The Miami Dolphins don’t have the worst passing stats in the NFL by any stretch, which is fine if you are looking for a few fantasy points. But, when watching the games you can see that something isn’t right.
Wide receiver Tyreek Hill simply hasn’t been able to get going. For a player with his pedigree and salary, 198 yards and one touchdown through three games isn’t good enough. Oh, and the Dolphins are 0-3 so they can certainly use a boost anywhere they can get it.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Network went on the Rich Eisen Show this week and said the problem is the overall design of Mike McDaniel’s offense and that starts with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and his injury history.
“There is not enough talk about with the hoops that Mike McDaniel has to jump through on a week-in and week-out basis to design a game plan for a quarterback who can’t get hit,” Pelissero said. “You can’t have him holding the ball, you can’t (run) designed runs, you can’t really run quarterback sneaks…Tom Brady ran a pass route in the Super Bowl. It didn’t end well, but they put that in the game plan.
“You can’t do that with Tua. You can’t run a naked bootleg, you’re not going to run zone read to keep people honest…all of those things combined make it really hard to produce on a week-in and week-out basis.”
James Palmer also thinks Tua Tagovailoa needs too much protection
Through three weeks, Tua has completed 69.7% of his passes for 575 yards, five touchdowns and four interceptions. You might be able to live with those numbers (sort of) if you were 3-0 or even 2-1. But, you’re winless so something needs to change.
NFL insider James Palmer also said something similar to what Pelissero said regarding the orchestration (or lack thereof) of the passing game.
“The thing I was told is holding Tyreek Hill back is Tua (Tagovailoa),” Palmer said on his podcast with Steve Smith. “It’s not that Tua can’t play. It’s that Mike McDaniel has to run an offense to protect Tua. Think about it, Steve. You’re running an offense with a quarterback that you cannot allow to get hit. It’s a timing offense…but now with it being a timing offense and you can’t allow yourself to be in a position to where you run these longer developing plays.
“These longer developing concepts that also need to be on time. Can you allow Tua to sit back there that long with the injury concerns that the Dolphins have for Tua? You can’t.”
Tua Tagovailoa getting more of the blame for the Dolphins’ struggles
Former Dolphins’ tight end and current 560 WQAM radio broadcaster Joe Rose voiced his issues with the quarterback the other day on his Dolphins Talk podcast. He simply thinks he can’t do it.
“Tua can’t make all the throws you need to make for what the weapons you have,” Rose said. “You got too much horsepower for that guy to drive. He can’t drive the car, it’s go too much horsepower. He can’t handle it.”
Tua is in his sixth year and – like with many aspects of the Dolphins – patience is starting to wear thin with the fan base. For all the talk about getting rid of general manager Chris Grier and McDaniel, it may be time to start thinking about a complete house cleaning.
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