Best article on Tua I’ve read

[Finsup1981]

Long but well worth the read. This was written the week before our game vs the 49ers where Sheffield scored on the first play of the day…honestly that point right there was the absolute highest point I’ve had the last 30 years since Stoyanavich missed the FG to win the game against San Diego in the divisional playoffs. Really thought we had the coach/combo to get us far, but everything has fallen off the rails.

What a time it was for optimism though lol…the note about he couldn’t stand straight on one leg till after his rookie season still makes me angry that they trotted him out there after 6 games when he clearly wasn’t healthy and could’ve gotten hurt much worse. Flores didnt like him the second we drafted him and always put him positions to fail, probably the worst coach rookie Tua could’ve had.

Tua Time, Part I: Belief​

The turnaround is remarkable.​

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Everyone hears it, sees it, feels it. This is a quarterback having the time of his football life. A quarterback riding the highest of conceivable highs.
Left for dead. Scorned by his coach. Written off by 99.9 percent of viewers as the guy a team selected instead of Justin Herbert. Yes, that quarterback is an MVP candidate. The Miami Dolphins’ F1 speed bends and snaps defensive coverages weekly. So average on the field, so bland off initially, the quarterback central to the entire operation is now letting loose.
The NFL world is just now being introduced to the real Tua Tagovailoa.
After lacing a blinding money ball to wide receiver Trent Sherfield for a 14-yard touchdown in the corner of the end zone to rev Miami’s game vs. the Cleveland Browns into a blowout, there was Tua. Arms flailing Conor McGregor-style, he skipped and sashayed his way toward the end zone to celebrate with a cavalcade of teammates.
He does not shy from MVP talk. “No doubt,” he heard the fans at Hard Rock Stadium chanting “M-V-P! M-V-P!” During a TV timeout. Walking back to the tunnel. Of course, the Dolphins have much bigger goals, but Tagovailoa assured those cheers were flattering. His current odds to win the award are second to only Patrick Mahomes. He does not shy from Super Bowl talk. In a retro Dolphins sweatshirt a couple weeks prior, hood up, he went there: “We’re not afraid to talk about Super Bowls here. Having the opportunity to go to one and hopefully winning one.”
Next, he went there: “I think I’ve grown a lot with the deep balls, huh? Don’t we think?”
His face cracked into a shrewd smile. He nodded. He assured this was a jab.
It’s as if the character of Tua the first two seasons of this show was played by a completely different actor. The difference between a mic’d up version of Tagovailoa with Brian Flores and a mic’up version with Mike McDaniel is hilariously staggering. The prior relationship resembles an employee putting up with his pain-in-the-ass boss two or three words at a time. The latter’s a true partnership. McDaniel, arms crossed, cannot stop telling Tua how well he’s playing toward the end of that Browns win. Tua spontaneously leaps up and down to yell “B-Chubb!” and is informed that Miami has punted two times in three games. He says he can’t wait to flash a zero with his hand for punter Thomas Morstead.
Sights and sounds everyone in Tua’s universe loves.
From Teddy Bridgewater: “He’s done nothing but make progress.”
To Raheem Mostert: “He has that island flow to him.”
To Mike Gesicki: “He leads by his play and he’s able to bring everybody along with him. Guys rally around him.”
To safety Clayton Fejedelem: “As a teammate, he’s everything you could want. He comes in here looking to work every day. It’s been fun to watch him grow as a leader, to really take this team and put it on his shoulders. When he’s on the field the offense is going crazy.”
To Tyreek Hill: “Once he got a coach who truly believed in who he is as a person, who he is as a player, this organization got around him, look at the talent now he’s got around him. . … Media people, I’m saying this to y’all — y’all can apologize now.”
To a new teammate Jeff Wilson: “You all act like you haven’t seen him ball on national TV before. A player will always will be a player. You’re all acting like something changed just because. That’s bull.”
To an ex-teammate, Isaiah Ford, from afar: “The sky’s the limit for Tua. I don’t think you can put a cap on it.”
To the all-timers. Hall-of-Fame quarterback Warren Moon sees a completely different quarterback at the podium: “This is a kid who’s really confident about where he is right now.”
And a short drive away, his trainer sounds more like a big brother bursting with pride. Nick Hicks has seen Tua at his lowest. He helped build him up. Like everyone, he cannot wait to see what’s next.
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/7c726745-18d6-4b51-b2fc-e1cdf5499f78_3600x2400.jpeg
Tua Tagovailoa was always talented. A five-star recruit from the Hawaiian Islands, his introduction to the country was, of course, legendary. Tagovailoa replaced a struggling Jalen Hurts the night of Jan. 8, 2018 in Atlanta and lasered a 41-yard strike to win Alabama the national championship. The live sequence of Nick Saban freaking out over a sack.. to Jalen Hurts walking the sideline… to Tua’s dime catapulted the quarterback’s hype into a new realm, and Tua somehow lived up to that hype the next two years with 76 touchdowns. He dislocated his hip, fractured the posterior wall, the Dolphins made him their fifth overall pick, and… he then entered the worst possible situation for a young quarterback. A dark dimension that didn’t resemble any of the fun we’re seeing in 2022.
During halftime of the 34-3 blowout loss to the Tennessee Titans that effectively ended Miami’s offense, Flores and Tagovailoa had a blowup. (The QB, finally, had enough.)
The head coach was fired. (Hello, Mike McDaniel.)
The supporting cast was revamped. (Hey, Tyreek Hill.)
Now, Tagovailoa is enjoying one of the most extreme turnarounds we’ve seen at the quarterback position.
So… how? How did Tua go from Point A to Point B? A (so-called) noodle-armed bust to a creature straight out of NBA Jam who does not miss? That’s what brought Go Long to the scene of the transformation, South Florida, and his journey serves a lesson for all teams trying to develop young quarterbacks in today’s NFL. Tagovailoa’s 2022 season could change the way all 32 teams navigate the most important position in sports. So much of playing quarterback is up to the quarterback himself. There better be an internal flame that never goes out — Tua has it. Yet this ascent also required the perfect confluence of factors around the QB to accentuate that QB’s most dangerous gift.
McDaniel’s brains. Hicks’ positivity. Tyreek’s speed.
He’s now swaggering, win to win, and yes. Tua Tagovailoa is right.
These Miami Dolphins are Super Bowl contenders.

---

Start here, at Tap 42, with stories about cookies and college parties and the night this absolutely electric trainer sitting across from you witnessed Tua Tagovailoa’s piss-missile of a touchdown against Georgia. Nick Hicks was at a friend’s house and had already opened up a gym. Tagovailoa hit DeVonta Smith in overtime and Hicks quietly asked himself, How do I get dudes like that inside of my gym? Was it as simple as sliding into DMs? A personal relationship? There was no singular answer, but he’d get this quarterback in due time.
There’s a good chance you’ve heard from Hicks — founder of “PER4ORM,” personal trainer to Tua, army of one on the tweet machine. When everyone else labeled this quarterback cooked, the man who works with him in the offseason, the man who’s built more like one of those Spanish fighting bulls saw red. He kept telling us greatness was brewing. He insisted he saw something that nobody else apparently did.
Most chuckled, called him a fool, moved along.
Today? Hicks resembles more of a prophet than president of a fan club.
“But not really,” he adds, “because I saw all the work.”

Optimism bursting from every pore, he starts at the start. Hicks landed Tagovailoa in roundabout fashion. Originally, the plan was for Hicks to be the trainer who physically put the quarterback through a program designed by Tua’s primary trainer from afar. The quarterback’s reps knew Hicks through another client, Bears running back Khalil Herbert, and the fact that he was based in South Florida was perfect. It was a rocky rookie season for Tagovailoa, what with the repaired hip and the musical chairs with Ryan Fitzpatrick. When Mom and Dad were in town, they toured Hicks’ gym and agreed this was an ideal laboratory. Hicks? Hell, he just couldn’t believe he was seeing the actual Tagovailoa family from the actual “Tua” documentary in-person. After a period of radio silence, Hicks learned at the eleventh hour that the master plan fell through. He wouldn’t merely be executing someone else’s plans.
Tua, into Year 2, was all his.

First workout? Tomorrow morning. He was understandably jacked. He stayed up nearly all night long jotting ideas down. At 6:30 a.m., Hicks met Tagovailoa for the first time. They had never even spoken to each other before, nor had Hicks ever trained quarterbacks before. Truth be told, Tagovailoa’s reps were trying hard to find someone else before settling on Hicks. He didn’t care. He’d run with this opportunity.
Hicks put a program together for the quarterback and, over time, gained the quarterback’s trust.

Even if Tua Tagovailoa didn’t know it at the time, Hicks was exactly what he needed. A serial entrepreneur. A go-getter who was equally ambitious.
As a college student, Hicks masterfully made $800 a weekend hosting parties. Five bucks got you a solo cup and he was a marketing wiz. If anyone bought him a handle of Captain Morgan (his old go-to), they were exempt from paying the $5 all trimester. After accumulating 25 handles, Hicks went to a hobby store, built a snow-cone maker and, hello. Here’s a rum ‘n coke slushy for $2. At one point, Hicks made cookies for a college roommate who instantly labeled these cookies the best he ever had in his life. Five years later, this friend was laid off from a tech job, said he was moving back to South Florida and insisted the two of them open up a cookie shop. Hicks honestly didn’t know a damn thing about cookies but he learned. He signed a lease for a space. He sent messages to 10 chefs on LinkedIn and one, Max Santiago, got back. They met with Santiago for six hours and, just like that, “Blueprint Cookies” was born.
Hicks now has three locations — in Fort Lauderdale, Plantation and Boca Raton — and his chocolate chip cookie is critically acclaimed.
Life is simple to Hicks.
“Figure it out,” he says, “figure it out.”

When he’s curious, he researches. When he researches, he gains confidence.
With that confidence, Nick Hicks guarantees himself success. After working as the head strength coach at St. Thomas University for three years, Hicks opened up his own gym and then sold “Elevate” to a former business partner. In 2015, his new gym — “PER4ORM” — was born. Running backs became his specialty. Minnesota Vikings back Dalvin Cook sharpens his craft with Hicks. So has Buffalo Bills starter Devin Singletary, whose game reached a new level after they connected, Jerick McKinnon, and J.K. Dobbins. Then, Tua became a client. It was not a matter of if they’d find success together, rather when. This trainer would pour his heart and soul into extracting that gold out of Tagovailoa.
Offseason No. 1 wasn’t about playing quarterback. Tagovailoa needed to get healthy. The duo dedicated the entire offseason to getting Tagovailoa right because, as Hicks says, “his hip was still really jacked up.” This was an injury that previously ended NFL careers. Tagovailoa couldn’t stand on one leg without falling over. Hicks was stunned the quarterback played as well as he did as a rookie, estimating that he was only 60 percent of himself. It was a minor miracle that he was even able to play 10 professional football games.

Strength, stability, isometrics. This was the focus their first offseason together.
“Because you can’t skip over that kind of stuff,” Hicks says. “Oh, we don’t want to work on strength? We’re going to start rolling out and throwing off-platform? Then, the hip decides to give out. Yeah, I want to work on the engine but the f--king tires have holes in them. I can’t do that. You’ve got to start from the ground up.”
As he speaks, one of Hicks’ tattoos stares back at you: a mustache inscribed on the inside of a finger. He got this gem during Cinco de Mayo in ’08. Whenever he speaks with his hand near his mouth, it looks like he’s holding up a ‘stache. He also has his quad tatted by a Buddhist monk once. It’s easy to see how any player would gravitate toward this personality. He’s got the ability to make you want to stop what you’re doing this instant and start a business in a field you knew nothing about six seconds ago.
Tua got right physically. Year 2 arrived. Tagovailoa was unquestionably The Guy.
Then things got… weird.

What we knew was strange enough. Tagovailoa was carted off the field with broken ribs in Week 2 and didn’t return until Week 6. Miami fell to 1-7. Miami was clearly flirting with Deshaun Watson. What we didn’t see was as miserable as you probably imagine. Start with the old-school style. Multiple players describe Brian Flores’ coaching style as “militaristic.” Another refers to Flores as a “dictator” who didn’t want people talking, didn’t want people laughing. Eyes forward. Sit up straight. One veteran who has played for several teams said it was unlike anything he ever experienced. We talked about it here. Obviously, Flores cut his teeth as an assistant under Bill Belichick in New England from 2008 to 2018. He won four Super Bowls. He had a very hardcore interpretation of what an NFL coach should be. Problem is, we’ve seen repeatedly that this style only works in New England.

Tua Time, Part I: Belief

The turnaround is remarkable. Tua Tagovailoa is an MVP candidate and the Dolphins are contenders. But how? Go Long flew to South Florida to find out. It all starts with a team's genuine belief.

www.golongtd.com

 

[Finsup1981]

Remarkably, all of Belichick’s assistants fail when they try copy and pasting this approach elsewhere. They’re knockoffs. It’s a lot harder to convince players that the drill sergeant approach works when you can’t flash the rings.

Many players have many horror stories. Like Josh McDaniels berating players for 20 minutes straight on the same play in a meeting. “He just completely degrades you,” one source says, “and breaks you down and thinks that’s the motivation that works.” Or Darius Slay explaining how he “lost all respect” for Matt Patricia in Detroit. Or Joe Judge making his coaches run laps with players. Flores fit this mold that’s proven to fail. What might’ve worked in past eras doesn’t fly with 20- and 21- and 22-year-olds today. Crushing a player today just may crush that player’s spirit for good. They shut down. They lose confidence. They become a shell of what they once were.

It's no coincidence that these dinosaurs are dying off in the NFL.

Meanwhile, the worst-kept secret at Dolphins HQ was that Flores couldn’t stand his quarterback. In truth, Tagovailoa is abnormal in that he can take hard coaching. His own father would famously put his son through strenuous workouts as a kid. Yet, there was an utter 24/7/365 lack of support from the one person who should’ve been supporting Tagovailoa all along. Flores couldn’t hide his disdain for the quarterback at press conferences and, privately, one player recalls the head coach really ramping up his contempt when the Dolphins officially failed to acquire Watson. During meetings, he could be ruthless.

The boss felt stuck with a quarterback he didn’t want. Everyone could see it.

It's hard enough to play your opponent on Sunday and here was a coach taking a sledgehammer to his quarterback’s confidence.

Warren Moon saw telltale signs from afar. On top of the Watson interest, Moon notes the reports that Flores preferred Justin Herbert from the get-go in that 2020 draft. “Brian didn’t get what he wanted at the quarterback position,” Moon says, “and it started from there.” To win, a quarterback needs to know his coach has his back.

When it’s lacking? “You can feel that,” Moon explains.

He explains life for Tua during the 2021 season perfectly:

“The coaches look at you a little bit different when you make a mistake in practice. They’re not as complimentary when you do something well. They’re more critical when you do something bad. You’ve got to have that. If you don’t, you feel that pressure every day at practice. It’s enough to feel it in a game every weekend going against another opponent. But when you have to feel that every day in practice, like you’re on a job interview every day in practice because your coaches don’t really believe in you and you feel like you have to do everything right in practice, that’s not a great feeling for a quarterback. You want to be able to go out there and go over the gameplan and execute the gameplan in practice and not have to worry about anything else.”


Getty Images
Myles Gaskin, a running back in Miami since 2019, remembers the tumult. Gaskin also remembers Tua’s reaction.

“He took it as motivation,” Gaskin says. “Every guy wants a reason for another chip on their shoulder. That was another one for him, to prove, ‘I’m one of the best guys out here. I’m the guy you want here for the Dolphins.’ And I think he has proven that week-in and week-out. It shows in how he’s played and it shows in how many games we’ve won. He’s hungry for it. That’s the biggest thing.”

Gaskin acknowledges that Flores was particularly rough on the quarterback.

“That’s the only coach I knew,” he adds, “so at the time I didn’t think much of it. I thought it was just the league. Now, it’s a little bit different.”

Simultaneously, the No. 1 pick in his class (Joe Burrow) led the Cincinnati Bengals to the Super Bowl and the No. 6 pick (Herbert) led the AFC in passing yards and touchdowns. It was strange to see Tagovailoa a clear tier below this duo because everyone was so accustomed to his ‘Bama obliteration. Dolphins safety Keion Crossen believes it was unfair all along for Tagovailoa to be judged like a vet. Sitting in his locker, he snaps his finger three times in a row. That quickly, NFL teams expect young quarterbacks to excel. As a teammate now, Crossen sees that Tagovailoa is harder on himself than anyone else ever could’ve ever been.

Nobody should interpret the bad blood with Flores as a player needing to be coddled. What makes Tagovailoa special is his diligence.

“That’s his expectation,” Crossen adds. “That’s his standard.”

And, true, it’s at this precise moment so many quarterbacks begin to disappear. Ryan Leaf, possibly the greatest bust in NFL history, always makes an important distinction on his own demise. It wasn’t necessarily the fact that Leaf threw two touchdowns to 15 interceptions as a rookie. His career spiraled out of control because of how he reactedto on-field struggles. He allowed misery to mount. So many talented quarterbacks fall into the same trap. The line between which quarterbacks are special and which bust is far thinner than anyone realizes.

One of Tagovailoa’s close friends on that 2021 team, wide receiver Isaiah Ford, remembers this potential breaking point… and how the quarterback processed it all.

“Going through adversity in the NFL can waver your confidence,” Ford says. “When that happens, you have to remind yourself of what you’re capable of and the work you’ve put in. If you just keep your head down and keep digging, it just turns into football again.

Flores’ obvious pursuit of Watson was a cloud over the team.

“Yeah, last year was…” says Ford, pausing. “There was a lot of moving parts to say the least. I think everybody saw that. Anything we do in life, the adversity you go through — once you get on the other side of them — I think you’re a better person. And a better player for having to go through those things.”

The system was vanilla. Miami relied heavily on RPOs but too often lacked the “R” to create the “P.” Yet as the schedule softened, as Tagovailoa got healthier, the Dolphins reeled off seven straight wins.

Make it nine straight with wins over the Titans and Patriots and they’d miraculously make the postseason.

Tennessee led 17-3 at halftime. Flores lost it. Tua had enough. The two engaged in a heated locker-room confrontation with Tagovailoa (loudly) standing up for himself and his teammates. He told Flores, in so many words, that he didn’t know how to talk to players. The Dolphins lost 34-3, finished 9-8 and Flores was fired for what owner Stephen Ross called “communication and collaboration” issues. When Flores then sued the NFL and three teams (Broncos, Giants, Dolphins) for racial discrimination, the overwhelming consensus in the national media was that the Dolphins were fools for letting such a quality coach exit the building.

While it’s true Flores can coach up a defense — a major factor in Miami’s win streak — many players in the building knew better. Someone had to go: Tua or Flores.

Physically, the quarterback was finally healthy. Miami’s strength staff did a phenomenal job with him behind the scenes. Now, he needed to truly believe in himself again.

His force of positivity in the offseason was lined up. Hicks and Tagovailoa scheduled a breakfast meeting at Kristof’s Kafe in Plantation, Fla. It was now time to attack an offseason as a true quarterback.

His force of positivity for the regular season was now lined up, too. On Feb. 6, the team hired Mike McDaniel.

The tide was about to turn.

---

Ego is inherent to the occupation. Meet a quarterback who lacks ego and you’re also chatting with a quarterback who better find a new line of work because, damn right, you better feel good about yourself to gun a throw 30+ yards through heavy traffic. With so much speed and strength and athleticism slashing all directions, the dude holding the ball every play needs, as scouts love to say, “some **** to him.”

And yet, there’s also one DNA thread in the quarterbacks who struggle initially before, then, turning it on: A willingness to work.

Which brings us to Kristof’s, to the do-or-die offseason of Tua Tagovailoa’s career. Hicks first asked the QB what he wanted to work on, and the QB was blunt. He rattled off three items: 1) Footwork; 2) Throwing off-platform, grippin’ and rippin’ it on the move left and right; 3) Driving the ball downfield. Nothing in pro football was being ridiculed with more ferocity than Tagovailoa’s arm strength. Hicks then offered his own three points of emphasis: 1) Throwing over the middle of the field; 2) Movement within the pocket; 3) Running upfield. By now, he could deliver tough love himself. Hicks told Tua he was doing a lot more “falling,” than “running” in the open field. His legs needed to strengthen. Even on one run that got Fins fans excited — when Tua trucked Michael Carter II — Tua was falling over. He only blasted through the DB because he had no choice.

Tua agreed. Tua understood the stakes.

Year 3 was it. A new head coach with zero ties to himself was coming to town. His career would either skyrocket or plummet… and if you were to poll the country last offseason? It would’ve been a Reagan-Mondale landslide with only Hawaii and (maybe?) Florida forecasting good times ahead. From the hip to the negative coaching to his own choppy start coinciding with the astronomical rise of Herbert and Burrow, the pressure could’ve suffocated Tagovailoa for good.

“It really could’ve,” Hicks says. “That’s a testament to him. Because he just kept working. He just kept f--king working.”

Because of who Tagovailoa is to his core. He’s genuinely not satisfied after 300-yard, three-touchdown games today just as he was never satisfied with anything as an anointed prospect his entire life, an extension of his Samoan heritage. In the “Tua” doc, his mother explains why Polynesians are literally built to play football and ex-Hawaii coach June Jones points out that you’re 20 times more likely to make it in the NFL if you’re Samoan or from Samoa. His father, Galu, primed Tua for this pressure. From the suite, during games, Hicks is always blown away by Galu’s calm after dynamite plays. Dad nods, looks up at the Jumbotron and calmly points out how Tagovailoa manipulated a safety with his eyes.

Tua’s mentality? Like father, like son. “Never be satisfied,” Hicks says. “Keep working.”

So, they got to work.

From Feb. 1 to middle of March, Tagovailoa attacked arm strength with the same tenacity Josh Allen attacked accuracy Year 2 to Year 3. Allen had Jordan Palmer. Tua had Hicks. What Hicks lacked in actual quarterback experience, he made up for in that relentless motor and curiosity and outside-the-box thinking. He was wired the same way as Tua which, in his mind, guaranteed he’d get the best out of Tua.

 

[Finsup1981]

One of his clients is Grant Siegel, a baseball pitcher at West Virginia who could be throwing in the big leagues one day. Hicks saw him ripping through a series of warm-up drills one day and asked what this was all about. Siegel told him it was the “Driveline Program,” an offseason throwing regimen that helps increase velocity. Hicks watched him rip through the program, took mental notes, purchased it online and — first — used himself as a test dummy.

His mind was blown. Hicks started throwing the ball effortlessly and decided to use this with Tagovailoa, quarterbackifying the drills. Throwing a football is “tighter,” he explains, than throwing a baseball. Tua slung around a 21-ounce plyo ball. Reverse throws. Single-leg throws. Reverse-pivot throws. The heaviest he’d go is 32 ounces. By aligning arm with shoulders with hips — throw to throw to throw — his arm got stronger. That 16-ounce football started to feel light.

On the field, they focused on four different tosses. One was a “square toss,” in which Tua’s feet were stationary on the line and he rotates and throws. The next was a regular throw in which Tua pushes off his back leg. The third was an “opposite rotational” toss. From his booth here at Tap 42, Hicks demonstrates with a full trunk rotation. Finally, the fourth was an on-rhythm toss in which Tua bounces around… takes a couple steps forward… and airmails the ball as far as he possibly could.

Hicks taps open his phone to replay the progression. The “crazy progressions,” as he puts.

The Week 1 results?

• Square: 40 yards.
• Regular: 45.
• Rotational: 35.
• On-rhythm: 50.

Week 4?

• Square: 56.
• Regular: 63.
• Rotational 50.
• On-rhythm: 71.

He replays each throw from his phone as proof and he’s not kidding. Right there are cones lined up in five-yard increments — the increases are legit. Catching the bombs deep is ex-Dolphins receiver Lynn Bowden Jr., who nearly crashes into a back fence hauling in the 71-yard heave. “I mean he f--king got behind this one,” Hicks says. “This is rhythm. You can see him ****ing back.” Tagovailoa could’ve retreated to Hawaii. Kicked back. Tua’s a family man who easily could’ve put the sport on pause after such a stressful second season. He did not. And all it took was one month for Tagovailoa to drastically improve his arm strength.

His confidence grew.

“I knew he was going to shake it up,” Hicks says. “I saw all the work. He was just humming it. I didn’t create this monster. I just cleaned and polished the gem.

Then, on March 22, another person entered Tagovailoa’s life right when he needed him. In a Cat 5 hurricane of trade that shook the league, Miami sent a package of draft picks to Kansas City for Tyreek Hill and inked the wide receiver to a four-year, $120 million contract. Approximately 2.3 nanoseconds after this transaction hit Twitter, all of us naturally said the same two words: “But Tua.” What everyone should’ve done is recognize exactly what Stefon Diggs did for Allen’s career in Buffalo. Soon, the Philadelphia Eagles followed the same blueprint in adding A.J. Brown. All three quarterbacks were teetering at the time of the trade. No impartial viewers could declare one way or another where their careers would go. All fits have been perfect. All three players have been discussed as MVP candidates.

Instead of trying to find everything that was wrong in Tagovailoa, the new coach in charge went out of his way to see what was right. Suffice to say, this was a gamble Flores would not have considered. We had a better chance of seeing an actual dolphin run a deep crosser on third and 16 than Flores quadrupling down on Tagovailoa with such a trade.

As it turned out, Tagovailoa possessed a deadly weapon all along. It wasn’t as obvious as Patrick Mahomes’ improvisational magic. Or Lamar Jackson’s breakneck speed that renders linebackers Tyronn Lue. Or Allen’s right arm. Or Burrow’s clairvoyant brain. But Tagovailoa’s superpower — without question — could prove just as demoralizing to AFC defenses: his accuracy. That’s why Hicks is more jacked to show off a different batch of videos: In-rhythm, “level 2” ball. From 35 yards out, there’s Tagovailoa dropping and delivering shots to receivers on a rope. Lasers that’d be perfect for speedy receivers like Hill and Jaylen Waddle.

That’s why Hicks was so vocal for months.

No element of the modern passing game is as overlooked as a quarterback’s ability to hit a receiver over the middle… in-stride. Readers of “The Blood and Guts” may recall the time Tom Brady tried to convince tight end Tony Gonzalez to come out of retirement. They worked out together at UCLA and Gonzalez couldn’t believe how perfectly Brady presented the ball on a silver platter. Yet, at one point, Brady was pissed at himself for not placing one throw six more inches in front of the tight end. In real time, he spit out the math behind it. Those six inches equated to an average of three more yards after catch.

Think of pro football more as a 4x100 Olympic relay race.

Tua doesn’t have a cannon and that’s OK. Very rarely is any quarterback trying to throw a football over the mountains. Especially with defenses doing everything in their power to eliminate deep shots with Cover 2 and Quarter coverages. The greater gift is to hand that baton to a receiver without that receiver slowing down. With Hill? With Waddle? The difference between a ball that forces a receiver to stop vs. a ball that allows the receiver to keep running is the difference between a 15-yard first down and a 75-yard touchdown. Factor in a brilliant X-and-O mind devising ways to unleash this speed and a perfect storm was building as players reported to OTAs. McDaniel understands the acute geometry of 22 players on a field and how various route combinations can stress every possible defensive coverage.



Getty Images
Even with that 50-to-71 gain in arm strength, Tagovailoa wasn’t about to morph into a quarterback who over-relied on his arm. That’s never been him. From high school to college to the pros, he’s never been the sort of gunslinger to fit a throw into triple coverage. Instead, he leans on his smarts. Too often, we hear that a quarterback needed to learn six offenses in six years and we interpret the constant change as a negative.

Hicks quickly saw why this was actually a positive with Tua.

“The way he plays football is cerebral,” Hicks says. “It’s just different. It blows me away. He knows so much football, bro. Think about how much football knowledge he has. Because when you learn an offense, you learn the why’s and the how’s behind the offense. You don’t just learn the offense. You learn a certain scheme and why this scheme’s going to work and how this scheme’s going to work. How lucky is he?”

In April, Hicks met the man bringing Offense No. 6 into Tagovailoa’s world, McDaniel, at the “Luau with Tua” event that raised $45,000 for Big Brothers Big Sisters. Whereas Flores is described as a coach who’d keep individual players in the dark, McDaniel instantly resonated to Hicks as the perfect coach for this quarterback.

“The best thing,” Hicks adds, “that’s ever happened to him.”

No, Tua’s old coach probably is not learning how to play the drums at a luau.


Hailey Sutton @_HaileySutton
And for fun - here’s a minute of Mike McDaniel learning to properly play the drums. Safe to say he is embracing the Polynesian culture this evening #Dolphins
1:10 AM ∙ Apr 10, 2022

---

259Likes33Retweets
All April, all May, all June, Tagovailoa was a content machine. Football fans didn’t have access to Nick Hicks’ phone, thus didn’t have a clue. When an innocent clip of Tagovailoa throwing a deep ball to Hill was tweeted by the team, the quarterback was mocked to the high heavens. Never mind that Tua was in a bucket hat and that this was, you know, May. The clip generated nearly 7 million views and became the No. 1 sports talking point in America. Right here was all the proof anyone needed.

Hill needed to hit the brakes to catch a Tua pass? Disaster clearly loomed.

Fejedelem noticed how well Tua blocked out the noise then. “Regardless of their credentials and reporting,” he says, “it’s just another guy sitting on a bar stool talking their ****.”

There likely was a tiny speck of cautious optimism bordering on skepticism internally. The Dolphins did sign Teddy Bridgewater to a one-year, $6.5 million pact. Bridgewater, in theory, could run this McDaniel offense the way Jimmy Garoppolo had in San Francisco — if Tua flopped, Miami was prepared. Even running back Raheem Mostert admits he did not expect Tagovailoa to set defenses ablaze. That changed quickly in OTAs when the ex-Niners back was a spectator. Mostert was still rehabbing from his knee injury, thus was able to watch Tagovailoa closely.

Check that. Watch isn’t the appropriate word. Mostert says he was able to “bear witness” that spring.

Maybe part of Bridgewater was hoping to win the job at some point. He’s a proud veteran who overcame the trauma of nearly losing his leg, who has started 64 games, who even made the Pro Bowl. Bridgewater soon recognized that elite trait in Tagovailoa. It’s not just that Tagovailoa is accurate. He wastes zero time spitting the ball out.

“The way he anticipates throws stands out a lot. His anticipation,” Bridgewater says. “It can be difficult for a lot of guys. He makes it look easy. When you add that accuracy with the anticipation, man, how do you stop it?”

Adds safety Clayton Fejedelem: “He’s had talent forever. You’ve seen what he did at Alabama. He’s working with a lot of tools around him. He’s extremely skilled. In the NFL, the jump from the rookie year to your second year is the biggest jump you’re ever going to see. We had a defensive-minded head coach. Now, we have an offensive-minded head coach.”

With each dime, confidence spread throughout the team. Soon, everyone with a microphone was pumping Tua positivity into the atmosphere.

On the very first episode of his podcast, aptly titled “It Needed to be Said,” Hill broke the Internet when he said Tagovailoa was more accurate than Mahomes. We all assumed he was trying to take a shot at the KC quarterback and/or needed to be drug-tested pronto. A slight this extreme had to signal bad blood in KC. Few paused to wonder if Hill was on to something, if Hill was… God forbid… correct.

It was simple to Hill: Mahomes had the stronger arm and Tagovailoa was more accurate.

To recap, here’s what Hill said:

“He’s that dude, bro,” Hill said. “I’m not just sitting just saying this because he’s my quarterback now. I’m not trying to get more targets right now, but what I’m trying to say is Tua is that deal, bro. He has a heck of an arm, bro. He’s accurate. He can throw the deep ball, and he actually goes through his reads, where people on Twitter saying, ‘Oh, he doesn’t go through his reads.’ Man, this dude is that dude.”

And…

“I want it to hit me right in the breadbasket, just like I did in the Buffalo Bills game and take it 70. And the rest is history. It needed to be said.”

And…

“I love the deep ball, but guess what though? I expanded my game. So now I’m doing a lot more than just the deep ball now. I’m doing intermediate routes. I’m doing short routes. So now I actually need a guy who can just get me the ball now, on a dagger route, on a corner route, on a shallow cross route. Right now, right in my chest. So I can do the rest. I make you look good now.”

And…

“I just want people to understand I went for 150 with Matt Moore as my quarterback. … I love Matt Moore, but Tua T is 10 Matt Moores.”

 

[Finsup1981]

On “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz,” McDaniel added more fuel to the fire in saying Tagovailoa threw “the most accurate, catchable ball I’ve ever seen.” Through 17 years as a coach, McDaniel was an assistant with the Denver Broncos when Jake Plummer won 13 games, the Washington Redskins during RGIII’s banner rookie season, with the Atlanta Falcons during Matt Ryan’s 2016 MVP season, and also spent time with Kirk Cousins and Garropolo. As an avid Denver Broncos fan — and ball boy — he grew up on John Elway. Given a chance to backtrack, McDaniel paused, genuinely contemplated the question again and affirmed this was the truth.

Players noticed. McDaniel had their back.

Tight ends Durham Smythe and Mike Gesicki don’t have anything negative to say about Flores but do note how this head coach’s door is always open and that he doesn’t use a one-size-fits-all approach with everyone. McDaniel treats players on an individual basis. If he needs to get after someone, he will. If he needs to encourage others, he will.

“I think that’s the No. 1 strength a coach can have at this level,” Smythe says. “He’s a personable guy. He likes to keep everyone engaged by keeping it fun. When you have that atmosphere, it makes it easy to go up and talk openly. … When he’s getting on people, he’s good about complimenting before — ‘we know you can get this done.’ Maybe he’ll make a joke about it. There’s always a reasoning behind what he’s doing. But he presents it in a unique way to where everyone is laughing or engaged and having fun with it.”

Winning equates to joy. That’s the (strong) argument those hardened by Belichick always make. When Miami won seven in a row last season, Gesicki notes, football was fun. Yet, McDaniel displayed a knack for making the workplace much more enjoyable. Through the spring, whoever was named the practice player of the day wore an orange jersey the next day and got to pick the music playlist that blared over the speakers. This fed camaraderie. Instantly. Because if you’re in that bright orange jersey — and any of the 89 players on the camp roster dislike your taste — you’re going to hear all about it.

Adds Gesicki: “He’s always in a positive mindset. Whether it’s the first meeting in the morning at 7 a.m. or the last one the night before the game on Saturday night. He’s got good energy and it’s contagious to the guys.”

McDaniel brought an offensive mind to the top of the Dolphins hierarchy, too. He cleared Tua’s mind. The hype built. And, into training camp, a different Tua clip went viral. A 65-yard touchdown that was viewed 3 million times and, as Mostert says, “shut the critics up.” When Tagovailoa was asked about the public’s fascination with his arm, it was clear his confidence was growing.

“People don’t think I can throw the ball far,” he said. “I would say that’s the fascination. Like, ‘Wow! He can throw the ball!’ Kind of hard to be in the NFL if you can’t throw the ball, right?”

Hill was starving for YAC. Waddle was set to face inferior corners. Mostert got healthier.

The stage was set.

It was Tua Time

 

[Finsup1981]

Here’s part 2

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Go ahead and cocoon your original take in denial. Rationalize. Credit the coach. Fawn over the receivers. Praise everyone around the quarterback in a circuitous criticism of the quarterback.

Nothing changes the reality that Tua Time is here. It’s real. And Tua Tagovailoa has been permanently locked in since that breakfast with Nick Hicks at Kristof’s Kafe.

The public knows very little about this quarterback because, for starters, he’s fiercely private. He was visibly pissed when news of his marriage to his college sweetheart leaked and this quarterback doesn’t speak much beyond mandatory press conferences. No podcast tours for Tua. Nor was he in the headlines for all the reasons other QBs were all offseason: Ayahuasca trips, sleeping with a mom’s best friend, homework clauses, 11-game suspensions, missing 11 days of training camp with “a lot of **** going on” and, hey, there’s Mr. Unlimited himself filming creepy Subway commercials. (Barf.)

Some of the closest people to Tagovailoa barely hear from him from camp on. His phone’s known to collect thousands of unread text messages. Yes, thousands. It’s never personal. People within the inner circle themselves often need to physically drive to Tua to talk to Tua about a document to sign, an upcoming event, etc., simply because he’s locked in such tunnel vision. Hicks, his trainer, believes Tagovailoa would rather not even have a phone.

The 2022 season began — Mike McDaniel’s offense was finally unveiled — and the NFL was not ready. In Week 2, Tagovailoa took a blowtorch to Baltimore’s 35-14 lead in the fourth quarter, throwing for 469 yards on 36-of-50 passing with six touchdowns. At Tap 42, as he polishes off some BBQ ribs, Hicks holds his cell phone over the table to replay the touchdown that kickstarted the comeback: Tua’s TD strike to River Cracraft. They practiced this same exact move, a spin escape rolling left, at PER4ORM through the offseason. The resemblance is uncanny.

Miami stunned the Buffalo Bills.

The last three weeks, the Dolphins have scored 105 points.

This is what it looks like when an athlete is in the flow state i.e. the zone. Tagovailoa is 100 percent immersed in a sensation of total focus, total enjoyment of an activity.

“He never gets too high but he never gets too low,” Hicks says. “He stays right in the middle the entire time. You ride this wave as a pro athlete to the point of, ‘Oh my God. Tua is leading the league in everything. He’s killing it.’ All that’s going to do, if you succumb to that, is sink below that line because you get a little complacent. You get a little content. But if you keep feeding the fire, the fire keeps getting hotter and hotter and hotter. That’s the thought process. There’s always things we can get better. Be humble. Be appreciative. Understand that it’s not just you, and take the attention off of yourself. We’re never going to reach perfect but we’re going to strive to it. That’s his Dad’s thought process: Work hard. Get better.
“Everyone’s happy right now. But this is not where they want to be. Kobe mentality. Job’s not done.”

All spring and all summer, teammates were able to “bear witness,” as Raheem Mostert put. Finally, it’s everyone else’s turn to see that super power that’s been hiding all along: that anticipation, that accuracy. To recap, Tagovailoa is 7-0 in games he has finished. He leads the NFL in passer rating (118.4), and it’s not close. Geno Smith is No. 2 at 108.0. He leads the NFL in yards per attempt (9.1), and it’s not close. Jalen Hurts is No. 2 at 8.3. He’s only been sacked eight times. He has thrown 18 touchdowns to three picks. He only trails Smith in completion percentage (71.0).

Hall-of-Famer Warren Moon likens this leap to Josh Allen.

Only more extreme. It’s time to rethink quarterback development.

Nowadays, the general public expects QBs to tear it up immediately and we can thank 2018 Patrick Mahomes and 2019 Lamar Jackson for that impulse. Being patient for the sake of patience is foolish. The New York Jets are correct to bench Zach Wilson after playing so poorly 20 starts in, let alone his striking lack of leadership after an all-time dreadful performance. But if there’s an elite trait inside your quarterback and an inner drive that’ll bring that trait to the forefront, patience is a must. Support is a must. Once the stars aligned, Tagovailoa started treating NFL defenses like SEC defenses all over again.

Both factors must work in conjunction. Quarterbacks past have torn up the college ranks, too. But guys like Johnny Manziel, JaMarcus Russell, Vince Young and Ryan Leaf lacked the drive to attack their weaknesses like Tagovailoa did Year 2 to Year 3.

Tua fixed what needed to be fixed, as we covered in Part I.

When Moon watches these 2022 Dolphins, he now has flashbacks to the San Francisco 49ers of the late 80s and early 90s. Specifically to another lefty — Steve Young — surgically decimating defenses underneath.

“Those type of quarterbacks know where to go with the football immediately,” Moon says, “and get it to the receiver in a position where he can run after the catch. That’s what Tua’s doing in this offense and he’s only in his first year in it. It’s going to be scary what he does next year.

“They’re looking for YAC yards. They run a lot of shallow crosses and deep over routes. Routes where the receiver is running away from the defensive back so if you put the ball right in front of him, in stride, he’s going to make those 40-, 50-yard plays off of a 10-, 12-, 15-yard catch. That’s the way that offense is designed.”

Moon piloted a different type of offense, the Houston Oilers’ Run and Shoot, but can relate to the hot hand. Three decades ago, he threw for 4,600+ yards in back-to-back seasons which — carry the 2, multiply by 5, account for the league’s mission to soften the sport — equates to roughly 14,600+ yards in today’s game. The mentality that you’ll never, ever, ever miss when the ball leaves your hand is such a special feeling. Moon refused to let the ball hit the ground during Friday practices. Everything was sharp. Precise. And he's sure that’s the state of mind Tagovailoa is in right now.

“I bet when you go to his practices,” Moon adds, “you don’t see the ball hit the ground. He knows where to go with it.”

Yes, the accuracy is jarring. Like that strike to Trent Sherfield vs. Cleveland. Or all the needles threaded to Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. The last three games, Tagovailoa has completed 77 percent of his passes.

Yes, the X’s and O’s are dizzying defenses. At times, it appears Tagovailoa is throwing the ball to space. Not even a player. One second, the ball’s in his hands. The next, it’s triggered into the vacant pocket of a defense, and in swoops Hill or Waddle. Other times, both receivers are running deeper routes that put defensive backs in lose-lose situations: Do I carry 10 on this go route or pick up 17 on the crosser? There’s a good chance Hill eclipses 2,000 yards and Waddle hits 1,500. Absurd.

Tight end Durham Smythe shakes his head.

“Honestly,” he says, “I don’t know what I’d do as a defensive coordinator. You can try to double them but if that doesn’t work, what do you do?”

Adds Hicks: “Tua’s knowledge base right now is above and beyond everybody else in the NFL, and you can see it. Like the way he’s sitting at the line of scrimmage and he’s moving people with his eyes — Read 1, 2, 3, back to 1 — it’s wild, man. He throws the ball to a space. I’m like, ‘Where are you throwing it!?’ And here a guy comes to catch it and he turns upfield. It’s really unbelievable. He’s playing at a level I personally didn’t think he could get to this quick.”



Getty Images
Yes, Tagovailoa is tough. Far tougher than anyone realizes.

The concussion was a grisly sight. Against the Cincinnati Bengals, his head hit the turf, his fingers locked up as a neurological response and both the Dolphins and the NFL were raked over the coals for Tagovailoa even being on the field that night. Regardless of our opinions on the reported “back injury” the game prior vs. the Bills, we can all agree that it takes a different temperament to step back onto the field after such a chilling ordeal. A temperament he shields. This kind, ultra-religious family man doesn’t want to be known as an aggressive person and yet, naturally, Tua Time is revealing his gnarly side. When he returned to action against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tagovailoa took off downfield and lowered a shoulder directly into a tackler.

His complete absence of fear made millions of viewers cringe. But that’s him.

That’s the fighter Hicks saw on the punching bag at the end of workouts. Tagovailoa would slip mitts on and resemble a world-class boxer.

After initially describing his quarterback as “chill,” as “a typical Hawaiian guy,” Mostert makes sure we don’t get it twisted.

“He’s definitely a tough guy. He’s hungry.”

And yet for all of his tangible qualities — the fireworks that could propel Miami to its first Super Bowl since 1984 — none of it’s possible if he doesn’t regain his confidence. This is a quarterback who traded a horror show for a dream. Brian Flores and misery for Mike McDaniel and bliss. Teammates echo each other: Tua is having fun. Like a kid back in Pop Warner. Smythe cites a “linear progression” since 2020 and says that line is now jetting straight upward because his confidence is soaring. Too often, we’re obsessed with the schematics of the sport. We need to see it to believe it. Thy All-22 must deliver all answers. Thou DVOA must neatly organize a very complex, very human game onto a spreadsheet.

We saw a small quarterback playing small and justifiably drew conclusions.

Well. About that.

Much like the transformation of an entire team, there’s a mental dimension to the sport that NFL owners are starting to realize they must value. The Minnesota Vikings replaced an old-school coach with Kevin O’Connell — kept Kirk Cousins and the same core in place — and now sit atop the NFC North at 8-2. They just shook off a 37-point defeat to beat the New England Patriots on Thanksgiving Night. The New York Giants ditched Dave Gettleman and Joe Judge for Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll and are 7-4. Daboll is most certainly a coach who checks the “treat people right” box and the effect is real Player 1 through Player 53.

Especially at the most important position: Quarterback. Tagovailoa transformed back into the player he was always meant to be out of Hawaii.

“Everybody in this organization has bought into him,” Smythe says, “and obviously surrounded him with the best receivers in the NFL. He’s always been trending in the right direction but I think this year is different because of his confidence.
“That’s overlooked by people on the outside because you do want to break things down schematically. Did he get his job done? X’s and O’s. Things like that. But if you can be confident in yourself — whatever it takes to get there, the organization believing in you, better players around you, you being more prepared — that’s when everybody plays their best. Tua has always had the talent. From college and high school. You can see that. But now his confidence is as high as it’s ever been.”

 

[Finsup1981]

Isaiah Ford, the quarterback’s friend who played receiver with the Dolphins last season, is not shocked one bit. He sees a quarterback who’s exactly what Moon describes.

One who is decisive with every decision, every throw.

“He’s playing the game freely,” Ford says. “He’s not doing a lot of thinking. He’s subconsciously letting his habits — the work he’s put in — take control of his game. Every throw he makes, he thinks is going to be a completion. Most of the time it is.”

Production like this, at quarterback, raises the bar. If Tua’s ball is never hitting the ground, receivers never want to drop it. Backs don’t want to miss their blitz pickups. Linemen want to keep him clean. Running back Myles Gaskin believes everybody in this locker room is striving to be “as close to perfect” as humanly possible and that the spike in confidence has given Tagovailoa more ownership of the offense. He sees the quarterback telling receivers exactly how he wants routes run, a quarterback declaring: “This is my team. This is my offense. This is mine.”

The result is a feeling — by everyone — that Miami is never out of a game.

And before any talk of a gameplan, a coach and a quarterback must establish trust. This was obviously (and painfully) lacking before. Now? It’s the foundation for these 2022 Dolphins.

It’s not complicated. Most NFL players seek answers to questions. They’d prefer the sport stripped of its screaming and intimidation and Varsity Blues-like high school football BS. McDaniel is an answer man who values collaboration. He’s always explaining the why behind play designs to Tagovailoa and welcoming input because the No. 1 goal is to maximize what each individual does best. The moment Tagovailoa was sold on his new head coach? When Miami lost its first game to Cincinnati.

Because that’s when you see a coach’s “true colors.”

“The guy’s been the same person,” Tagovailoa explained. “He’s never changed. Never gotten mad. It’s just always, ‘What can we work on?’ Things we can fix. And you look at two more times we ended up losing. Same dude. I would say he won the trust of me, the guys in the locker room, and also the guys in the organization. Everyone feels free to come up to his office. Everyone feels free to be around this guy and say whatever they feel like they can say and be themselves.”

A gauntlet looms. After hosting the hapless Houston Texans this weekend, Miami hits the road for three straight. First, McDaniel faces his former boss: Kyle Shanahan and the peaking San Francisco 49ers. Next, it’s the quarterback selected right after Tua: Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers. Finally, on Dec.18, they’ll travel to frigid Orchard Park for a rematch with the Buffalo Bills. A town still digging itself out of 80 inches of snow. After getting fried in the South Florida humidity, the Bills will be eager to pull the Dolphins into their sub-zero world. We’re about to learn everything we need to about these Miami Dolphins and their 24-year-old quarterback.

Cold playoff games are a near-lock, too. Kansas City. Cincinnati. Baltimore. Foxborough. Orchard Park.

Everyone mocking Tagovailoa back in May over a practice throw will get loud again. That’s how sports opinions work. The nonbelievers will see a golden opportunity to reaffirm what they were barking all offseason long.

Hicks tried to warn us then.

Hicks warns us again.

“Tua’s not scared of ****,” he says. “He’s not scared of anybody. And he’s on a confidence wave right now to where he doesn’t give a f--k.”

---

Work your way around the Dolphins locker room and it’s apparent Tua Tagovailoa is not alone in the DGAF department. Swagger’s contagious like that. When a quarterback’s riding high, he’ll take others with him. As Moon says, “Tua and Tyreek both have swagger and it’s rubbing off on the rest of the football team.” You’ve seen the peace-signing, backflipping Hill and waddling Waddle take up residency in the end zone. But as the calendar turns — as Tagovailoa’s fearless “Super Bowl” expectation becomes more realistic — there are two other direct beneficiaries of Tua Time that’ll make this a dangerous team in heat, sleet, wind or snow.

Raheem Mostert and Jeff Wilson.

The two locker mates are feeling liberated, just like their quarterback. Mostert and Wilson give McDaniel what he seeks on that play diagram. As defenses have no choice but to shift four or five defenders toward those two receivers, lanes are bound to gash open in the run game.

Yet, like Tua, their motivation runs deeper.

Start with Mostert, a pro’s pro who was cut six times before starring as San Francisco’s lead back. We met for steak ahead of the Super Bowl a few years back and his unbelievably compelling story is made for HBO. From shooting himself in the toe… to a father shooting his half-brother four times… to losing his beloved mentor, “Chop,” in June 2019, Mostert’s lived it all. After going off for 220 yards and four touchdowns in the NFC Championship Game that same year, he should’ve remained a core piece with those 49ers. He did not. He suffered a knee injury last season, disagreed with the team on how best to treat that injury and signed with Miami in free agency.

Asked if this offense is better than that one, Mostert looks around.

“We have way better talent here,” he begins. “It’s going to get spooky.”

Mostert uses every pink slip as motivation, keeping a list of all teams that ditched him on the Notes app in his phone. Every time he faces one? “I’ve got to turn up,” he says. “Former employers? They’ve got to come see about me.” He confirms that the 49ers have absolutely worked their way onto this list considering how things devolved last year. With Wilson to his side, he adds, “Me and ‘Jefe’ are gonna go crazy.” It’s hard to imagine how a smart franchise like the 49ers could allow two quality backs like this to exit the building, but they did. He gets it. In the NFL, business always comes before feelings.

He’s thrilled to join forces with Wilson, and in case you didn’t hear him the first time? He smiles. He laughs. Mostert again assures he and Wilson are about “to go crazy.”



Getty Images
Similar to Tagovailoa, it took a frustrating 2021 to reach this point.

The first game of last year — a contract year — Mostert ripped cartilage off of his left knee. After getting an MRI, he had options and says the 49ers told him he could return in eight weeks “with a hole” in his knee. Scoping and such. He didn’t like the sounds of that, instead opting for a more extensive surgery to rehab the knee fully. This exact tug of war happens all of the time in pro football. Thinking back, cornerback Stephon Gilmore wishes he would’ve spoken up to the New England Patriots when they rushed him back from a quad injury. Linebacker Za’Darius Smith didn’t like how the Green Bay Packers handled his back injury.

Teams putting pressure on players to set their long-term health aside and hurry back is more common than we realize.

“It isn’t right,” Mostert says. “And it’s up to the player to step up and say, ‘This isn’t right. I don’t think this is the best of my interest.’ Sometimes, you don’t get that with players. But, for me, that was my case. I knew exactly what I wanted. I knew exactly how I’d handle the situation. I knew exactly — coming off of rehab — what I needed to do in order to get back on the field.”

After so many nicks throughout his turbulent NFL career, Mostert wanted to be as healthy as he possibly could. Knee injuries can render running backs sad, slow reincarnations of what they once were. You’re often deemed damaged goods. Replaceable. Sent to the Goodwill bin in favor of someone younger, healthier, with much less mileage. Mostert weighed all pros and all cons when he decided to sit out the season. He knew how much he was risking — the decision absolutely pissed the 49ers off — but he also knew how hard he would work.

When free agency hit, he believes the 49ers used his decision against him.

“Yeah, they did,” Mostert says. “They definitely did. I moved on from the situation. I have the opportunity to see them.”

With Miami, with McDaniel, with what he labels “a perfect team, perfect position, perfect everything.” The main objective was for Raheem Mostert to become Raheem Mostert again. The same player who lit up that NFC title game. Half-assing a procedure just to stay on the field might’ve had him hobbling the rest of his career. His game is speed and Mostert wanted to do everything in his power to get that speed back — he has the second-fastest NextGen time ever recorded. As he adds: “It paid off. I’m here.” The trainers in Miami were familiar with this injury and, month to month, Mostert’s health gradually improved. There’s still discomfort. Mostert admits he has a long way to go. But that signature speed is returning. Once McDaniel sensed Mostert was becoming Mostert again — he’s up to 662 total yards and four scores on the season — the team shipped fellow free-agent acquisition Chase Edmonds to the Denver Broncos in a package for defensive end Bradley Chubb.

“You just have to take a leap of faith,” Mostert says. “That was my thing: Take a leap of faith. Be strong-minded. My mindset was to attack rehab.”

Now, yes. He gets to face those 49ers in one week. He’s not alone, either.

Wilson soon joined him via midseason trade.

After the 49ers acquired star Christian McCaffrey from the Carolina Panthers, Wilson asked out. Nearly every running back in NFL history believes they deserve more touches. Wilson, however, has an ironclad case as the sport’s most disrespected back. When a player like this decries “politics” and “Instagram followers” and begs evaluators to simply turn on the tape to realize he’s better than more household names — as he does in our chat — Wilson actually has a point. Undrafted out of North Texas in 2018, all Wilson has done is epitomize everything Shanahan could want out of any of his players. From the practice squad, the barren depths of the roster, Wilson worked his way up to the No. 4 spot… No. 3… No. 2… and the occasional No. 1 to gain 1,532 yards on 323 carries for a whopping average of 4.7 per carry.

Nonetheless, Shanahan refused to delete the Running Back Tinder app on his phone and kept swiping right.

“They had to make a business decision,” Wilson says, “and I had to make a business decision. Yeah, there’s love and relationships around here. But at the end of the day, it comes down to business. People are going to do what they’ve got to do. That’s what it was with both parties. No hard feelings. It could’ve gone the other way. A year or two ago, I probably wouldn’t have said anything. I just kept my mouth shut and took it. Just like they spoke out about that, I can do the same.
“Even a blind man could see what we’re doing. They’re still a great team. I’m not taking anything away from the 49ers. They’re one of the best teams in the league. I’ve been around them. I’ve practiced with all the players. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to do what’s best for you. I’ve got a family to feed. I’m the first person to make it in my family, so I have to do what’s best for me.”

Wilson took matters into his own hands and — like his pal Mostert — ended up in Miami. The passing game’s been so blistering hot that we forget McDaniel rose to coaching fame as the Niners’ run-game coordinator. Wilson raves about his intelligence and is sure McDaniel was a key cog in building the scheme itself. Simply put, he’s happy again. Like Tagovailoa, he gets to play for a boss that truly believes in his talents, his worth.

Authenticity is what he appreciates most. McDaniel isn’t trying to be anyone he’s not.

“He knows how to connect,” Wilson says. “He just knows the modern-day world. Times change. It’s not like the old days. He connected with us on a professional level and a personal level. Relationship-wise. He’s still the same guy. I’ve seen it firsthand. He’s still the same guy, the same cat. And people are going to gravitate toward being genuine. He’s always going to be real. Ever since I’ve known him, I ain’t seen him change. He’s still the same person.

“They have something special here and I’m just blessed to be a part of it.”

Ironically enough, the disciple (McDaniel) is now relying on two backs the teacher (Shanahan) grew tired of. Maybe Shanahan is proven right to think Elijah Mitchell isn’t that different than Mostert or Wilson. Maybe his big swing for McCaffrey is the move that gets the 49ers back to the Super Bowl.

Mostert disagrees.

“You think you’re upgrading,” Mostert says, “but, honestly, you’re getting rid of staples. That’s it. Staple pieces. I have an opportunity here.”

There’s no need to wish Wilson well against his former team on Dec. 4.

“I ain’t need no luck!” he says. “I don’t need no luck!”

Slide that popcorn into the microwave, friends. Miami-San Francisco will be fun and, who knows, maybe the two organizations even square off in a rematch of the ’84 Super Bowl.

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch...00-e050-4416-b3c8-83c84bcf24ce_4069x2606.jpeg

 

[Finsup1981]

Getty Images
The 49ers’ rushing attack is a menacing operation. Honestly, it’s unfair how the igloo-built Trent Williams moves in open space. And the reason why George Kittle is the true gold standard at the tight end position is that he’s liable to crack back on any of the 11 defensive players any given play. Shanahan took what his Dad built to a new level, creating devastating blocking angles within the zone-blocking scheme. But what both running backs here lost in San Francisco’s mighty offensive line, they gain in lighter boxes.

They gain in what they believe is a much more dynamic offense.

The reason is obvious: Tua Tagovailoa.

“We have a quarterback,” Mostert says, “who can actually sling it.”

This new 1-2 punch in the Dolphins’ backfield will help plow the offense through the winter months. Smythe points out that improving the rushing game has been a point of emphasis as this season grinds on. They’re all starting to pick up the complexities of the scheme and Moon, for one, could not believe Miami added Mostert and Wilson. (“That’s stealing!”) But if the Dolphins, the 49ers, any NFL team has learned anything, it’s that this is still a quarterback’s league. Oh, it’s possible Miami keeps winning and forces those AFC teams to play in their sauna of a stadium. Moon wouldn’t be surprised if Miami won the division and earned some playoff games at home.

Yet, the Hall-of-Famer is also perplexed by the noise building up all over again.

Didn’t everyone learn their lesson the first time?

“Everybody keeps saying, ‘Let’s see what he does when the weather gets bad,’” Moon says. “Everybody wants to tear him down because a lot of people didn’t have a lot of faith in him when he came into the league. So they’re looking for every reason that maybe he’s going to fail. Now, they’re pointing to the weather getting cold and if he has to go outdoors. Is his arm strong enough to throw in the wind? So he’ll answer those questions, too, because again they’re not asking him to throw these big balls down the field. He’s still going to throw the same kind of balls he’s throwing now. He throws a tight ball and he throws an accurate ball. If he continues at this pace, he’s going to be right in that MVP discussion.”

The Super Bowl is the bar in Miami. Tagovailoa told us that himself and, no, we have not heard that from quarterbacks in South Florida since Dan Marino retired 23 years ago. To win it all, he knows it’s up to him more than anyone else in the building. Every quarterback does. Using those magic words reflects all pressure back on you.

And, really? That’s fine by him. He welcomes it. He surely remembers the battles with Flores, the training with Hicks, the reps with McDaniel.

Asked why he took it to this extreme, Tagovailoa zoomed out. Offseason. OTAs. Camp. So much goes into a statement like this.

“Why shy away from that?” Tagovailoa said. “We’re not afraid to talk about that here.”

If he was before, he certainly is not now.

Where Tua Time goes from here is completely up to him.

 

[Finsup1981]

Crazy how he got his arm stronger, I found that part really interesting.

Also, fk Brian Flores.

 

[onlyindade3051]

TLDR; Still average to below average QB.

 

[Finsup1981]

TLDR; Still average to below average QB.

Elite in a couple aspects, average in others, below average in several…he’s a good starter he’s not average. Has limitations and can’t carry a team on his back but with a great team around him can lead us to a Super Bowl.

Just feel like he needs too many things to be perfect and that’s hard to do when he’s taking up 20 percent of the cap space. Tua at 30 million would be an asset, he just costs too much for what he brings imo.

This article happened to be written at the apex of our hopes, it’s been all downhill since this article.

 

[MARINO1384]

Long article can you please transcribe it into an audio version?

Happy Easter, take a break today lol

 

[Mach2]

Long article can you please transcribe it into an audio version?

Happy Easter, take a break today lol

There are apps for that, assuming you were serious.

 

[Finsup1981]

Kurt Warner came up with the bet answer on what the teams started to do to take away our strengths, starting with the SF game:

“That’s what you’re starting to see teams do to the Dolphins,” he adds. “Even though they have speed guys who can scare you with the big plays down the field, ‘Well, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to knock those guys off and mess up Tua’s timing and we’re going to see if a.) he can make the tight throws; or b.) can he progress on from his original throw and work through his progressions to get to the next guy and the right guy.’ And he hasn’t been able to do that very well. He has struggled with that progression part of it. You give him what he wants and he’s going to be fine. If you don’t give him what he wants and now he’s struggling to work through things and stay patient in the pocket and have those same traits — the accuracy, the decision-making — to be as good as they are when he’s throwing to their No. 1 guy, it’s not an easy thing.

“It’s one thing to throw to a guy when he’s wide open so he can adjust to a football,” Warner says. “It’s another thing when he’s in tight coverage and you have to put the ball right where he needs to be or it’s an incompletion. That’s what we’ve seen the last couple weeks. So I think we’re really going to get a tell on who Tua is and how good he can be in this league. We know what he can be when things are good and the first guy’s there and the system’s playing to his strengths. When teams start taking it away, what are you? That’s the telltale sign for all quarterbacks. You can come in and be successful early when people are trying to learn what you’re going to do and what you’re good at. And then eventually they say, ‘OK, we’re going to take that away. Now show me if you’re good enough when we take away what you want to do.’ That’s what the great ones can do.”

Far too often, he says, quarterbacks are discarded. They’re deemed failures when the true failure is the scheme. From Warner’s vantage point, that’s where Tua was in Year 1 and Year 2. When the quarterback was shredding SEC defenses back at Alabama, his greatest strength was getting the ball out. And that’s what frustrated Warner early on those first two seasons. He caught himself yelling, “Throw it! Get the ball out of your hands! What are you waiting on?” Warner wondered if the speed of the NFL was overwhelming.

“And then you see him get into a system like they’re in this year,” Warner says, “and he’s back to doing what he did in college. Hitting that back foot. Knowing where he wants to go with the football. Getting the ball out of his hands quick. I’m sure it’s the players around him and I’m sure it’s Mike McDaniel doing some great things to create some easy opportunities and those quick throws. He’s back to doing what made him Tua.”

Tagovailoa possesses some of the same traits as Warner but he is not ready to say the third-year quarterback is prepared to make a Warner-sized leap.

“I feel like I’ve done certain things that are better than anybody who’s ever played this game,” Warner says. “So I’m not ready to say Tua is there. I’m not ready to say his accuracy, combination, arm strength is what I had. I’m not ready to say his processing is anywhere close to what I had. So, I’m not ready to say that. His ability to anticipate and be accurate on certain kinds of throws? Without a doubt. His ability to use his eyes, his ability to anticipate — at times this year — I’ve said it’s maybe the best in the league. There are some really good things that he does. But the complete package, I don’t personally see anything close to what I became as a quarterback. Yet. Again, he’s still young and he’s still new in the system. I see some traits where I’ll say, ‘Yeah, that’s something I had. That’s something that I did.’ It can help you be very successful in this league. But there has to be more than just that piece.”

“We’ve seen a lot of guys who are really smart on a board and if they get 40 seconds to tell you what to do on a play, they can tell you all the nuances,” Warner says. “Now, if you shrink that down to four seconds, they can’t do it. They can give you one or two pieces but they can’t give you all the pieces. So that becomes the question because you don’t know until they’re in those moments. You don’t know until they have to do it whether they can do it. But I’m not sure if it’s a learned trait or not. I don’t know the answer because I can’t get inside somebody’s brain and see what they did last year and what they do this year. Or I can’t see if all of a sudden things start going off and it’s just muddled in there and they can’t clear it up.

“Right now, it doesn’t look like he does a great job of processing beyond what he sees initially. He processes that information well and when he needs to make a throw, he can process information on where that ball needs to go and what the timing is and what the trajectory of the ball is. That’s great. But I’m talking about, OK, that’s not there. Now, what do I need to see and where do I need to go and how fast can I get there? He hasn’t gotten to that point

“Tua, he’s going to have to be a guy who gets to be making the layups almost every single time if he’s going to be successful,” Warner says. “And I’m OK with guys that are forced to do that because I do believe it’s the best way to win in this league consistently over time. The combination of those two things is obviously always going to be better than just doing one thing. But the more I watch these guys, the more I wonder, even if you have a level of athleticism or playmaking, will you ever be a guy who consistently plays the game from inside the pocket? Like you’re capable of, like you need to? I don’t know the answer to that. I’ve seen a number of games this year with Mahomes where I’m like, “Play the game!” He’s just doing too much and trying to make the big play and falling away from his technique and missing things that are right in front of him that I’ve seen him make before. It lends itself to the game becoming so much harder than it has to be even for a great guy like Mahomes.”

This Miami offense has most certainly hit a wall. The greats find their counterpunch.

It’s Tua’s time to find his.

“I’m concerned because I haven’t seen it yet,” Warner says. “These last couple weeks I’ve seen more of what we saw the first couple years with Tua. The holding the ball. The being unsure of himself when the No. 1 read isn’t there. He’s really good when it’s really good. Now, when things aren’t as good, can he still be that guy? So, I’m just not convinced yet. Like anything, you’ve got to convince me. In this league, we don’t just check the box and say, ‘We’re going to give you the benefit of the doubt until you don’t do it. It’s the opposite. When you take that step up, you’ve got to prove to us that you belong in that category with the best quarterbacks in the league. You were doing it for a while, but now you’ve hit a snag. Now, you have to show us.”

“Somebody’s hit you in the mouth. You’ve got to show us that you can counter that to be that guy still.”

 

[Finsup1981]

Problem is when you have to hit so many layups and dink and dunk, any negative play or penalty is pretty much a drive killer. And relying on our oline and TEs to not screw up for an entire drive proved to be our undoing most of the time.

 

[MARINO1384]

There are apps for that, assuming you were serious.

I like listening to @Finsup1981 voice instead of the AI voice, it’s more soothing