Tua Tagovailoa – June 7, 2023
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Wednesday, June 7, 2023
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(Inter Miami just got Lionel Messi. What do you think it does for the Miami sports culture?) – “We’re getting Lionel Messi? I just got done watching ‘Ted Lasso.’ Anyone watch ‘Ted Lasso’? That thing’s awesome. I thought you were pulling my leg because someone told you that. But I’ve been raving about how good ‘Ted Lasso’ was in the locker room. But that’s awesome. Got another superstar. Big, big names out here in Miami. It’s good for the culture out here, just like what the Heat got going on and what the Panthers got going on.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel talked about your ownership of the offense and leadership role here in your second year in this system. I’m curious to hear your perspective on how you feel more comfortable in the second year?) – “Yeah, we feel extremely comfortable coming off of a year having to study, having to get a good feel of how Mike (McDaniel) calls plays. Get a feel of the guys running the routes and then the concepts and where guys are going to be and the distribution of those. It makes it a lot easier when you can transition from that into this year and not have to learn a new offense.”
(What are your initial thoughts on WR Robbie Chosen and how has your time been working with him?) – “Chosen is a great teammate. He’s really fast. He knows how to get the ball. He’s been getting the ball a good amount this OTAs. But he’s a really good player, just like everyone in this room.”
(You’re using the new quarterback-specific helmet. I’m wondering what you learned about what makes it safer and how it feels to play with it on?) – “I’m still trying to feel it out. So what better time to feel it out than OTAs. I heard it’s supposedly better than the helmet that I had been wearing last year. If it could be that much more safe, then why not give it a shot?”
(So you’re not sure it’s what you’ll go with? You’re still feeling it out?) – “Yeah, still feeling it out.”
(It looks like you’ve been in the weight room a little bit this offseason. What have you been trying to work on?) – “Well, I’m trying to work on everything. As much as I’m trying to work on throwing the ball, getting the ball to the guys, being able to push the ball a lot more downfield. You know, getting in the playbook. I’m doing the same with my body.”
(You brought up culture. Coach (Mike) McDaniel talked a little bit about bringing the right guys in. How much more important is that than maybe some guy with a little bit more talent that doesn’t have the right attitude?) – “Yeah, I think that’s really important because if you have someone with talent that does their own thing, it’s going to screw up that entire symphony of the offense, the defense or the special teams. If you get someone that’s less talented, but understands what they’re doing, their assignment, he’s going to be where he needs to be when he needs to be there and whatnot. It’s going to move like a symphony and guys in the backend are going to be able to help that one specific guy, kind of cover his tracks, if he’s not as good as you know, per se someone else at that position.”
(So when you put it together, everybody talks about WR Tyreek Hill’s work ethic. When you have guys like that at the top of the food chain, does it make it a lot easier?) – “Yeah, it makes it a lot easier because before Tyreek (Hill) came here, he was a well-known person. He’s a superstar in the NFL. For him to come here, we have a young team so a lot of the younger guys look up to someone like him. Now that he’s on the team, they see the kind of work ethic he has. They see what kind of person he is in the building, around the building and it’s like, oh, he’s a cool dude. He’s just like any other person. He’s not this, ‘I’m this ego person.’ Although everyone in the locker room thinks they’re better than everyone. But at the end of the day, it’s a team and everyone respects each other in there.”
(I wanted to ask you about the 10k donation for Eric’s GoFundMe. I guess what inspired you to do that for a fan that was really a diehard about you?) – “Yeah. Well, you basically said it. He’s a diehard fan about me, but out of my respect to him, I mean, he basically not just covered me but the entire Dolphins. For me to have done that, Tyreek (Hill) was able to do the same. Other guys have been able to do the same as well, to donate. But I just want his wife and his kids to know that we’re praying for them and that we’re thinking of them.”
(I wanted to ask you about the helmet cam. What was your reaction when they first approached you about doing it? Were you onboard? Were you like ‘oh this is kind of strange’? How has it helped you?) – “It’s almost like, you think of the integrity of the huddle. Like, man, do I really want the coaches to hear what I’m saying to the guys? Because sometimes you might not like a play and you go into it and you tell the guys how you feel, but you basically tell the guy, ‘Hey, I’m skipping this progression to come to you so you better be there.’ Well, it has its good, and it has its bad. That was one of the things that we felt wasn’t as good. But a lot of the cool things that you can do with that is it gives audio for a lot of the new guys so that they can listen to the play over and over and over from the guy giving the play. Then they can listen to the cadence. So when they go off from OTAs, it’ll be good for them to just listen to the cadence over and over and over. That’s something that’s been big this offseason for us, is operation.”
(You’re going against a Vic Fangio defense every day in practice. I remember going back to your rookie year that was one of the bigger challenges you had was playing that Denver game over there. What do you remember about that game and what makes his defenses so difficult to go against?) – “Yeah, I remember I was getting hit a lot. I was getting confused where to go. I think what he does a really good job with his guys is holding shell in the back end. They do a really good job holding shell and being able to disguise their coverages in that sense. But there’s so many nuances to what they do and how they run their defense. So many coverages, it’s not just one. There’s a knock off of like, six in just one coverage. So you’ve got to know what they’re doing and if you don’t, they’ll make you pay.”
(Just watching today, there seems to be a motion and a shift, at least one, every single play. Is that a philosophy where you just want to give the defense as much to look at pre-snap as you can?) – “Yeah, I would say it’s something that we tried to harp on last year during our operation. What we don’t want to do is go out, get the defense set, and just run a play. Those guys on the other side are already good. So forcing them to have to communicate, back, back backs, you know, shifting the front. Just having to force them to communicate and not just get set and just go out and play football and not have to think.”
(When you skip a progression in the huddle, when you’re like ‘we’re not doing that, we’re doing this.’ How does Head Coach Mike McDaniel respond to it?) – “I won’t do that to Mike (McDaniel). (laughter) I’ve got too much respect for Mike. It’s more of a, I don’t like this play but what do I know is going to be open more often than not if I’m given these three or four coverages. So that’s how I kind of gauge it.”
(You’re not the first quarterback to do that but now you’re more conscious because it’s on camera?) – “Yes, not the only quarterback but because it’s on camera, you start thinking of everything. Then it gets weird when you start hearing yourself calling plays in the huddle, calling cadence.”
(I think one of the leagues used to have a helmet cam live. Do you guys remember that? Would you want that to come back to the NFL? Like, you could watch…?) – “No, no. Let’s not do that. I just think there’s too many things that are said on the field that should be said on the field and on the field only. Just to keep the integrity of the game with the guys out there.”
(Regarding the offense, where do you feel like you’ve made the biggest growth in terms of comfort?) – “The biggest growth in terms of comfort? I think, for me, it’s continuing to work on the little things. One of the things that we’ve been harping on has been operation. When I think of my position, I think of what have I done as a leader for the guys up front, for the guys out there to have gotten them better? What have we done? So I think we’ve been doing a great job, working operation, doing some cadence deals, motions, trying to work a lot of things just to give some eye candy for the defense and forcing them to communicate in the back end.”
(How has it been as the leader of the quarterback room, coming from working with Ryan Fitzpatrick and Teddy Bridgewater in the past and taking on more of a leadership role? How has that been for you?) – “It’s been good. I think the coolest thing is now that we have James (Blackman) in our room, I’m finally not the youngest in our room which is great. That blows my mind that I’m going in to my fourth year and it took me four years to not be the youngest. It was cool. Everyone has their own ideologies of how they like to do things, how they like to prepare, how they like to think of plays, and how they like to go about those. I think for me I’ve been able to learn from all of those guys. Being able to learn from Mike (White) as well. With Mike White being in our room, taking a little piece of what I think is pretty cool that a person does and trying to implement that into my game.”
(I saw a drill out here today where you literally did bootlegs for twenty straight minutes. Right side, left side. You hit WR Tyreek Hill. Is that just a reminder that this whole thing always comes back to the basics, that you can never drill it enough?) – “Yeah, it always comes down to the basics. I was just over there talking to our OC Frank Smith telling him you know when are we going to start doing these plays, these plays, because the defense are overplaying this. He said that Mike (McDaniel) wanted to stick to the basics. Once everyone understands where they’re going, gets the foundation of it, then we can move on from there. That should tell you all from the drills that we did.”
