You’ll be hard pressed to find a less popular figure among Dolphins fans on social media these days than offensive coordinator Chan Gailey. Why? There’s been plenty of speculation and criticism regarding how the Dolphins have handled quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and, more specifically, the efforts put in place to put Tagovailoa in positions to be successful on the field as a rookie quarterback. You won’t have a hard time finding Dolphins fans who would like to see the Dolphins unleash Tagovailoa completely and let him be the version of himself we saw at Alabama — the conductor of a high-flying, high-powered offense attack.
The version of Tagovailoa we’ve got thus far in Miami is not that. He’s calculated. He’s risk averse. He’s still very much accurate and at times illustrates the lightning fast release that drew so much praise while at Alabama. The Dolphins themselves are playing Tagovailoa’s rookie development fairly close to the vest, presumably in an effort to avoid potentially scarring situations for his long-term outlook.
Wishing Miami was a little bit more bold is fine — although the Dolphins aren’t likely to change their ways there. They have two other units on defense and special teams that can be dominating at times and they’re right to lean on them before putting too many expectations onto a young quarterback already dealing with the immeasurable weight of the fanbase’s assumption that he is the franchise savior and destined to lead the Dolphins back to the promised land.
One of the more interesting criticisms for Gailey is that he calls ‘better’ plays for Ryan Fitzpatrick than he does for Tagovailoa. The Dolphins’ game script from Week 12 against the Jets seems to indicate that each quarterback’s ideal offense looks different than the other’s — the Dolphins ran Run-Pass Option concepts on approximately half of their first 15 plays from scrimmage against the Jets; a clear nod to a game script that was built to favor Tagovailoa’s strengths.
But are the plays we see from Fitzpatrick better? No, but they’re more diverse. And they’re more flexible. Because as Chan Gailey was asked on Tuesday, Tagovailoa’s ‘mastery’ in the ability to change plays at the line of scrimmage like Fitzpatrick does is not to the veteran’s level yet.
“(Tua’s level is) not to the level of (Fitzpatrick). Very few people have that ability,” said Gailey.
“He’s an amazingly smart guy and Tua hadn’t been in the offense six games yet. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. Is he where Fitz is? No, he is not. But has he come a long way and is he making progress? Yes, very definitely.”
Some will read this as hypocritical given that the Dolphins say Tagovailoa gives them the best chance to win. And both can be true. Because while Fitzpatrick has more abilities at the line of scrimmage because he’s mastered the entirety of the playbook where as Tagovailoa hasn’t nailed down the entire thing yet (and therefore certain concepts of it are likely considered “off limits”), Tagovailoa’s footwork and accuracy gives him a boost in effectiveness in what he does do on the football field. And those RPO concepts that the Dolphins are implementing at a higher rate with Tagovailoa on the field? They’re built in “in-play” audibles because you have answers to both low and high box counts from the defense and Miami has done well to construct half-field concepts in the RPO game to get the best blocking surface available to one side for run and running quick game to the other side of the field and allowing Tagovailoa to make a defender wrong after the snap.
The Dolphins’ quarterback situation is a complicated one. But if you hear Gailey explain where each passer is at and pair that with what we see on the field, it suddenly makes plenty of sense — and alleviates some of the blame some are so eager to pin on Gailey this season.