Tua Time: How the Dolphins offense will now make defenses think differently

How the Dolphins offense will now make defenses think differently with Tua Tagovailoa under center.

Last week in a blowout win over the New York Jets, rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa saw his first NFL action. Now, he has been named the starting quarterback in Miami, according to a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter. With a bye week coming out, the Dolphins have extra time to get the rookie ready. How will the Dolphins offense look with the rookie quarterback under center?

Entering the Jets game when he did, Tagovailoa did not get a chance to showcase much given the situation. He attempted just two passes, completing them both. First was a designed rollout off of play-action, with Tagovailoa flushing out to his left and hitting running back Patrick Laird in the flat:

On his second passing attempt, the Dolphins align with a trips look to the right, facing 3rd and 7. Miami runs a “Topper” concept, with three in-breaking routes from the trips alignment. Tagovailoa does a good job with his eyes here, working inside-out. That causes the curl/flat defender to stay on the middle receiver, opening a window for Tagovailoa to throw the in-breaking route from the outside receiver:

Watching this play from the end zone angle, you’ll see how the quarterback uses his eyes. He opens to the middle of the field and works towards the boundary, influencing that curl/flat defender in the process:

(This is one of those moments where the tell-tale helmet stripe is critical in film study).

What Tagovailoa brings to the table is more athleticism, which unlocks parts of the Dolphins’ playbook that were limited with Ryan Fitzpatrick under center. Currently, the Dolphins are a bottom ten team in terms of red zone touchdown percentage, having punched it into the end zone on just 57.7% of their opportunities in 2020. Life gets harder on an offense the closer you get towards the goal line. The field gets constricted, and the defense gains an extra defender in a sense when you account for the end line of the end zone.

Having a quarterback with Tagovailoa’s athleticism will be huge in those moments. That makes the zone read game more dangerous when running the football, and his ability to make plays with his legs also forces you into some tough decisions as a defense. Do you spy him in those situations? Do you play man coverage, and risk turning your back on him in the secondary, or do you play zone, which perhaps gives him some easier throwing lanes to challenge in the passing game?

Where before those were not big concerns, with Tagovailoa they are now things that will worry defensive coordinators.

There is also the impact that Tagovailoa will have on short-yardage situations as well as third-down chances. The same questions arise in those moments. What do you dedicate to the threat of Tagovailoa running in terms of resources? Spying him? A potential mush rush to try and keep him in the pocket? Or on short yardage situations? Do you try and scrape-exchange as a defense in response to zone read action in the backfield, in an attempt to force his hand on those plays?

For those wondering, a scrape-exchange is a defensive call to try and force the quarterback into keeping the football. The defensive end – the player the quarterback is usually reading on those plays – crashes down by design. The quarterback sees that and keeps the football, only to run right into the linebacker who flows to the edge:

Of course, all of these worries about how Tagovailoa might attack you in the running game overlooks the other thing that will now happen: What he can do in the RPO part of the playbook. From charting Miami’s offense, they ran just a handful of RPO type plays this year with Fitzpatrick under center. Now with Tagovailoa they’ll have a quarterback well-versed in that part of the playbook. These designs are perfect to attack a defense in a multitude of ways while still keeping things simple for the quarterback:

This play is a basic RPO design with Tagovailoa reading the linebacker. He crashes down and the receiver simply “runs to space” as they term it in the Alabama offense, or the glance route as Bowen terms it. Tagovailoa hits him in stride.

Or there is this example. Tagovailoa carries out the RPO element to his left, then quickly flashes back to the right to throw the glance route to Henry Ruggs on his right. Tagovailoa sees the linebacker slide inside just enough, makes a snap decision and throw, and puts it on the money:

These examples highlight how defenses are going to be put in a bind now with Tagovailoa. He offers different ways to stress you, at all levels of the field, in both the run and the pass game. The option elements he brings to the table can – if executed properly – guarantee that the defense is going to make a wrong decision on almost every play. Tagovailoa offers that right now for the Dolphins.

This might seem like a decision out of left field. After all, Miami is 3-3, Fitzpatrick is playing well, and they are in the playoff mix with a winnable slate of games coming up. But as an organization you draft quarterbacks in the first round with an expectation that they will play when ready. Tagovailoa is ready, and what he brings to the table will make defenses think differently. Plus, the bye week is a natural time to make such a decision, given they have extra time to get the rookie ready. It’s time to see what he can do.