 2021 season —was a 65-yard touchdown pass to receiver Albert Wilson that caused the two dozen media members allowed at the new practice facility to scramble for their Twitter feed.
That wasn’t it, folks.
That was good.
Even outstanding.
But that wasn’t the biggest reason to be encouraged about Miami’s starting quarterback right now.
Bigger reasons?
In Year 2, Tagovailoa is charged with three assignments if he’s to have the kind of success the Dolphins need from their quarterback to factor in a race for the playoffs:
1. He has to be a leader.
2. He has to know his job, which means he has to understand the new offense forward and backwards and has to understand opposing defenses so he can make good, quick decisions before and during each play.
3. And, yes, he has to play at a high level.
Let’s agree now that no quarterback can make No. 3 happen without Nos. 1 and 2 kicking in first. Because a quarterback who isn’t a leader typically isn’t a winner. And because a quarterback with great ability but no clue what to do with it typically isn’t in the league for very long.
So what about Nos. 1 and 2 this day for Tagovailoa?
So far, so good.
The leadership that Tagovailoa showed only in spurts behind the scenes last year was evident at the end of Wednesday’s practice. He gathered the entire offense on the field and gave them his opinion of what just happened.
“It’s just being able to talk to the guys and tell them not always what they want to hear, but kind of what they need to hear and how we need to build on that and where we need to be from there,” Tagovailoa said.
“Just talk about our evaluation of the day. You know, kind of how we started, how we looked throughout the middle of practice and then how we finished. And overall, you know, I think we did pretty good. Obviously, there’s always going to be things we need to brush up on, clean up, but that’s the first day of camp.”
To hear Tagovailoa describe it, he was just sharing his thoughts. But some teammates read more into it than that.
Tight end Mike Gesicki said the impromptu meeting was Tagovailoa, “being a leader.”
Part of leadership, by the way, is accepting correction as well as offering it. And Tagovailoa did throw two interceptions that were cringe-worthy. But he knows that.
He’s not hiding from it.
“I would say with the bad throws, that’s a lot of miscommunication,” Tagovailoa said. “On one of them, that’s definitely my fault. I was in a conundrum of throwing it up or coming back down to the back. Unfortunately, that’s how the cookie crumbled on that one. But, you know, it’s good that things like that happened right now.
“We can see it, go back into the film room, talk about it with our guys, the receivers, the tight ends, running backs and kind of get that fixed.”
One of the most important aspects of his game Tagovailoa has to prove is better for 2021 is knowing his playbook and reading the defense’s playbook without, you know, actually being provided with the pages.
That comes with lots of tape study. And some experience.
It’s work.
And, again, Gesicki was complimentary, saying Tagovailoa’s “decision-making, seeing things before they happen, getting guys in the right spot — he did a great job today. You see he’s super prepared.”
The true test of that will not come until the regular season. But at least the work is off to a good start, from the accounts coming from the Dolphins.
As to the account coming from a person with eyes on the practice, I’d say none of Miami’s quarterbacks were asked to carry either the pace or the playmaking during this first training camp practice.
There was a lot of running by Myles Gaskin this day. A lot.
But Tagovailoa did connect with tight end Adam Shaheen for a 15-yard touchdown in one red zone drill. And, yes, the 65-yarder to Wilson was a thing to behold.
“Beautiful ball by Tua,” Wilson said. “I feel all of us can make that catch. We have to make those plays to build his confidence up to give us a chance.”
Tagovailoa, by the way, doesn’t believe he has to build confidence to connect on deep shots with Wilson or Will Fuller or former Alabama teammate Jaylen Waddle.
“I would say I’m confident with my deep throws,” he said. “Really, it’s just getting everything down with the guys. Finding where guys are going to be, knowing how guys run certain routes, knowing their depth.
“Really, that’s all we’re trying to find out right now within these first couple of days and brush up on those things.”
Yeah, that’s not all that’s going on. But it’s a good start to this training camp.
