Tua Tagovailoa – December 11, 2024
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Wednesday, December 11, 2024
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(Your completion percentage, which has been stellar, especially in your stretch coming back – you and Lions QB Jared Goff are on the verge of possibly surpassing Drew Brees for the all-time completion percentage, which is like 74-and-change. Achieving that would mean what for you?) – “To surpass any record in the NFL, I think is an accomplishment in itself. You’re talking about legends, Hall of Famers in the past that have played this game. You’re talking about future legends, future Hall of Famers that are playing now in this game. That would mean a lot, but I think for us, right now, just trying to keep the main goal, the main goal and to find a win this Sunday and go on a run that we’ve been talking about in that locker room as a team, that would be a little more special than any other record I would say.”
(What do you think of Texans QB C.J. Stroud, now as you face him in the regular season for the first time?) – “Yeah, I think he’s been playing pretty well. I know there’s been some hiccups, but for the most part, I think he’s been able to bounce back. You see the mental fortitude that he takes and brings into his game. I got a lot of respect for his game. I’ve also been able to talk to him a little bit, at the Pro Bowl last year. Very good guy, very humble, very competitive as well. That’s what you like to see in a competitor.”
(Non-football related question. A lot of NFL and some NBA players have actually had their homes broken into – obviously Joe Burrow, etc. The NFL put out that security alert. Is there any fear or concern on your end for yourself or your teammates?) – “I have personal security just because my house had gone broken into – not necessarily my house but one of my cars. So it’s a little too close for my comfort with my family being in the house. So we got personal security to take care of all of that. When we’re on the road, we got someone with my wife. Got someone also at the house surveying the house. So just to let that be known, they are armed. So I hope if you decide to go to my house, you think twice. (laughter)”
(How long ago was that your car got broken into?) – “It was either last year or two years ago. So the personal security guys were actually pretty recent as well this year.”
(How much does that weigh on you, being a public figure? You’re one of the most public figures on this team. Do you feel like you might be a target?) – “I wouldn’t say necessarily I would be a target, but I wouldn’t want to play the chances with my family, my kids sleeping. My wife sleeping, me sleeping at the house.”
(Getting back to [previous] question, how do you stay focused on the task at hand amid all this noise about potentially breaking records?) – “I think the success that we found offensively, being able to distribute the ball to different guys has allowed us to find success in the short game and then in the mid-passing game as well. That’s basically what it entails as well, is just find a completion wherever it may be. But with all the statistics and what not, all we’re trying to do is stay on the field, find ways to elongate our drive so that we can find ways to go down and put the ball in the end zone.”
(When you look at this Texans defense, from the pass rush all the way up to their secondary, what stands out on tape?) – “They play really well. Sound football. They get some depth in the back end, so they try to mitigate a lot of explosives, but you’ve got to have your Ps and Qs when you’re dealing with a rush that they have. Very similar structure to the team that we just played, but they don’t necessarily play the same way, if that makes sense.”
(If you had the chance to speak to Chief Tagovailoa, what do you think he would say to you today, as far as you coming back from IR, just the stats that you’ve been able to produce?) – “I don’t know. I don’t know if it would be like a motivational thing or ‘you’ve got to be better at this,’ or it could be like, ‘I’m proud of you,’ like I wouldn’t know. But I do know that he wouldn’t be satisfied with whatever’s going on right now, that’s for sure.”
(—- Texans, what do you remember from seeing them in those joint practices last year and how much can you take from that setting?) – “You can take a good amount. That’s their defense structurally. They do things different with their fronts and their backers, but you can definitely take what they’ve done in our joint practices and try to implement that into some of the plays that we have. But it’s also another thing to where it’s different with that I feel like, versus game planning. And so we’re going to have to see what their plan is defensively, normal down and distances and then third down.”
(On the touchdown to WR Tyreek Hill on Sunday, I noticed you changed your launch point a little bit against that six-man pressure they sent you. And for a room full of people that don’t get a chance to experience what it’s like to play quarterback and make those decisions in two seconds—) – “Anybody can play quarterback, brotha.” (laughter)
(You said OL Aaron Brewer could in mic’d up. I’m curious what goes into that, both in the physical aspect and the mental aspect to know that rush is coming, I have to move. What all goes into the ability to make that quick adjustment in 1.8 seconds or whatever it is?) – “You kind of have a gauge if you’re looking at film, you’re watching film with ‘got to have it’ situations, what teams like to do. And there’s only so many ‘got to have it’ situations that people have, and you see what they run, so they ran zero right there, and I think our right side, which was the short side, did a great job because we had that same rep in practice where we let the inside guy go and he picked up the outside guy and they learned from that, they sorted that. They came down on the inside guy, let the furthest guy outside rush and I was able to move off the spot to buy me some time to be able to throw it to Tyreek (Hill) and that’s what ended up happening.”
(This past game, it was the best that both WR Tyreek Hill and WR Jaylen Waddle had together, since maybe the opener. What did it mean just to get the connection with both of them together going again?) – “Yeah, it was good to get those guys going. It’s pick your poison, really. If the play entails for ‘Reek’ (Tyreek Hill) to get the ball, but the coverage doesn’t allow him to get the ball, we’re going through our progression and you really see that with our guys this year, especially Jonnu (Smith) is a great example, right? Doesn’t get the ball the entire game, then when it’s time for our guys that we call playmakers to make plays, it’s overtime, the game was over, like this is not even in a quarter of a game. He hadn’t touched the ball, now he touches the ball, like you can see that guys are itching but guys aren’t going to complain about it. They’re just going to be ready whenever their time is called.”
(I don’t know if you’ve been keeping in touch with Teddy Bridgewater, but his team is playing for the state championship this weekend. Any shoutout you have for him?) – “Yeah, big shoutout to Teddy, ‘Teddy B,’ ‘Coach Teddy,’ man, jeez. Big shoutout.”
(I wanted to ask you, with this team having to have the mindset of ‘we’re in the playoffs already and every game is a must win,’ what kind of mental toughness or resolve does that kind of create for you guys?) – “Yeah, it creates mental fortitude, but I think we’ve had the reps earlier in the season, and we’ve continued to have those reps as the season progressed. Oh, it feels like we’re going to win this game, ah, we give up at the end. Feels like we’re going to win this game, we end up giving one at the end, or something like that. Then we find a couple wins here; then we lose again. And just the mental fortitude I think the guys have, it’s been in that playoff mode, but I think having those reps have definitely gave guys epiphanies, like ‘a-ha’ moments in which it’s like, ‘man, yeah, I felt like because this was a big game that I needed to do more than what my job asked me to do when really, all I need to do is go back to the basics and fundamentals of what we’ve been doing in OTAs, what we’ve been doing in training camp because that’s what’s gotten us here and that’s what’s helping us win games.’”
(Going back to Sunday, I think WR Tyreek Hill mentioned that he had run the wrong route and you kind of made it known to him, “hey, I need you to run it this way.” How much value is there in knowing that your teammates are going to respond to your leadership and your correction in that way?) – “I think it tells you a lot about the relationship that we all have with each other, to be able to do that first and foremost. I think in any workplace, that is very important to have. If you were to yell at my man right here, and y’all didn’t have a good relationship, he’d look at you crazy. (laughter) And so I think that’s definitely what is the forefront in us being able to communicate that to each other, and that goes for everybody on the team.”
