The Miami Dolphins benefited from a light schedule early, suffered a rash of injuries in the middle to latter part of the season, and ultimately collapsed to back into the playoffs as a Wild Card team. They were less than two weeks removed from taking a huge step toward the AFC’s No. 1 seed in Baltimore. That went very, very wrong. So did the next game against the Buffalo Bills for the AFC East crown. Even more injuries happened there.
I mean…frigid conditions for any team suck. A windchill around 30 below zero? Facing the defending Super Bowl champs in their house, one of the most hostile environments to visit in all of sports? Yeah. Tall order for Tua Tagovailoa, whose quarterbacking abilities depend on anticipation and at least some semblance of a running game to set up play-action shots. Miami only got 42 yards on 14 combined carries from Raheem Mostert and De’Von Achane. Mostert had 21 TDs in the regular season; Achane averaged almost eight yards per carry.
Neither of them were anywhere near their standard production on Super Wild Card Weekend.
Final. pic.twitter.com/nLCajFXBuj
— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) January 14, 2024
Oh, and Jaylen Waddle was dealing with a high ankle sprain in the weeks leading up to this game. Tyreek Hill has had a bum ankle for weeks as well. The Dolphins defense got gashed repeatedly by Patrick Mahomes on third down; Miami only converted one of 12 such third-down chances. As per usual in the NFL and football in general, the vast majority of the blame is falling at Tua’s feet. Really tough.
Now the vast majority of keyboard warriors want the Fins to move off Tua, don’t believe he’s worth fifth-year option money to start in 2024, and think his days as a hopeful franchise QB are all but over.
Tua tagovailoa really all had us convinced he was top 5🤣😹 pic.twitter.com/JQvBSZSXv4
— noah 🚂 (@kayvonbanks25) January 14, 2024
Tua Tagovailoa. pic.twitter.com/QRj22pUuBs
— Public Enemies Podcast (@TheEnemiesPE3) January 14, 2024
Tua is small. Has an injury history. Average arm. Not super athletic. And can only play in ideal conditions. 🤷🏼♂️ sorry to wrap the Dolphin fan boys into a pretzel but,,,
— Colin Cowherd (@ColinCowherd) January 14, 2024
Tua Tagovailoa against above .500 teams in a meaningful game. pic.twitter.com/JMocnlzH97
— Orlando Serrano (@orlando11st) January 14, 2024
Tua Tagovailoa playoff highlights 😱 pic.twitter.com/FXaPl9K2He
— JusMe (@JusMe___) January 14, 2024
Tua Tagovailoa has proved once again that he CANNOT win when it matters most.
Tagovailoa against teams with a winning record this season: 1-6
Tagovailoa against teams with a losing record this season: 10-1
Tagovailoa may have led the league in passing yards (4,624) and was 5th… pic.twitter.com/PLHkwdpPwR
— NFL Rookie Watch (@NFLRookieWatxh) January 14, 2024
The Miami #Dolphins will NEVER win a Super Bowl with Tua Tagovailoa.
He’s got zero fire in him and he’s got not CLUTCH at all.
The team needs to move on from him this offseason, he is not the answer and they are wasting the prime of Tyreek & Waddle.
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) January 14, 2024
Tua Tagovailoa in December/January. Dolphins gonna Dolphin. https://t.co/vyjXdcp3DW
— Eddie (@eddiec118) January 14, 2024
The Dolphins finish the year 1-7 vs. playoff teams, including two Bills losses. They played in KC today because they couldn't beat good teams.
They had most efficient rushing offense in the NFL. Tua played every game. It didn't matter.
Time to try something else.
— Austin Gayle (@austingayle_) January 14, 2024
Tua is a fuckin fraud. Never ever bring his name up with me again. And most certainly don’t even fix your lips to even say a sentence with Burrow & him in it.
— ZIM (@zimwhodey) January 14, 2024
No more having to read tweets of ppl pretending Tua is some elite QB pic.twitter.com/HQLFfeTVu6
— Bazzi (@Basualdinero) January 14, 2024
DAMN. Cooked. Except uh… Tua led the NFL in passing yards. This year. People are nevertheless coming for his head. He just played against a Chiefs defense that has an elite coordinator in Steve Spagnuolo and a truckload of young, capable cornerbacks who had the luxury of covering not-nearly-the-best versions of Waddle and Hill. Miami’s decimated/banged-up o-line couldn’t win at the line of scrimmage with any regularity.
I don’t know. We live in a knee-jerk world where everyone wants a microwaved championship. Unless you’re CJ Stroud, DeMeco Ryans and the Houston Texans who might come close to delivering on such a pipe dream, that is not how the NFL works.
I’m not ready to bail on Tua just yet. Obviously, the Fins didn’t do a good enough job of adjusting to the conditions. Mike McDaniel called maybe the most ineffective game of his career. If you remember back to last season, though, McDaniel had Skylar Thompson starting in Buffalo and damn near won. Doesn’t it feel like perhaps the slightest overreaction to write off Tua — a far superior QB to Thompson — this hard this soon?
The Miami Dolphins ran out of gas. For all the worry over Tua’s concussion history, he made it through all 17 games, plus a playoff start, and led the NFL in passing yards. That’s not terrible. We’ll see what the Dolphins’ strategy is. I don’t know of a clear path to a massive Tua upgrade. Who’re you going to sell the fan base on? A wishbone offense quarterbacked by Justin Fields? LOL. Actually, that could be pretty cool as an occasional subpackage. Think about it. Fields, Mostert and Achane on the field all at once. The next time the Dolphins are in a blizzard, I don’t think anyone could stop them with that rushing attack.
Oh wait people are saying it out loud.
I wonder how Justin Fields would look in Miami? Just my thoughts
— Marcus Spears (@mspears96) January 14, 2024
I actually think Justin Fields or Kirk Cousins in Miami would be nuts.
— Kurt Benkert (@KurtBenkert) January 14, 2024
Tua really got me thinking about trading for Justin Fields man
— 🐬 (@RamseyLockz) January 14, 2024
I was mostly kidding. Everything the Dolphins’ league-leading passing game is built around is literally everything Fields doesn’t do well, or what he hasn’t done well consistently. McDaniel could figure it out. I just…OK.
Sound off in the comments if you’re that kind of genius who can diagnose a way for Miami to get somebody who’s a big step up from Tua Tagovailoa. You might deserve a front office job.
