Tua Tagovailoa looks like a different quarterback in 2021, and that’s a good thing

In his rookie season, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was in over his head. Now, he’s showing the maturity you want to see.

As you would expect from any rookie quarterback who had to learn a new NFL offense without much preseason preparation, Tua Tagovailoa struggled at times to make things happen. Tagovailoa took over the offense as the team’s starter in Week 7, had as many benchable moments as he had big plays, and wound up with 186 completions in 290 attempts for 1,814 yards, 11 touchdowns and five interceptions on a Dolphins team that nearly made the playoffs.

This offseason, the focus for Tagovailoa was getting the hang of his NFL offense at a different level.

“I would say I’m very comfortable,” he said in early August. “I think the biggest thing with my position is you can never get overly confident with the position that we’re in. You’ve got to stay even-keel with the ups and the downs. For me it’s just continuing to learn the offense, continuing to learn my guys up front, the receivers; and really just working towards what we want as a team.”

Last season, Tagovailoa was a mixed bag on deeper throws, competing 10 of 29 passes of 20 or more air yards for 259 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. He averaged 2.54 seconds from snap to throw, which was one of the lowest times in the league, and it meant that he wasn’t making a ton of full-field reads. Tagovailoa also had the sixth-most RPO passing attempts in the league last season with 26, so Miami’s offense with the rookie presented Tagovailoa with the opportunity to be a point-guard in a low-risk passing game.

In two series against the Bears in the Dolphins’ Saturday preseason opener, Tagovailoa looked more like a quarterback who had earned the trust of his coaching staff to do more things, and also like a quarterback with the confidence to pull more things off. Specifically, full-field reads, and deep passes from longer stretches in the pocket. We saw this on Tagovailoa’s 50-yard pass to tight end Mike Gesicki with 11:41 left in the first quarter. The live view showed his patience in the pocket and subtle shoulder fake; the replay brings his cross-field read to light.

And if you wanted to see the deep throws into tight windows that are a hallmark of any great quarterback… well, Tagovailoa had you covered there.

Tagovailoa’s last throw of the day before giving way to backup Jacoby Brissett was intercepted by safety DeAndre Houston-Carson on an attempt to tight end Adam Shaheen into double coverage. Houston-Carson made a nice play here, but if Tagovailoa is going to beat the defender moving in, he might want to put more sauce on the ball.

But these adjustment bumps are going to happen, and though he had just 12 attempts on the day, Tagovailoa easily showed that he’s more willing to turn it loose and make things happen downfield — not just that, but to do it with better and more complete reads and concepts.

“I’ve been playing football since I was little,” Tagovailoa said recently about getting the deep ball on track. “I’ve been playing the quarterback position for as long as I can remember. Really, it’s just coming out and working on your timing with the guys, seeing the speed of players. Not everyone is really fast. And I guess just everyone coming out to practice and being able to work on it. That’s what helped.”

It’s something to build on for quarterback and team.