Tua Tagovailoa – December 26, 2024
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Thursday, December 26, 2024
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(I wanted to ask you about RB De’Von Achane. Did you know that he was as polished a receiver as he’s proven to be? At what point did you realize that and how does that help you?) – “I would say I wouldn’t have put him in that category as a polished receiver. I knew that he had great hands in practice and training camp. He’d shown that last year, but I would say you only really know until you have to go out and perform in a real scenario of a game, right? And he’s definitely surprised me in that aspect. We know how fast he is when he has the ball in his hands and we know what he can do, but I think that just adds another element to his game and it adds another element to who the matchup is out there with him and how defenses want to play him when we have him out there running routes.”
(We’ve heard a lot this season about the extra attention defenses give WR Tyreek Hill but I also think, hasn’t that always been the case? Is there something specific you need the defenses are doing more so this year?) – “I would say they sort of copy and paste what other teams have done to mitigate a lot of explosives going to Tyreek (Hill), but that’s to be considered because he’s been the No. 1 player, (No. 1) ranked player in the NFL last year, so why would you not want to do that? You force everything else to go on other people and if that’s how – I’m assuming this is how defensive coordinators are thinking – if ‘10’ (Tyreek Hill) doesn’t beat us, we can live with that; if other guys beat us, we’ll live with our chances.”
(After WR Tyreek Hill’s comments last week, have you and him made an extra point to get those reps in this week?) – “Yeah, we got some reps. I think at this time of the year as well, guys are banged up and it’s sort of toeing the fine line of what reps are the reps that we need and you go from there.”
(Seventy percent chance of rain at this time for the Cleveland 4:20-ish kickoff. And then also the temperature is in the 40s. Is the wetness actually more of a factor than the cold?) – “I would probably say the wind more than any other element when it’s a cold game. It’s more so the wind than anything else.”
(You haven’t had to be in that kind of – the cold rain – for a while now. What do you remember? I guess the Tennessee game? What do you remember were keys in preparation for that?) – “What I remember was I didn’t have a good game. Another thing I remember was we lost. And that’s never a good feeling, but I think with this being Year 5 for me, just what I know now that I didn’t then as far as preparation, just getting my mind right, getting wet ball drills in during practice; all of that is definitely going to be a good thing for us to prepare for this game.”
(This is going to be the first time you’re going to see a Jim Schwartz defense in your career. When you watch him on tape, what stands out about the way he structures things and how he attacks offenses?) – “I would say he does really good structurally with getting to different things and making those things look the same. You get to third down, I think that’s where everything starts to open up a lot. Like I said, a lot of things look very similar so you’ve got to be attentive to where guys are; if we have certain alignment with receivers, who those guys are covering those eligibles and then the alignment of the backers. So you’ve got to be really on it when it comes to protection and you’ve got to be really on it with making sure you see what the defense is giving.”
(Road environments can always be more challenging for an offense. How have you seen the operational aspects of the road game offense evolve throughout the season?) – “It’s continuing to work. I’m not proud to say that it’s not where we want it to be especially this far into the season, but that’s I think where we’re at right now. And that’s definitely going to be something we have to continue to get better at.”
(How’s the hip? It was something we didn’t know about until after last week’s press conference. Made it through the game obviously, but is it something that’s all right?) – “I mean it’s good. It’s just like anyone else on the team and anyone else around the league. You get banged up little bit towards the ending of the year so just got to take care of that.”
(What was it like to have T Terron Armstead, T Kendall Lamm and OL Isaiah Wynn all available to play last week?) – “It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. It was fun, and I think all those guys being in at once helped with our run game as you guys could see.”
(Saw WR Jaylen Waddle back at practice today. How’d he look? Obviously we don’t know the status for Sunday, but how’d he look?) – “(Jaylen) Waddle looked good. He took some reps and then you just want to be cautious with the amount of reps that he’s taken as well, but for the most part he looked great. His spirits are high and hopefully he’ll be ready to go this Sunday.”
(With WR Jaylen Waddle, his numbers against man coverage this year on third down are all really good and obviously you guys have rapport going back to Alabama, but it seems like you really trust him. I’m curious what about his game makes him so trustworthy for a quarterback?) – “I think he gives really good indicators for me. If I’m able to see the indicator of you ‘left-righting,’ I know, ‘OK, I know where to throw ball’ just doing the fast math of A2 plus B2 is C2, then throw it over there to where I know he’s going to be. And then vice versa, if it’s an out route or an in-breaking route, a lot of the indicators that he gives really helps with the timing.”
(Not sure if you guys have TVs on your plane that you’ll take on Saturday. I’m not sure what time your flight is, but if it is available, would you watch any of the Chargers or Broncos games? The Dolphins need those teams to lose and they’re playing on Saturday.) – “I probably won’t be looking at that. On the plane I’m just looking over the plays for normal down and distances, just making sure that I’ve got everything queued for the game on Sunday, going over third downs. And then if I have anything to talk to any of the guys about on the plane, just go and see if they’re up. If they’re not up, I just let them sleep and then get with them at the hotel. So that’s sort of the process.”
(If both of those teams win, then this team is eliminated before it plays on Sunday, those two teams playing on Saturday. Would that alter anything in the way you approach a game, just knowing playoffs are out of the question?) – “No.”
(How do you view the opportunity that is presenting itself in the final two games?) – “I think that’s exactly what it is, is it’s an opportunity and I don’t think any of us on our team should take this for granted. This is something that we’ve worked extremely hard for to be in the positions that we’re in now, to be able to play in the NFL. That in itself has been a dream, so for you to short-circuit yourself and be like, ‘oh, no, we’ll get it next year.’ Well, how do you even know that there is going to be a next year for your career or there’s going to be a next game for you? You just never know when you’re weighing out those options. But to go back to your question, regardless of if we’re still in it or not, you get to see a lot about who a person is by the way they go about their business. You see guys laying down? That tells you a lot right there. You see guys fighting? I mean, that should tell you a lot as well, and you should know the guys that you want to – hopefully next year you should know by that time, the guys that were going when times were hard. You kind of want them on your team and you can kind of count on those guys.”
(You spend time on the airplane getting ready for the upcoming game, so it sounds like you’re preparing really all week long. I’m curious for a player that I’ve heard Kurt Warner for instance say that your preparation, your processing is all some of the best in the league – how do you balance spending enough time on it versus maybe doing too much to where you have too much going on from a processing standpoint? Does that make sense?) – “I don’t think there’s ever enough time to be spending trying to focus on your craft and honing in on your craft. This is our job. This is what we’re supposed to do. Like I’m supposed to do that and I would expect the next guy to do that, too, if they were preparing to help this team win. So it’s just the variables of on each play, this is where I’m going to go with the coverages we know, but if they don’t run these coverages, what are the coverages that gave us problems on these plays. So I’d go through that in that my head and I think that helps speed up the process, but it’s also one of those where my footwork, it has to be right if I know I’m know I’m not working this on a certain look.”
