Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Young QBs have raised bar in NFL
Are Dolphins aiming at an elite talent like Tagovailoa?
Tua Tagovailoa held $15 in singles in his hand, ready to spend $1 or up to $5 on his favorite Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers players for a video segment with Bleacher Report ahead of the Super Bowl. He spent his first $3 on Patrick Mahomes, the flame-throwing Chiefs quarterback who led a comeback win over the 49ers in Sunday’s big game.
“I have to go with Pat,” Tagovailoa said. Mahomes, shortly after becoming the youngest Super Bowl MVP at 24, was asked if he thinks he’s now the face of the league. He was quick to mention South Florida native Lamar Jackson.
“There’s several guys that can be the face of the NFL,” Mahomes said.
“Lamar, who was the unanimous MVP last night, he had one of the best seasons of all time at the quarterback position. There’s guys like that every single year.”
Jackson, who was raised in Pompano Beach and stared Boynton Beach High, made history himself on Saturday. He became the youngest NFL MVP at 23, breaking a record set by Mahomes a year ago.
He also became the second player to win the award unanimously after Tom Brady did it in 2010.
“I’m trying to chase Brady,” Jackson said. “I’m not worried about any other quarterback because he’s got six Super Bowls. I’ve got to get my first one.”
Notice a theme here? Game recognizes game.
As both Mahomes and Jackson raised
the bar for young quarterbacks in the NFL this past week in South Florida, the rest of the NFL world has taken notice. If you’ve got a good but not great quarterback now, you need a better one or at least put exceptional pieces around him to be a playoff contender.
This is what the Miami Dolphins need to work on this offseason to reverse their fortune. And an option could be Tagovailoa, a 21-year-old talented but perhaps injury-prone quarterback out of Alabama.
Plenty of uncertainly remains around Tagovailoa in the coming weeks before the 2020 NFL draft, where teams like the Dolphins will likely spend a lot of their time deciding whether to take a chance on the charismatic quarterback, who also happens to enjoy South Florida — but is recovering from a serious hip injury.
“You’re looking around here in Miami. What do you think? Do you like the city?” Tagovailoa was asked during a radio interview in Miami Beach ahead of the Super Bowl.
“I mean, it’s a beautiful place,” Tagovailoa said. “I think where we’re staying, it’s a little touristy. But we’d have to see because I don’t know too much about where the guys stay, that play football, live around here so it could be different in that aspect.”
Maybe, he’ll find out soon enough.
Tagovailoa, joined by his parents Galu and Diane, weren’t shy about basking in South Florida’s food and weather. They moved from Hawaii to see their son play in Tuscaloosa, Alabama so they’d likely follow him to South Florida if the Dolphins were to draft him.
“It’s really like Hawaii,” Diane said about her first impressions of South Florida.
Tagovailoa has enjoyed his time here, too. Last week was his second time already this year visiting the area. He joined some friends on a trip earlier this month.
Tagovailoa’s family and Dolphins owner Steve Ross were several feet from each other last Saturday afternoon in Wynwood as Tagovailoa’s agent, Leigh Steinberg, used his Super Bowl party to benefit the MakeA-Wish foundation and honor Ross for his philanthropy work in the process.
Tagovailoa and Ross did not have much contact during the event, similar to when they were standing a few yards away from each other before the AlabamaMichigan Citrus Bowl game in Orlando shortly after the New Year. But they will likely have a formal meeting at some point in the coming weeks as the Dolphins prepare for the draft.
Just a day earlier in the same venue, Ross modestly discussed his rise as a New York businessman during the Bloomberg Power Players Summit. He also bluntly discussed several football topics and praised Tagovailoa, while also addressing the clear concern about his future.
“I’ve been down there to see him. Tua is a great player. I just worry about his health,” Ross said.
He then added: “The coaches really make the decisions on the draft choices. We have to look at his health is and everything else and see what the alternatives are.”
It may not have been the most glowing endorsement by the Dolphins owner, but Ross surely knows the magnitude of his football team’s evaluation of Tagovailoa before the draft.
Ross spent more than $700 million on his Miami Gardens entertainment complex which includes Hard Rock Stadium. His lavish venue shined brightly as Mahomes and the Chiefs beat the 49ers with halftime performers Jennifer Lopez and Shakira captivating a worldwide audience during Sunday’s Super Bowl.
Ross expressed his regret about the Dolphins not playing in the Super Bowl in Miami — a sentiment he shared at least three times during the Bloomberg event.
The Dolphins have not won a playoff game since 2000. They have competed in the postseason just two times since 2001. They have not won the AFC East since 2008. Most importantly, they have not won a Super Bowl since winning backto-back titles in 1972 and 1973.
Maybe, Tagovailoa could be the dynamic quarterback to lead the way for Miami like Mahomes lifted Kansas City to its first Super Bowl in more than 50 years.
The Dolphins already have a coach with big-game experience in Brian Flores, who came up in the New England Patriots organization. This was the first time in four years Flores wasn’t in the Super Bowl. He helped the Patriots win two titles in three years.
A Flores-Tagovailoa partnership would be interesting. But there’s two months, several NFL teams looking for a quarterback, and it could take a draft-day trade to move Miami from the No. 5 pick into the top three to land Tagovailoa if his health checks out in the coming months. Also, the Dolphins are more than just a quarterback away from being a playoff contender, but have the draft capital and assets to build a strong team that could compete as early as next season.
Tagovailoa will hit the three-month mark in his recovery process next week. He’ll have a CT scan and follow-up MRI on the hip he dislocated and suffered a posterior wall fracture in mid-November. If all goes well, Tagovailoa said his doctors “will let us loose a little more” in his football rehabilitation.
Tagovailoa plans to “win my medical” at the NFL scouting combine later this month and hopes to throw during a pro day workout in late March or early April before the draft begins on April 23 in Las Vegas.
Then, the Dolphins will have to decide whether hitching their franchise rebuild to Tagovailoa is worth the investment.
The Tagovailoa family wouldn’t mind being back in South Florida.
“We love it. Miami is a beautiful place,” Tagovailoa’s father said. “We like it, and I mean, hopefully, in the future, it’ll be nice, too — if things do work out.”