It is officially September and that means it is football season! With the first NFL Sunday soon to kick off and teams setting their official 53-man roster, football is truly back. The Miami Dolphins hope this is the year their second-year quarterback Tua Tagovailoa can take that next step toward becoming a franchise quarterback for an organization that has not had one since Dan Marino retired.
Tua Tagovailoa Set for Success in 2021 NFL Season
On the offensive side of the ball, Tagovailoa has a lot to work with this season. In free agency, the Dolphins acquired Will Fuller on a one-year, prove-it deal. They also drafted speedy receiver Jaylen Waddle with the sixth-overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Waddle and Tagovailoa, who played together at the University of Alabama, reunite in Miami with the potential to be one of the league’s top dynamic duos.
DeVante Parker, the six-year veteran receiver, is another weapon on the offense. His chemistry with Tagovailoa may need time to develop throughout the year. He really came onto the scene in 2019, when Ryan Fitzpatrick was the quarterback, racking up over 1200 yards and nine touchdowns.
Tagovailoa looked sharp through the first two preseason games of 2021. His play was more reminiscent of his production at Alabama and showed why he was the fifth-overall pick in 2020. His awareness, comfortability, and poise in the pocket stood out immediately. Though it is merely preseason, which doesn’t mean much in the long run, seeing a glimpse of this Tagovailoa is a good sign for the Dolphins. Against the Atlanta Falcons, where he played the entire first half, he looked like a completely new quarterback from what fans saw less than a year ago. Their dominant win in the second game of the preseason illustrated the growth of the Miami offense.
.@Tua put up numbers in just one half of #NFLPreseason action:
🐬 16/23
🐬 183 pass yards
🐬 1 TD pic.twitter.com/JfOxZUY29g— NFL (@NFL) August 24, 2021
Finally Healthy: A Return to 100 Percent
Some people were quick to write off Tagovailoa’s rookie year, as most expected more from the fifth-overall pick. After fracturing his hip in November of 2019, however, Tua’s rookie season in the NFL came at the tail end of his recovery from a nearly career-ending injury. The COVID-19 pandemic gave him barely any time to adjust to the NFL, offering him almost no off-season and preseason. It was clear he was not quite 100 percent in 2020, his hip most likely holding him back a bit. According to Safid Deen, an NFL insider for USA Today, Tagovailoa feels like he is back to his normal self heading into 2021.
With what sounds like a confident and healthy quarterback, a top-10 defense, and a fleet of weapons, are the Dolphins finally ready to take that jump? They start the season early in Foxborough, where they will play the New England Patriots in a huge divisional matchup. If the Dolphins can get this win and Tagovailoa plays well, it could be monumental for Miami. Miami has not made the playoffs since 2016, where they were beaten down by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild-Card round. It is truly now or never for the Dolphins and Tagovailoa alike.
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Main Photo: Embed from Getty Images
