Former NFL quarterback on Tua Tagovailoa not knowing playbook: ‘That should never, ever happen’ | Page 7 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Former NFL quarterback on Tua Tagovailoa not knowing playbook: ‘That should never, ever happen’

KTOWNFINFAN said:
No it's NOT a fact.
He threw twice as many TDs as picks, posted a 6-3 record on a team coming off a 5-11 season, and had almost exactly the same numbers as Burrows, who everyone says had a great year (but Burrows couldn't win games). Tua had a better rookie season than Mahomes, Peyton, Rodgers, Josh Allen and all but a handful of others. He posted AS A ROOKIE a 87 quarterback rating, which Marino had a career rating of only 86. Could he have been better, maybe but add in no offseason, spending most of his time rehabbing and I can't imagine anyone realistically expecting better.
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6 and 3 you say....
One game, LV , was rescued by RF.
SF and LA games, the defense and special team did the heavy lifting.
My last two sentences were facts.
I deal with facts and details. Not broad brush and impression.
 
lurking said:

Former NFL quarterback on Tua Tagovailoa not knowing playbook: ‘That should never, ever happen’​



by John Buhler18 hours agoFollow @buhler118
Tua Tagovailoa not knowing the Miami Dolphins playbook did not sit well with this one former NFL quarterback.

A lot has been made about Miami Dolphinsquarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s public comments of not really knowing the team’s playbook from a season ago.
2021 will be Tagovailoa’s second season out of Alabama after the Dolphins used the No. 5 overall pick on the former college star quarterback in the 2020 NFL Draft. Tagovailoa split time with journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick last year. While Tagovailoa offered greater upside, Fitzpatrick was the better player a season ago. Miami came up one game short of making the 2020 AFC Playoffs.

While Tagovailoa’s public comments about this not knowing the playbook issue are not the end of the world, it is something. 2020 may have been a challenging year for all of us, but Tagovailoa’s comments did not sit well with former NFLquarterback and ESPN football analyst Tim Hasselbeck. Here is what Hasselbeck had to say on the comments made by Tagovailoa publicly.

“I have to be honest. I kind of read some of the comments, [but] that’s the first time I had heard him say it in that way,” said Hasselbeck on ESPN. “It kind of bothered me. That should never, ever, ever happen with a quarterback, a guy that’s drafted in the first round that’s going to be the guy.

“I get it, the offseason was weird, it was hard, but I don’t want to hear Joe Burrow or anybody else talking about, ‘Hey, I didn’t learn the playbook.’ That, to me, is bad. Look, I do think he’ll be better, but sometimes, maybe, you don’t have to give everybody all of your information.”
How should Dolphins and NFL fans in general feel about Tagovailoa not grasping the playbook?
One thing that got lost during the draft process two years ago was Tagovailoa’s abysmal Wonderlic score. It was initially reported to be 13, which would have been more than three times worse than what Fitzpatrick got coming out Harvard. Tagovailoa’s score did end up being slightly higher than that, but nowhere near the 30s where you would typically want a quarterback to be.
Keep in mind that we were in the midst of a global pandemic during the 2020 offseason and Tagovailoa was working his way back from a college career-ending hip injury. Mobility was limited for so many reasons for him, yet he did not put in the time to figure out what former Dolphins offensive coordinator Chan Gailey wanted to do offensively. That is a major cause for concern.
While Fitzpatrick had a built-in rapport with Gailey from their time together with the New York Jets, it is not like Tagovailoa was under-coached in Tuscaloosa. Brian Daboll, Mike Locksley and Steve Sarkisian were all Crimson Tide offensive coordinators during Tagovailoa’s three years in school. One guy is an NFL offensive coordinator and the two others lead Power 5 programs now.

Ultimately, Tagovailoa is not athletically gifted enough to overcome not putting in the work in the film room. Factor in him having an injury-riddled past and this Dolphins run of his could go to hell in a handbasket faster than the ’72 team popping another bottle of champagne to celebrate the first loss of the season for the league’s best team. Simply put, Tagovailoa has to put in the work now.
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When i listened to that interview the impression I got was he wasn’t confident that he understood the plays fully. Specifically, I don’t think it’s just a matter of knowing the verbage of the play and the routes everyone is runing, or what have you but also, reading the defenses to understand how to audible, or the best way to run the play based on what the defense is showing you.

I don’t think it was a matter of him slacking off or anything like that, I think it was a matter of comprehension.

Which isnt’ great, but also probably isn’t unique among rookie Qb’s either, he was just foolish enough to admit it.
 
Kyndig said:
When i listened to that interview the impression I got was he wasn’t confident that he understood the plays fully. Specifically, I don’t think it’s just a matter of knowing the verbage of the play and the routes everyone is runing, or what have you but also, reading the defenses to understand how to audible, or the best way to run the play based on what the defense is showing you.

I don’t think it was a matter of him slacking off or anything like that, I think it was a matter of comprehension.

Which isnt’ great, but also probably isn’t unique among rookie Qb’s either, he was just foolish enough to admit it.
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I'm not sure that Tua was admitting to anything different than what Brady admitted-- that as a new QB in an offense, they were not 100% comfortable with all the aspects of that offense.

So I think this is overblown. New guy didn't have it all down yet. The real questions are 1) Did he realize this? (and the answer is obviously, yes) and 2) Is he working to fix this problem (again... yes).

So we're mostly ok... Mostly, because now we have to see that he can get to the point where he is comfortable with everything.
 
Kyndig said:
When i listened to that interview the impression I got was he wasn’t confident that he understood the plays fully. Specifically, I don’t think it’s just a matter of knowing the verbage of the play and the routes everyone is runing, or what have you but also, reading the defenses to understand how to audible, or the best way to run the play based on what the defense is showing you.

I don’t think it was a matter of him slacking off or anything like that, I think it was a matter of comprehension.

Which isnt’ great, but also probably isn’t unique among rookie Qb’s either, he was just foolish enough to admit it.
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Brady admitted it too.
 
The beauty of doing nothing is that you can do it perfectly. Only when you do something is it almost impossible to do it without mistakes. Therefore people who are contributing nothing to the team, except their constant criticisms, can feel both intellectually and morally superior
 
The offseason. Reporters scrambling for stories, social media creating drama, fans wanting any morsel of football information they can find. Rumors, misinformation abound.

My take? Tua may be a little too honest for his own good. I don't think it's uncommon for rookie quarterbacks to be uncomfortable with the playbook. That will change in time with more reps etc.

I think it's really a non story, much like a lot in politics these days.
 
Its crazy to me the amount confidence some guys have that Tua will either be great or total trash after 9 NFL games played. Nevermind the crazy times these rookies had to go through to play in 2020 and that not even one got to play a real NFL road game to this point, You simply dont have enough to go by to make any kind of reasonable prediction going foward.

If you have 100% convition that Tua is going to be a HOF player or that he's going to fail miserably at this point, its called blind hope. I could see how this being a Dolphins fan site, we're going to get some positive blind hope when it comes to the newly drafted QB given the importance of the position... What's interesting is the amount of blind hope that he actually fails...

9 games... Can anyone who's always looking for these negatives pieces, anyone, find me any correlation between the first 9 games of a players career VS the rest of it? Because absolutely no one before the season started claimed they were going to give Tua 9 games to show them he's going to be an elite QB, no one said that because they'd look like a ****ing imbecile if they did. Yet here we are.

Tua's first 9 games were average compared to other rookie QBs coming out. Nothing more nothing less and its also absolutely irrelevant.
 
Kyndig said:
Of course Brady is sort of in a different place to admit that, especially after he won his 5000th super bowl that same year.
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Still don't get that argument.

Is he dumber now and can't learn after winning a SB or 7?

Tua was just being open and honest and I like that.
 
andyahs said:
Still don't get that argument.

Is he dumber now and can't learn after winning a SB or 7?

Tua was just being open and honest and I like that.
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No I get that, and I don’t think it’s a big deal in that he should have a better grasp this year, but I mean, Brady did turn around and win a super bowl after struggling with the playbook at some point, clearly he learned or picked it up at some point in the season well enough to win another super bowl. So, him admitting that vs Tua who still hasn’t proven himself yet is a very different kettle of fish, that’s all I’m saying, it’s not really comparable.
 
Horrific injury, rehabbing the offseason instead of training, no OTAs, no preseason, not a full understanding of a playbook, a lack of weapons and still had a decent season where the team went 6-3 with him? I think we’re going to lose a few of these posters this year...
 
rent this space said:
Horrific injury, rehabbing the offseason instead of training, no OTAs, no preseason, not a full understanding of a playbook, a lack of weapons and still had a decent season where the team went 6-3 with him? I think we’re going to lose a few of these posters this year...
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Logic and common sense don't do well in these type of threads.
 
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rent this space said:
Horrific injury, rehabbing the offseason instead of training, no OTAs, no preseason, not a full understanding of a playbook, a lack of weapons and still had a decent season where the team went 6-3 with him? I think we’re going to lose a few of these posters this year...
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