Pat McAfee Wonders How Any Fins Fan Cannot Appreciate Tua
- Thread starter Vaark
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True Dolphin fans appreciate Tua and realize we are lucky to have him. The haters will always hate. Unfortunately that’s just the way it is.
Folks on here can just call everyone a hater or some such nonsense but in my mind it is much more about just underwhelming performance. How much is the line's fault, the lack of weapons, that's hard to tell and why I am all for building around Tua next year and correcting those deficiencies to see where he can get to. A real evaluation. As for now though here is Tua's TD to INT count and ratio against a few other QB's:
Tua at 15-9 for 1.67 ratio
Burrow at 30-14 for 2.14 ratio
Herbert 33-14 for 2.36 ratio
Mahommes 33-13 for 2.54 ratio
Brady 33-4 for 3.36 ratio
Rodgers 33-4 for whopping 8.25 ratio
Wentz 25-6 for 4.17 ratio
Big Ben 20-8 for 2.5 ratio
Cousins 30-7 for 4.29 ratio
D. Carr 20-12 for 1.67 ratio
I did not look up every QB just a handful that came to mind, same draft class guys and the best QB's but then a couple lower end or just solid guys like Ben, Kirk and Carr. Again it is not all Tua's fault of course as we have serious offensive deficiencies at the other position groups but if wondering where is all the appreciation for our QB I would suggest this is the heart of the matter, then factor in it is our defense generally carrying us and we have had a very fortuitous run of poor opponents including the latest against a Saints team with no QB. Appreciation can and will come in time with continued winning but also just need improvement on these metrics. I don't think 15 and 9 at this point in the season is very compelling even with the missed games, I certainly hope at this point in the season next year it is not even close to 15 and 9.
Tua at 15-9 for 1.67 ratio
Burrow at 30-14 for 2.14 ratio
Herbert 33-14 for 2.36 ratio
Mahommes 33-13 for 2.54 ratio
Brady 33-4 for 3.36 ratio
Rodgers 33-4 for whopping 8.25 ratio
Wentz 25-6 for 4.17 ratio
Big Ben 20-8 for 2.5 ratio
Cousins 30-7 for 4.29 ratio
D. Carr 20-12 for 1.67 ratio
I did not look up every QB just a handful that came to mind, same draft class guys and the best QB's but then a couple lower end or just solid guys like Ben, Kirk and Carr. Again it is not all Tua's fault of course as we have serious offensive deficiencies at the other position groups but if wondering where is all the appreciation for our QB I would suggest this is the heart of the matter, then factor in it is our defense generally carrying us and we have had a very fortuitous run of poor opponents including the latest against a Saints team with no QB. Appreciation can and will come in time with continued winning but also just need improvement on these metrics. I don't think 15 and 9 at this point in the season is very compelling even with the missed games, I certainly hope at this point in the season next year it is not even close to 15 and 9.
claytonduper
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I understand your point. However, with this set of statistics: how many times do we run the wildcard or run in-between the tackles in the red zone only to have Tua get 1 shot at the endzone. No other QB has that kind of bull$hit calls. We have NO running game (outside the one game by Duke) and 32nd in the offensive line rankings. Just putrid. Any QB who has been successful had time to throw. The fact he is even in the conversation with this Offensive line, RBs, coaches and absence of receivers is nothing short of miraculous. Does he have some negatives? Absolutely. He may not be durable. He makes some poor decisions and loses the ball often when hit. His positives at this stage in his career far outweigh these negatives, IMHO.
When people are talking about the haters, they're mostly referring to those with the "Tua is trash" "Tua needs all-pros all around him" "Tua is a back-up at best" crowd...there's hate, then there's waiting-to-see-more before declaring him the franchise...BIG difference.
And there's a lot more context to his TD to INT ratio than the plain numbers would show. For one, Miami's propensity to run wildcat stuff in the redzone skews that a bit. He's made some bad, rookie type mistake throws (INTs), and he needs to clean that up, but he's also made some outstanding, aggressive throws that didn't connect and ended up INTs. He's learning, he's young, and his targets (outside of Waddle) boast the lowest separation in the NFL. He doesn't complain about it, but it takes time to get that stuff wired. He has gotten MUCH better at hitting tightly covered targets since last year...the difference is night and day. Last year a big complaint was he was not throwing to anybody not "Bama open." This year he's throwing into double-triple coverage sometimes. He has upped his aggression (at the behest of the coaches, as seen in camp), and has to find that medium.
These are the types of progress for him that give me hope that he'll be THAT guy in the near future. Right now I'd say he's above average overall. Outstanding in some facets, sub-par in others. A better OL and any semblance of a running game would help, but I think he'll improve without those benefits...he already has, by a good margin...he's learning to rise above the chaos. He hasn't arrived yet, but the plane has started its descent.
It's not that Tua is perfect. He has faults like ever QB that has ever played. But Tua also has some incredible strengths. What he's doing behind the (objectively) worst pass blocking OL in the league is unheard of. I can't recall any QB ever playing this well behind the league's worst OL. Just this past year, Mahommes looked like crap in the SB when he lost his OL and many would consider him one of if not 'the' best QB in the league. For anybody asking how much of a factor a bad OL is, the answer is almost always HUGE. There is no over-estimating it's impact. Throw in almost no run game and the lack of WRs and it would be perfectly reasonable for even a great QB to struggle. Yet Tua is somehow excelling and winning. He literally has the best 4th quarter QB rating of any starting QB in the league. That's above Rodgers whom most have winning the MVP this year. Anybody who can't appreciate how well Tua is playing just doesn't understand football.
Fair point on the wild cat robbing him of a few TD's possibly. Of course if we had a real running game would just hand it off often there too. Points all taken, terrible line really holds us and a true Tua evaluation back. We have so much cap and draft room just hoping we can finally get a decent O-line and a few more much needed weapons to get there. Not that I'm giving up on this season but if/when this offense can get to 28-30 points a game on avg. I think we'll really have arrived.
Herbert did very well with the 31st ranked pass-blocking line last year. Strangely enough, they're 15th in pass-blocking this year, and his numbers/ratios are basically the same with some more yards and tad bit worse TD/INT ratio, slightly better record.
Haters and trolls, pretty much the extent of a limited vocabulary. LOL
I'm not worried about the fans, I'm worried about the team which was still stupid enough to think they could sell our future drafts for a 4 and 12 QB because apparently they were just that player away despite garbage offensive line, no running game, and a receiving corps with only 3 NFL players.