Tua Tagovailoa – December 21, 2022
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Wednesday, December 14, 2022
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(The Pro Bowl rosters will be announced tonight. What would it mean to you to hear your name called?) – “That’d be cool. But sort of at the same time, my feeling on it is, I hope I’m not available for that week. We have a lot of goals that we set as a team, and that’s really the main goal for me and for the team is to focus on this game first, obviously, but make a playoff run, and hopefully we get that opportunity to win those games deep in January and then make a make a Super Bowl run.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel said you had completely corrected in the Buffalo game the things that were holding you back the two previous games. How do you see it?) – “I would say sort of how I see every play. Just had to take every game for what it was worth. Let every game stand on its own merit. Don’t let what ended up affecting us offensively from the 49ers game to the Chargers game into the next game that we played, which was against Buffalo. I think a lot of those things were corrected by a lot of us offensively. And it took the leaders to step up. I would say we did offensively and really we just got to continue to build off of that.”
(I know every year is different. But whenever you’re deep in December, playing meaningful games and an opportunity to make the playoffs, is there anything you can take over your first two years, just in terms of preparation, execution, anything that was kind of guiding you and helping you in this third season?) – “I haven’t prepared this year (the same way) I’ve ever prepared for a football game in my life. I would say I’ve continued to implement the same things I’ve done within film study, with how I walk through plays. But then there are things that I do a little more of than I’ve done previously, which I would say is walking through the plays, trying to visualize the plays. If we have a run play and we want to alert that to another run play, or alert that to a pass play, visually, what would that look like for me? And then it really helps when I’m able to just do it. I’m someone that takes in information by doing it. So that’s been a big thing for me this year.”
(What areas have you seen WR Jaylen Waddle improve from last year to this year?) – “I think he’s improved a lot on understanding the game better with his splits, where he wants to be, what he knows to get him open in certain areas of the field with coverages that we’ve studied against these teams that we’ve played. And then when he does get into open field, I would say the biggest difference from last year to this year is when he gets it, he doesn’t hesitate. He takes off, he slashes when he runs now, and it’s really cool to see. That’s a lot as well to be attested to from (Wide Receivers Coach) Wes (Welker) with how he’s coached up that receiver room. But man, he’s been balling this year for us, as well as Tyreek (Hill), and the rest of the guys in there.”
(At what point did you think WR Jaylen Waddle was gone on that 67-yarder?) – “I’m going to be honest, I threw it and was like, ‘Okay, we got a completion and first down.’ I’m not the biggest guy out there. I got to really look to find what’s going on. And he took off and he was gone. That was really exciting to see.”
(You actually won the Pro Bowl fan vote, which accounts for 1/3 of it. What does that say about your fans that they showed out in such strong numbers to support you?) – “It means a lot and it’s crazy with how they’ve been promoting that through social media. I had a couple coaches send me those. My agents have sent me that. So it’s cool. But it’s also cool to see the journey of how the first two years went and then all the narratives. And then, we’re here now and it’s just a big blessing.”
(Growing up, did you have big celebration on more so on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? What can you tell us about Christmas stuff?) – “I would say it was a little bit of both. Like Christmas Eve, we’d spend time with my dad’s side. And then Christmas Day, we’d go and spend some time with my mom’s side. But with me having a family now, me and Annah are trying to create traditions for ourselves. There’s a lot of ideas that we have, but we don’t know yet.”
(S Jevon Holland had told us that there’s an extra layer of motivation coming in taking on a legend in his own time like Aaron Rodgers. I know, obviously, you’re on the other side of the ball. But for the QB marquee to be to Tua Tagovailoa vs. Aaron Rodgers, is that extra special in any way for you? And what are your thoughts on Mr. Rodgers?) – “I would say it’s special in the sense that I got to watch this guy ball ever since I can remember, watching football in Aaron. It’s not necessarily me versus him. That’s not how I see it. He’s got to go against our defense, we got to go against their defense. But it’s really cool. When we come off, I like seeing good football regardless of what it is. Obviously, we always want to win. But man, I turn into a fan at times just sitting back and watching whether our defense is going off or the opposing team makes a couple plays. It’s cool to see. But having to go against someone like him and seeing him across the field ever since watching him on TV growing up, it will be awesome.”
(What is the conversation like with guys like WR Braylon Sanders and WR Tyreek Hill after some miscues in the Bills game early on?) – “I would say there’s just some ordeals that we got to work through. Some of the plays that guys were in, those aren’t necessarily for them, and it kind of was tailored toward a strength of another person. We ended up putting some guys in positions that they weren’t comfortable in, so that’s why it may have looked like, ‘ah, these guys aren’t connecting here. But really, it’s just things that we can kind of get help with those guys and not putting them in those positions. But I would say nothing to be worried about for us.”
(Is that trying to throw the defense off of expecting something that they’ve seen before and putting somebody different there?) – “Not necessarily. It’s really assuming that we’re getting our personnel, but there are times when some of the guys that are in the personnel are tired and we got to sub them in with another guy. That’s really all it is.”
