MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — To many on the outside, the jury’s still out on Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. But inside team HQ, he’s not just a hero, but a Marvel character.
On Thursday, quarterbacks coach Darrell Bevell met with assembled members of the media to talk about Miami’s QB1. He listed Tua’s most famous traits, calling them not just strengths, but “superpowers.”
Miami Dolphins QBs Coach Weighs in on Tua Tagovailoa
Bevell spoke with reporters four days after Tagovailoa completed 21 of 24 passing attempts in a 30-0 thrashing of the New York Jets. Tagovailoa’s completion percentage (87.5%) was the second highest of his four-year career.
Darrell Bevell is asked about Tua's anticipation:
That's one of Tua's super powers. His anticipation, timing, vision and accuracy. He does those things as well as anybody I’ve been around. Not everyone can anticipate.
— Travis Wingfield (@WingfieldNFL) December 21, 2023
“His anticipation, timing, vision, and accuracy,” Bevell said, per Drive Time Podcast host Travis Wingfield. “He does those things as well as anybody I’ve been around. Not everyone can anticipate.”
They’re all interconnected. Tua’s natural accuracy is accentuated by how he sees the field and how much he trusts his receivers to be where they’re supposed to be.
The result? The best season of Tagovailoa’s career to date.
His completion percentage (71%) and yardage total (3,921) both lead the NFL. His bad throw rate (12.1%) is a career low. His on-target rate (81.1%) is a career high.
Tua is inarguably one of the five best quarterbacks in the world — just two years after his confidence was so shot, he wondered if he even deserved to be in the league.
The most encouraging recent development for Tagovailoa? He hasn’t thrown an interception in the last three games after five in the four games that preceded it.
MORE: Is a Week 18 Division Title Game Against Bills the Miami Dolphins’ ‘Worst Nightmare’?
“I think there’s continued growth every time I step out on that field,” Tagovailoa said.
“There’s always something new that I can learn. Just when you think you’ve got it and you’ve been playing for however long, however many games, there’s always going to be new things, new challenges, new obstacles, but that’s the beauty of this game.
“For me, I think that’s also allowed me to be the human that I am also. I think in this league, you also mature a lot quicker because as good as things can be, they can be just as bad the next week or the following week, and through all of those obstacles of the wins and the losses, there are so many things that you can learn from,” he added.
Want to predict the rest of the 2023 season with our FREE NFL Playoff Predictor? Looking for the most up-to-date NFL standings? What about a breakdown of team depth charts or the NFL schedule? Pro Football Network has you covered with that and more!