McDaniel on QB Tua Tagovailoa's potential for next season: "I can see a hunger in him"

[Marino2.0]

You crack me up. Stats are dropped by poster like you whenever they fit your narrative, but even though they are all facts, they do not tell the whole story. The point I was making was that Tua has to improve on reading defense. You make it seem as though Sherfield was being malicious when he was just explaining how the two offenses are similar. I am not going to use this post to bash Tua, but I would like to know why his completion rate decreased so dramatically over his last four games, and we can't include the Packers game because he suffered a concussion. He played well against Buffalo, but they played zone, so Waddle had a field day and I admit he dropped a few passes.

We are dealing with 2 different quarterbacks here compared to his first 8 games. In terms of Hill saying Tua is the most accurate passer, I don't see how he can say that when he's never played with him at that time, it's ridiculous. As far as Hill is concerned, he is amazing, but I also wonder about his character. First, he complained that KC didn't use him properly, but that comment is puzzling because Hill had a career-high in targets and yards in 2021, making it baffling as to why he said that. The part that hurts me the most is that they traded him and KC won the Super Bowl, so it makes me wonder what was really going on over there in KC at the time. In spite of this, I believe that he was trying to be a good teammate. Here is my question for you why the sudden drop in completion and his worst game was against back ups. Common theme was man bump coverage to disrupt the timing and from what we can see it worked. How does he adjust to this.

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It’s a fair question, but I don’t agree with you that there was some special change in coverage tendencies over the last 5 games that didn’t exist in the first 8.

He repeatedly torched man coverage early in the season. Going into the Chargers game, Tua led the entire NFL in QBR, passer rating, yards per attempt, and completion percentage against man coverage.

The Chargers game was terrible. I don’t think there’s any secret sauce to it. He just played badly. It was one game.

He then played very well against the Bills (with two touchdown passes dropped), and he absolutely torched the Packers until he literally got concussed, at which point he started throwing terrible picks against zone coverage—not man.

People acting like something changed at the end of the season are barking up the wrong tree. Tua was generally the same guy all year. He just played a dogshit game against the Chargers and got concussed against the Packers. Everything else was well within normal range of game to game fluctuation for an elite QB.

 

[NBP81]

Sherfield isn’t dissing Tua Tagovailoa but some fans want to believe he is

Trent Sherfield is making the media rounds, specifically the Buffalo Bills media rounds, and somehow, Tua Tagovailoa keeps coming up, sort of.

phinphanatic.com

That talks about the tweet. But some on here (the usual suspects) have twisted it to mean Tua throws and hopes or some nonsense. In the Hunger thread I was debating it with Rasta. Some how he turned it into Tua can't read a D so if they play man/press coverage Tua is bad at it. He believes if a WR is bumped of his timing Tua struggles, just stupid crap like that.
Edit meant Hungwr thread nit Elliot thread.

This article is all over the place to be honest...

Its built around this:

"He continues to say that in Buffalo, the offense will be timing as well but that with Josh Allen, there is more opportunity for plays after a route is run. Sherfield says that Allen’s ability to extend plays is one of those reasons why."

Fins passing offense regardless of QB: 8.2 yards per attempt
Bills passing offense: 7.5 yards per attempt

So then he must mean that Allen buying time somehow gives his receivers more YAC opportunities right? But Josh Allen's receivers were 32nd in the league at YAC...?

Hmmm... Maybe he means buying all that time means he gets to throw deeper...? Probably not, as Tua still threw deeper than Allen on average, while getting rid of the ball faster, and was much better at actually throwing passes as Tua finished the season with a 105 rating, compared to Josh pedestrian 96.

 

[Marino2.0]

Sherfield isn’t dissing Tua Tagovailoa but some fans want to believe he is

Trent Sherfield is making the media rounds, specifically the Buffalo Bills media rounds, and somehow, Tua Tagovailoa keeps coming up, sort of.

phinphanatic.com

That talks about the tweet. But some on here (the usual suspects) have twisted it to mean Tua throws and hopes or some nonsense. In the Hunger thread I was debating it with Rasta. Some how he turned it into Tua can't read a D so if they play man/press coverage Tua is bad at it. He believes if a WR is bumped of his timing Tua struggles, just stupid crap like that.
Edit meant Hungwr thread nit Elliot thread.

Hard for me to understand how anyone can genuinely interpret that quote from Sherfield as a critique of Tua. He literally says Buffalo’s offense is the same thing with timing (newsflash: every NFL offense is), but what makes Buffalo different is that Allen extends plays and it can become scramble mode, so the play isn’t over when the route ends. The entire reason bump and run coverage exists is because every modern NFL passing attack relies on timing and if you can disrupt the timing, it doesn’t even matter if the CB gets beat a second later.

Tua isn’t a scrambler. Neither was Tom Brady or Peyton Manning or Drew Brees. Not scrambling means very little in terms of QB quality.

 

[dan the fin]

It’s a fair question, but I don’t agree with you that there was some special change in coverage tendencies over the last 5 games that didn’t exist in the first 8.

He repeatedly torched man coverage early in the season. Going into the Chargers game, Tua led the entire NFL in QBR, passer rating, yards per attempt, and completion percentage against man coverage.

The Chargers game was terrible. I don’t think there’s any secret sauce to it. He just played badly. It was one game.

He then played very well against the Bills (with two touchdown passes dropped), and he absolutely torched the Packers until he literally got concussed, at which point he started throwing terrible picks against zone coverage—not man.

People acting like something changed at the end of the season are barking up the wrong tree. Tua was generally the same guy all year. He just played a dogshit game against the Chargers and got concussed against the Packers. Everything else was well within normal range of game to game fluctuation for an elite QB.

Ya that SD game was just a **** show for basically the whole O and McDaniel's worse called game up the year. Ya Tua was bad, but so was the other 10 guys and playcaller. Hard to just put that all at Tua's feet.

I will say Tua was bad in SF compared to his normal self. There was some big plays he just flat out missed, usually throwing high. His normal accuracy/ball placement was just off that game. To me this was more on Tua enough plays were there and Tua just missed.

And ya he was destroying GB pre concussion. Buffalo he was good against a tough D in the cold at night (flexed as well) late in Buffalo.

 

[Marino2.0]

Ya that SD game was just a **** show for basically the whole O and McDaniel's worse called game up the year. Ya Tua was bad, but so was the other 10 guys and playcaller. Hard to just put that all at Tua's feet.

I will say Tua was bad in SF compared to his normal self. There was some big plays he just flat out missed, usually throwing high. His normal accuracy/ball placement was just off that game. To me this was more on Tua enough plays were there and Tua just missed.

And ya he was destroying GB pre concussion. Buffalo he was good against a tough D in the cold at night (flexed as well) late in Buffalo.

I know what you mean about SF, but I’ve never really bought into the idea Tua played poorly in that game. It was the best defense in the NFL, and Tua put up 300 yards on 8.9 yards per attempt against them. Did he leave some plays on the field? Absolutely. But he also ripped off some monster plays, too. That’s how it goes sometimes.

End of the day, if we needed Tua to throw for 400-plus on the road against the best defense in the NFL in order to win, that’s not a Tua problem. That just isn’t a fair standard.

 

[dan the fin]

Hard for me to understand how anyone can genuinely interpret that quote from Sherfield as a critique of Tua. He literally says Buffalo’s offense is the same thing with timing (newsflash: every NFL offense is), but what makes Buffalo different is that Allen extends plays and it can become scramble mode, so the play isn’t over when the route ends. The entire reason bump and run coverage exists is because every modern NFL passing attack relies on timing and if you can disrupt the timing, it doesn’t even matter if the CB gets beat a second later.

Tua isn’t a scrambler. Neither was Tom Brady or Peyton Manning or Drew Brees. Not scrambling means very little in terms of QB quality.

Yep. Allen extends play with his physical skills, but he also doesn't anticipate routes close to the level of Brady/Manning/Brees and even Tua.

I constantly say what makes great QBs is the ability to see and anticipate who will be open. That is what made a guy like Brady. Ball was out super fast because he is throwing before the WR even breaks. Tua did that a lot this year, still needs to grow in this system, but if he does watch out. Allen is just not that QB. He uses his arm to force it into spots quickly after they break or extend plays with his legs and wait for a WR to come open.

 

[brumdog44]

Allen extends plays because it takes time to tackle the guy who intercepted him.

 

[fin007]

My man Tua be hungry alright. He be hungry for some of this:

 

[Tua808]

Did Hill diss Tua on his tweet? Do they have problems in the background?

 

[djphinfan]

Did Hill diss Tua on his tweet? Do they have problems in the background?

No

 

[BlueFin]

I have no doubt Tua is motivated….if only that was everything?

 

[rafael]

Meh Tua faced plenty of man bumb coverage early as well.
Breaking down those 5 games.
Texas. Tua was killing them in the first half with almost 300 yards and that was with 5 drops by Miami in the first half. Second half remember both tackles were out was hit every time he dropped back (3 sacks as well).
San Francisco. Best D on NFL, but this was to me by far Tua's worst game. He was just flat out off on like 5-8 throws that would have been big plays. And that is rare for Tua just to flat out miss his target.
LA this game just pissed me off like no other. The refs flat out swallowed the whistle on LAs DBs. Hill was flat out mugged all game, that is why BU DBs were able to stay with him. Go watch an all 22 of this game, Hill was complaining to the refs all game as well. Now Tua forced some throws, but also was maybe the worst game called by McDaniel all year.
Buffalo- this was a night game on Saturday (flexed) short week after being on the west coast. Cold and wind as well as some snow against the #2 ranked scoring D. Tua was still good in this game. Ya the competition % could have been a little better, but some of his guys really could have helped. There was 3 drops, one for a TD. Tua was only credited with 4 bad passes all game.
Green Bay- not sure why even include this game pre concussion. Had 20 points at half and was at midfield driving late until RM fumble.

So basically when you start adding context Tua had two bad games. Remember everyone claimed the same thing you are saying after the Pittsburgh game as well. They played tight man and tried to tale away the middle of the field.People claimed that was going to be the blue print to stop Tua. What happened Tua went on one of the best 3 game stretches in NFL history.

Tua is absolutely fine against man/bumb coverage. Tua is good on reads(needs to keep improving) and he is elite ar reading leverage and throwing before a WR even goes into his break (which is absolutely how you beat man). One of his biggest issue is he takes to most risk at times because he thinks he can beat almost any coverage with his accuracy (gunslinger mentality/hero ball). McDaniel has alluded to this that he has to understand when to just take the easy checkdown in certain situations instead of going downfield.

Edit: Also it was training camp when Hill said that about Tua, so yes he was playing with him already.

In the McD interview he stated that he had shared that same 700 play clip that convinced McD that Tua was so incredibly accurate with Hill. It's obvious that Hill watching those Tua clips was a huge factor in him saying that Tua was so accurate.

 

[rafael]

Sherfield isn’t dissing Tua Tagovailoa but some fans want to believe he is

Trent Sherfield is making the media rounds, specifically the Buffalo Bills media rounds, and somehow, Tua Tagovailoa keeps coming up, sort of.

phinphanatic.com

That talks about the tweet. But some on here (the usual suspects) have twisted it to mean Tua throws and hopes or some nonsense. In the Hunger thread I was debating it with Rasta. Some how he turned it into Tua can't read a D so if they play man/press coverage Tua is bad at it. He believes if a WR is bumped of his timing Tua struggles, just stupid crap like that.
Edit meant Hungwr thread nit Elliot thread.

IMO Tua is quite good at reading defenses. He sees things quickly and has elite anticipation. But what he needs to do IMO is tone down his aggressiveness. In the games where he struggled with lower completions he was forcing passes instead of taking the check downs. Additionally, those defenses focused on knocking the receivers off their routes. That disrupted the timing. Tua was throwing to a spot and the receivers weren't doing a good job of getting to those spots (as you pointed out).

This reading defenses criticism will probably age as well as the "he can't throw deep" and others from before. That's what happens to criticisms that aren't supported by film study.

 

[ANUFan]

Tua just needs to stay healthy!!!

 

[AdamD13]

Didn’t see this in the NFL.com article, but I am happy to see this…

“This is something that our training staff and Tua have been attacking every day,” coach Mike McDaniel told reporters at the league meetings when asked about Tagovailoa’s health. “He's in a great spot.”

Once he was given permission to progress through protocol, Tagovailoa underwent extensive testing before he was cleared.

“It really entailed a lot of exertion, so like running, ocular and vestibular movements, so like balance, proprioception, things like that,” he told USA Today during Super Bowl week. “Having went to see a doctor in Pittsburgh, got clear from him, and then had to do written tests, memorization.”

“I'm really encouraged about the work that he's doing for preventative injuries with his core and his neck training,” McDaniel said. “His jiu-jitsu stuff has been outstanding, so doing all the things that we can control to best position us, and he's in a great place because of that. He's excited.”

'He's in a great spot': McDaniel encouraged by Tagovailoa's health status

The Dolphins quarterback is taking preventative measures after suffering multiple concussions last season, and Mike McDaniel is impressed.

www.espn.com