I honestly don't understand the hate, disrespect and doubt that Tua has on him from the media, fans of other teams and Dolphins fans too.
For years all anyone ever said was how great of a quarterback prospect he was, how he was destined to be the #1 overall pick, how he would for sure be a star and that he was worth "tanking" for. While the Dolphins won't ever say they tanked 2019, and Flores and the team certainly played to win every game, the front office did strip the team enough that I am sure they thought they would be in contention for the top pick and Tua. After Miami won some games everyone was saying how the Dolphins blew their shot at Tua because now he would likely be going to the Bengals. Then Tua got seriously injured and the injury concerns started to grow, understandably, but that was the main reason he fell from being the consensus #1 overall pick right into the Dolphins lap at #5.
It seemed like if Tua could fully recover from the hip injury that people still believed everything that was said prior. He seems to be well on his way to a full recovery and the fact that he was healthy enough to play this last season and at a winning level was very impressive. He also spent all of last offseason rehabbing, not really training his body. This offseason he is back to being able to train and we are already starting to see some of the physical pay off in those photos he posted.
Everyone always seemed to say he had the "It" factor, now that he is with the Dolphins, people are coming out of the woodwork to say he doesn't, with some media people like that Chris Simms or Mike Lombardi saying he never had elite skills and will now be a NFL bust. Colin Cowherd, who changes his mind hourly on everything in the NFL, now claims that Tua does nothing special and doesn't see greatness.
Most people seem to think Tua was awful in 2020. Yet he was 6-3 as a starter, had 11 passing touchdowns and only 5 interceptions, plus another 3 rushing touchdowns in just 9 games. Tua also controlled that game against the Cardinals in a shootout and he was probably the main reason they won that contest. I could understand doubt if he threw more interceptions than touchdowns and looked really bad, but he didn't. His stats were better than Hurts, not all that much different than Burrow and obviously Herbert put up much better stats than anyone (granted his year was all about the stats, just wasn't able to win many games). His rookie year was also better than Josh Allen's rookie year and the media now loves him, but they also gave him three seasons. They only give Tua 9 games.
I actually saw a Twitter poll asking people to rank the top 4 quarterbacks of Burrow, Tua, Herbert and Hurts of what they think their success will be in 2021 and there was a lot of combinations between the top 3 rankings, but ever single one had Tua at #4. Seriously?
I just don't understand how a lot of people thought he was the absolute greatest up until the Dolphins drafted him. Now he is awful and apparently was never good to begin with. I really don't understand the hate.
phinphanatic.com
