On his interview with the Fins:
"This is everything I ever wanted. I've been in 6 different organizations. This place has all the utilities, and just needs the right Head Coach."
How did you evaluate Tua?
"There was a specific moment....when I first started assessing the situation, you have the 5th pick in the draft, all his experiences thus far in the NFL, it was hard to look at him and not think of my own experience.....I knew I would have had no chance had I not been built up by my mom, that I can do anything. You are the smartest, etc. I knew at a young age that I gravitated to that. It gave me the confidence. We all have those moments of uncertainty, I don't know what is going to happen, and so do you go into those moments with faith you are going to get it done or apprehension you are going to fail? And I had gone through all those moments with vigor and fearlessness because of how I was built up. And so I saw Tua like that. How can we approach the idea of we know what this player is, when I don't know, from my vantage point, who does this guy have that believes in him? So we have to start with, he has to know, someone is 100% in his corner. Which is what a coach is. And no dude, you can do it. I had to convince him that I believed in him so that he in turn could.
There was a particular moment that set everything off. Early March. Going through free agency. We are meeting with all the scouts and coaches in a room. We need to do this that etc. All the directions we could go as a team. I knew in my mind, Tua needed skill positions players that were dynamic with the ball in their hands. Because I knew this dude was a Point Guard. He is gifted that way. And then some of the people in personnel said we need to spend money on Offensive Linemen. I knew that I disagreed with it. But I hate going "NO, because I said so!" So I took the information and went back to the office. I put on the tape and began cutting tape to show the staff what I'm talking about from my lens. As I progress through the tape, I start to notice this trend, wow this is like the 7th different outbreak that I have seen Tua throw to the field....I see this once or twice from a QB in an entire season normally. The WR is running away from you, the ball is in the air longer, high risk throw. He would make pin point throws doing this.
What started as a explanation of how guys needed to be more open for Tua, turned into a marvel session that started at 630pm and went until midnight on a random week day in the offseason. I ended compiling this thing...I thought I knew, but I didn't know...what we were actually sitting on. I'm freaking out. I know for a fact from this night of study that this is the best QB for our offense that I have ever had the chance to coach. And I'm freaking out. So then I call Anne Nolan. Head of PR. Write this date down. I call Chris Grier at midnight. I just got to tell you, I've gone through 700 different passes, and I cannot believe what I am seeing. This guy is doing stuff that I have not focused all my attention on quite yet. We are sitting on a gold mine. We need to do EVERYTHING moving forward to acquire skill position players that have the ability to do stuff with the ball in their hands, because this guy, if they are open, he will get it to them.
In SF I saw the vision, the YAC. But it's 2am. I can't sleep. I need to show the whole organization the tape TODAY. We need a staff meeting at 8am. Get all the scouts in. I need to show this tape. I have to get this off my chest. We get the whole staff together and I run through 150 clips in a row to explain. This is the offense he played within. These are some of the things he is capable of. This is what our offense is able to do with this type of player. And from that meeting on....the meeting ends...everyone discusses. We have these analytic charts that show people in free agency who have the best ability to separate, YAC stuff, and the whole organization saw it and moved forward to empower Tua.
I called Tua in. Showed him the same tape. Anyone that was willing to listen, I wanted to make sure they knew.
When Tua saw it, what did he say?
It was the most extreme case of a person not knowing how to take a compliment. You could tell he was not used to anything but overly constructive negativity. It was a slow momentum building meeting. Probably at clip 75, he was reading the room and realizing this was not a setup. He starts to sit up in his chair and starts participating. I tell him you are doing all this incredible stuff, and in my estimation people are not open enough. I show him what it should look like. I cut in some 49er clips. And by the end he is like, we need playmakers!"
