Tua Tagovailoa – August 13, 2024
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Tuesday, August 13, 2024
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(So do you think you’ll play in this preseason game?) – “I hope so. It’s always good for any of us, whether you’re a vet or whether you’re new, to get some reps, get back into the pregame routine, get back into the feel of what it feels like to prepare getting ready for a game, all of that. Get in to game-like situations, getting hit – hopefully not, but you never know when you’re out there and sort of the mental gymnastics of that when you prepare for a game.”
(How does that work with Head Coach Mike McDaniel? Do you negotiate with him? Or he just says, ‘This is what it is?’) – “I think it’s sort of like a mutual thing. He gets with the leaders of the team, guys who have established themselves and guys who have earned the respect of the guys in the locker room – gets with those guys and has a conversation with them and we come up with basically the idea of ‘Yeah, we’re all playing’ or ‘Maybe not this one,’ or ‘We’ll see what that looks like.’ Hopefully we do get that opportunity. It would be good because this is our last one at home before we go to Tampa and then we actually start the season.”
(Is there anything different about the red zone calls this year? And obviously you don’t want to give away strategy, anecdotally it appears to me that you guys are going a little bigger – going to tight ends more, running more. Is that the case or no?) – “I would say not necessarily, it’s just a new look with the defense that we’re seeing. If you look at the past couple years, outside of (Josh) Boyer’s defense, it hasn’t really been the same since then of the looks that we get in the red area and then third downs and situationally. We’re just taking what the defense gives us and if entails us to throw it more to the big guys down there, that’s what it entails us to do.”
(These are kind of the dog days of camp. Obviously the excitement when it started and excited when it ends, but how do you get through this middle part and what do you look for at this time of year?) – “I think you really just got to look at it like one day at a time, sort of have that mentality. If you start to look into the future of things, then you start to think of unnecessary things like ‘OK, what am I going to do? How am I going to prepare for that?’ I mean, you still got to get through this practice, you still got to get through this rep, you still got to get through this play. And I think that’s sort of how you take it. So now that practice is over, OK, what’s the next thing that I got to focus on? All right, it’s my nutrition. All right, it’s my weight room training, it’s my conditioning. Whatever that entails for you, so that’s why I think guys are pretty adamant about their routines and what not.”
(Are you still experimenting or is this fine-tuning time yet? As far as an offense, where are you at?) – “I would say just because of the guys we don’t have out there at certain positions, it really forces us to work on some other things and get really good. It’s really just getting back to the basics and really honing in on that – what the footwork is, what that play asks of us to do with our job, and from there we do it.”
(What was your assessment of the other two quarterbacks in Friday’s preseason game?) – “Like I said whether you’re a vet, whether you’re not, for everyone it’s to get the jitters out, for them to get back into the routine of things. I’m sure it was a little dicey for them getting out there because you’re getting new guys. It’s not the same guys as last year that are snapping to you, that you’re having to call the plays to, you’re having to tell what to do, so everything is new with the guys that they got to go with. I think they handled themselves really well, I think they did a pretty good job.”
(How long do you think it takes to develop chemistry with a guy like WR Odell Beckham Jr. or TE Jonnu Smith, the two new weapons that you have?) – “I think in order for me, at least, as a quarterback to be able to create chemistry with someone, I got to see how they run routes. I got to see how they are on their brakes, ‘OK, this guy I can’t really, really zip the ball. I got to layer it a little bit because when he breaks out of his route it’s not as fast as it is with Tyreek’s.’ Or ‘Jaylen on his out routes, it’s not as fast as it is with Tyreek’s,’ so maybe sometimes you do have to layer in. You’ve just got to know the personnel in that aspect and then with the footwork that we have for different in-breaking routes, the timing of that as well for those guys. Are they guys that like to turn their body to get in front of the ball? Or are they guys that love to run through the ball? So that has a lot to do with placement and building chemistry with those guys in this offense.”
(OL Aaron Brewer now is going to miss some time, how key was the time that you did have with him? And how key will it be not having time with him before the regular season starts?) – “It was very key having ‘Brew’ (Aaron Brewer). We were just getting into a good rhythm. Unfortunately that’s what he’s dealing with now, but I’ve had Liam (Eichenberg) the entire last year, so I have the utmost faith and confidence that we’ll be able to get back to doing what we need to do. I mean you can see it out there – not a lot of dropped snaps, if any, so it’s been really good.”
(We’ve heard the statement throughout camp about trying to make it as hard as possible on each other, offense and defense. I’m curious how would you describe that and the benefit of trying that?) – “I think you try to make it as hard as possible just because you know the defense that you’re going against – for us, we try not to focus on what our defense does. Essentially, it’s with the mindset going out (that) as long as you know what you got to do and you play within the rules and what the play entails for you to do, you should be fine regardless of what they do. If you’re hot, you know where you’re hot answer is. If you’re not hot and you got to go through your progression, two-high, one-high, you know where you should go with the ball. It makes it hard that way so that by the time that we do come to season, we understand what we’re going against and sort of makes it a little easier. Going against these guys, they’ve seen a lot of the plays, they’ve seen a lot of the tendencies that we have with motions, motion snap points and where we’re trying to beat them with the weakness of their coverages. So that’s what makes it tough and it makes it good for both of us.”
(So that entails like, if you get a look you don’t like, not checking and trying to run into that look so you can get the rep of it on tape, is that something you do?) – “That’s not the idea, but essentially that’s what you get to if we don’t have the right play we would want. It’s like all right, this is the play we got, that’s not the look we want to throw this into, we’re going to live with it because if that’s not open, you know that’s why you have the progression here to here. And so it’s just working on the training on that.”
(What were your thoughts on RB Jaylen Wright’s performance? How quickly has he acclimated to this complicated offense?) – “He’s acclimated pretty quick. I think that was one of the first times I can really say that I’ve seen his personality with running the ball. Runs the ball and then throws one of those – I was like OK, he’s got some swag to him. And I think he’s still trying to feel out the guys, he’s still trying to feel out the offense. I think once he feels comfortable and gets comfortable, then I think we’ll all start to see his personality flourish.”
(Have you had a chance to throw with WR Odell Beckham Jr. some? I know he’s not able to practice.) – “Yeah, I got to throw with him some. Not routes wise, but him spot catching, him getting to see the way the ball spins, get a feel of it.”
(What gives you confidence that you guys will be able to hit the ground running when he comes back?) – “I’ll tell you what. I think it’s more confidence for him once he’s able to start running and catching balls and seeing it in that sense with guys across from him. Then also it’s a whole other thing to do that and then also he has to know where to line up and then what that play is, if he has a motion or if he doesn’t have a motion. So that’s where I think will be one of the tougher parts, and it’s not just for him but for everyone and anyone trying to get to know the playbook in this offense, it is tough.”
(You’ve talked about I guess the motion in this offense. This offseason has kind of been a reemphasis on that motion. How much has that affected maybe you in practice and the legality of the motion?) – “I mean I wouldn’t say any of them are motions that are illegal, I mean at least they didn’t call it. We’re not having Tyreek (Hill) run from ten yards all the way up to the line of scrimmage. (laughter) But outside of that, it just gives us different ways to present what we want to see with the defense. OK, if this guy is moving just a little bit, we know we have this little crease of space right here for this route. And you know where the guys are going to be, it’s just defensively what a certain motion does to them and then what we get from that?”
(Where do you see WR Odell Beckham Jr. fitting this offense once he finally gets on the field?) – “Well, I’ve got to see ‘O’ (Odell Beckham Jr.) catching and running routes with our guys first and getting into the mix first before I can say anything. What I can tell you though is the guys out there, they’ve been working their ass off in this heat and they’ve been studying. Like I said, it’s not an easy offense to learn, so I just want to commend the guys that are out there. It’s hard, because there’s a lot of guys that are also down too. So the guys that are there that are out there right now, I commend them for what they’re doing. So hopefully we can – God willing we can stay healthy and continue to stay healthy throughout this year for all of our positions.”
