Through the 17-game season of 2021 and the early part of this offseason, it’s hard to find a quarterback that has been more harshly criticized than Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
Last year, he was constantly on the receiving end of questions regarding former Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson taking his job. During that time, he wasn’t playing up to the standard that you’d expect from a fifth-overall pick.
A few weeks back the team’s social media account released a video of a pass from Tagovailoa to new Dolphins wideout Tyreek Hill that was just a bit underthrown. That led the conversation on social media and talk shows for the few days following.
Miami has held minicamp this week, and Tagovailoa’s performance on the first day failed to impress. After the second day, Tagovailoa had an opportunity to speak to the media, and he was asked about the narrative surrounding his arm strength.
“Like I said, all the bad news I hear from (our communications staff),” he said. “(They) tell me, ‘Hey, I don’t know if you heard about this, but they said…’ I’m like, ‘Why would you want to bring that up to me?’ (laughter) But (the staff) brings it up just so I’m aware with the questions that you guys are going to ask me. For me, it’s just zone that out. We come out to practice; everyone else – Twitter warriors, keyboard warriors, whatever you want to call them – they’re not out here practicing with us working hard. So I don’t know if you guys recorded that last one to Tyreek (Hill). I don’t know about you, but that looked like money.”
For the most part, Tagovailoa has been quiet when it comes to the critics. It’s good to see him stand up for himself and speak with confidence about his arm.
Here’s one of the long balls to Hill from Day 2.
.@Tua ➡️ @cheetah pic.twitter.com/W0QDbNGWtv
— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) June 2, 2022
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