MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Those video game, gravity-defying heaves by Justin Herbert that light up social media aren’t lost on the quarterback taken one spot ahead of him in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Miami Dolphins vs. Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday will be the third time in four seasons Tua Tagovailoa has faced Justin Herbert. It’s the rubber match between these young quarterbacks who will forever be linked.
And Tagovailoa knows there are some things that Herbert can do that he simply cannot. That’s not a knock on Tua. Herbert does some things that only one or two humans on the planet can.
But if Tagovailoa is at all jealous of the ability, attention, and money showered on Herbert, he did an expert job hiding it Wednesday.
Justin Herbert will unlock new levels in 2023⚡️#MIAvsLAC pic.twitter.com/kKQw3rWKyV
— Chargers Country (@ChargersCountry) September 6, 2023
Tua Tagovailoa Tangles With Justin Herbert Once Again
Asked during his weekly media availability if he ever compares himself to Herbert, Tagovailoa replied:
“No. Justin is a totally different player than me. You know, Justin can throw the deep balls as far as anyone in this league. You know, there’s things that Justin does that, you know, I look at and like, ‘Oh my gosh.’
“Sometimes you can’t help but fan over those, those plays. But we’re just different in our styles and who we are as football players. Got a tremendous amount of respect for him. And yeah, it’s him going against our defense and, you know, our offense going against their defense.”
Despite their very different styles — Herbert is an all-world athlete with prototypical size, and Tagovailoa wins with timing, anticipation, and accuracy — there hasn’t been a big gap in production (at least on a per-game basis).
Tagovailoa has completed 65.7% of his regular-season passes. Herbert has completed 66.9%.
Tua’s career-adjusted yards per attempt average is 7.4 — one-tenth of a yard better than Herbert’s.
Passer rating (95 to 96.2) and touchdown percentage (4.8 to 4.8) are also both nearly identical.
Where does Tagovailoa hold a clear edge? Team success. The Dolphins are 21-13 in games in which he has started. The Chargers are just one game over .500 in Herbert stats.
Who’s better? That book has yet to be written, although we’ll get Chapter 3 on Sunday.
MORE: Can Tua Tagovailoa Play 17 Games?
Until then, let’s leave you with this fun story from Dolphins safety Jevon Holland, who’s been a teammate of both:
“It was my freshman year in college. We were running sprints, and he was beating everybody or in the front. Because I was running full speed and I’m looking. He’s with the bigs because he’s a large individual, and then he was running with everybody else. I was like, all right, this dude is special, and his arm talent is crazy.”
Tagovailoa couldn’t agree more.