A bleary-eyed Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa met with Miami and German press late afternoon Frankfurt time Wednesday, and the line of questioning was largely what would you expect.
Have you gotten your sleep schedule straightened out yet? (Nope.)
What is your full first name? (Tuanigamanuolepola.)
What did you do on your day off? (Saw the sights and played some golf.)
As for the actual football questions, there were one or two about facing Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
But the bulk of the questions were about teammate Tyreek Hill facing Mahomes and the Chiefs — which makes sense.
Hill broke into the league with the Chiefs, won a championship with the Chiefs, and became one of the league’s biggest stars with the Chiefs.
On Sunday, he’ll try to beat the Chiefs, facing his former team for the first time since his March 2022 trade to the Dolphins.
Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa on Tyreek Hill
No one has benefited more from the Hill acquisition than Tagovailoa.
And since he threw 678 passes in his first two NFL seasons (prior to the Hill trade) and 674 passes in the two years since the deal, we get a true apples-to-apples comparison.
In Tua’s first two seasons, he completed 66.2% of his attempts for 4,467 yards, 27 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions. That averaged out to 6.6 yards per attempt, a 4% touchdown rate, a 2.2% interception rate, and an 88.8 passer rating.
Since Hill joined the team prior to the start of the 2022 season, Tua has been a completely different player. He has completed 67% of his attempts for 5,964 yards, 43 touchdowns, and 15 picks. That comes out to 8.8 YPA, 6.4% TD rate, 2.2% INT rate, and a 106.8 passer rating.
MORE: Miami Dolphins Depth Chart
Certainly, Tua deserves a lot of credit. So does Mike McDaniel.
But you cannot deny how impactful Hill has been on the offense in general, and Tua in particular — not just on the field, but off.
Tagovailoa, for one, certainly didn’t Wednesday.
“I’ve heard people say it, and the guys have been joking about it this past week,” Tua said. “The Cheetah Effect. That’s what I would say. Just because ‘Reek exerts so much confidence in everything he does that it’s almost ideal for you to do the same for yourself.
“… He’s been a great teammate, not just, you know, to me, but to everyone on the team with his leadership, the way he carries himself. And you know, I, I think he’s excited, and this team is excited to play the Chiefs on Sunday.”
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