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Tua Tagovailoa – August 17, 2022 Download PDF version

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

QB Tua Tagovailoa

(Could you talk a little bit about the improvements made from yesterday to today? It sounds like Head Coach Mike McDaniel was a little animated and happy that you guys got better from yesterday to today.) – “Yeah, I think everybody got better from yesterday. I think yesterday seemed one-sided in the first half, if you will, from the first two team periods. Then I would say the defense started to pick up their morale and they brought it yesterday as well. I think today was a really good back and forth with the offense making plays and then the defense making plays and continuing to go back and forth with that.”

(Watching the offense, obviously you sat out, but watching the offense from the sidelines, what were your impressions of it and are you starting to envision what this offense can be once you get in there with the starters?) – “I think it’s really good. I think Skylar (Thompson) did a great job with his operation being that he’s a rookie, that’s his first time in an NFL start. You’ve got to give credit to him. It’s not easy to go in there, understand where everyone needs to go, understanding how to manage the situation, the game clock, the down-and-distance. I thought Skylar did a really good job. But a lot of our plays that we’ve also been running haven’t been shown out there. Those are just glimpses of the plays that we do have in our arsenal, but there are a lot of plays we didn’t get to run as well. To me, it looked really good.”

(Are you lobbying to play Saturday? Do you want to play? What’s your stance?) – “Man, I always want to play. I’m going to be honest. (laughter) I wanted to play last week too, at least a couple of snaps. But Mike (McDaniel) decided that then wasn’t the time. Hopefully he gives the first offense an opportunity to go out there, hopefully get some plays in, understand some situations, knowing how to manage the game and get back into the groove of things in that sense, where we have no coaches on the field, we have no one to really line us up. We just figure out things on our own when we’re out there playing.”

(Is there a switch though when you are playing in preseason? Is there a switch you have to turn off to where, ‘Ok, maybe I would fight for extra yards if this was Week 5, but this is preseason, let me throttle back?’) – “I would say there is some understanding of playing smart in the preseason. Obviously you want to get real live reps, you want to get game reps, but at the same time, you want to be smart. These preseason games don’t count, but they do add additional reps for us for when we’re going out there to work with each other.”

(Head Coach Mike McDaniel said this morning that he doesn’t think that yelling is a good way to communicate. But when you have to go to that level, it puts a little more emphasis for when you do that. What is your reaction when the coach gets a little more animated?) – “I think it’s good to see that side of him. We never get to see that side of him. I think it’s good to see that side of every person that people think is too nice, or they are too chill, or too mellow, because you understand the competitor in them, you understand that they mean business. For me, and for the guys, when we hear Mike raise his voice, we’ve got nothing but respect because that’s not something that he does. When he does do it, it’s that much more meaningful.”

(What does it take to get you out of too nice, too chill?) – “I’m not too sure. Not many things. I guess when it’s extremely hot and we’re not executing on the offensive side of the ball.”

(S Jevon Holland is really good, huh?) – “Really good. Oh my gosh. He’s made tremendous plays. For me, trying to read off of my read keys, he’s made tremendous plays. And not just today, but throughout the entire camp. The plays that he’s made is only getting me better, getting our route distribution better and our timing better offensively. So props to JH.”

(Since Head Coach Mike McDaniel was hired, how do you think things have come along with the team and how do you like the direction of how things are going so far?) – “We love football. That’s all I’ve got to say is we love football here.”

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