Decision to start Tagovailoa leads to mixed reactions
Afive-pack of notes in the wake of the Dolphins deciding to start Tua Tagovailoa: How diligent has Tagovailoa been in preparing for this day?
Tagovailoa has been consulting not only with the offensive staff and personnel, but defensive players, too.
“He actually comes around and asks the defensive guys how he can get better,” linebacker Jerome Baker said. “Even in his first few weeks, he was coming into the defensive rooms and asking us how to see this or how to do that.”
Baker advised him to attempt any throw he thinks he can make because “if it’s going to help you, it’s going to help us. Just do whatever you can to get better. He’s a smart guy.”
Meanwhile, Baker told “Drinks with Binks” on Tuesday that he found out about the quarterback change via Instagram and then texted Tagovailoa.
“It was coming eventually,” he told host Julie Stewart Binks.
“The question is: Why not now? Anybody in our facility, if you watch Tua at practice, he slings it. He gets the job done. I’m really excited to see him flourish and come into his own.
“We all are confident in him.
... He does it all. Not just physically on the field, but his mental capacity — how he handles the game — is remarkable as a rookie."
Tagovailoa will need to contend with Rams All-Pro defensive lineman Aaron Donald in his first NFL start. Donald’s advice to him?
“Hold the ball,” Donald cracked Tuesday to SI.com, laughing. “Don’t do too much running. Take them sacks.”
Though Dolphins players were surprised by the timing — the team hadn’t been told of the quarterback change when the news leaked — reaction conveyed Tuesday by a few Dolphins players was positive, despite the affection internally for Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Two players said Tagovailoa has looked good in practice and one expressed excitement about the transition. One conveyed that Tagovailoa has a cannon for an arm and it will be interesting to see if the vertical passing game becomes a bigger component of Miami’s attack.
Teammates like Tagovailoa and his infectious personality; they were impressed when he reached out after the draft to introduce himself.
A team source said the bye was a natural time to make the change.
Tagovailoa, speaking to reporters on Sunday for the first time since August, made clear that “I’m very fortunate to have a mentor like [Fitzpatrick]; he’s been supportive the entire time. Good drive, bad drive, he comes to the sideline and just talks through his process with why he did some things.”
Reaction from prominent former players ran the gamut on Tuesday.
Hall of Fame quarterback
Brett Favre, on Sirius XM radio: “Little bit surprised. Fitzpatrick hasn’t done anything to lose the spot. Tua seems like an awesome guy. We know he can play. I’m happy for him. From an emotional perspective, I’m all for Tua. From the business of winning, Fitzpatrick has done a heck of a job.”
ESPN analyst and former Cowboys defender Marcus Spears:
“I love it. I wanted to see Tua the first week of the season.”
Among those who loathed the move: ESPN studio analyst and former NFL backup QB Dan Orlovsky.
“I hate this decision,” Orlovsky said. “Yes the Dolphins’ offensive line is better than last year, but a massive reason why is how fast Fitz gets the ball out. Fitz is getting the ball out in 2.4 seconds, third-fastest in the NFL. There’s nothing the Dolphins learned about Tua’s ability to get the ball out of his hands fast enough in an NFL game by watching practice. You know who balls in practice? Every backup quarterback. You cannot say we think we can win more with Tua when you have zero evidence of it.”
FS-1’s Marcellus Wiley, the former NFL defensive lineman, also bashed the decision: “If I’m one of the other 51 guys on this team, I’m thinking in this winning culture, this is the time you insert someone who you don’t know is ready for this moment? Think about how you’re sacrificing 51 others. What if Tua struggles and fails? You had a team that was rolling!”
Before the Dolphins switched quarterbacks, even the former president of the NFL Players Association (Dominique Foxworth) had joined a chorus of former players who implored Miami to start Tagovailoa.
“We get too cute thinking the offensive line has to be perfect, the defense has to be perfect, the receiver has to be perfect.” Foxworth, now an ESPN analyst, said last week. “You get better getting on the field and experiencing it yourself. The championship window is when the quarterback is on the [four-year] rookie deal.”
A sign of the rookie’s popularity: The audience size in Miami-Fort Lauderdale during the five minutes that Tagovailoa took the field in Sunday’s Dolphins-Jets game rose by about 32,000 households from the average rating for the game, despite the 24-0 score. That suggests people who weren’t watching the game saw on Twitter that he was being inserted in the game and rushed to tune in.
CHATTER
We hear the Dolphins thought they had snagged Le’Veon Bell and were surprised he picked Kansas City. One factor: Miami refused to guarantee Bell a certain amount of carries per game.
UM coach Manny Diaz said one problem on the Canes sidelines in past years was “negative energy” and his team has purged those players. UM previously had “energy vampires on the sidelines,” Diaz cracked this week. “We’ve had really good sidelines [now]. There’s not pouting, guys getting after guys. D’Eriq King helps a lot. The way the offense and defense support each other has been a real positive as well.”
We’re told the Marlins and
Michael Hill discussed Hill taking a pay cut of more than 33 percent. Hill had been earning $3 million-plus annually in the expiring contract given to him by previous owner Jeffrey Loria .So the pay cut request was not surprising. Manager Don Mattingly accepted a pay cut when Derek Jeter offered to retain him a year ago.
Unlike Mattingly, Hill wasn’t inclined to take a pay cut and the sides parted ways. Though Hill held the president/baseball operations job under Loria and Jeter, he never had final say on personnel.According to a source, the Heat requested a Zoom session with Maryland 6-10 forward
Jalen Smith, a versatile big who can block shots and hit threes. Smith — projected to go to in the mid-teens in some mock drafts — averaged 15.5 points and 10.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in his second season at Maryland and shot 36.8 percent on threes (32 of 87). Miami has the 20th overall pick in the Nov. 18 NBA Draft.