Tua Tagovailoa – November 17, 2021
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Wednesday, November 17, 2021
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(The theme of the day: G/T Robert Hunt set the tone. He said that he went swimming in the Everglades this weekend and saw a gator.) – “He said what? (laughter) He said he went swimming?”
(In the Everglades.) – “Wow.”
(And there was a gator around. So we’re asking everybody what’s the most adventurous thing you’ve ever done?) – “I haven’t done anything like that. I’ll tell you that. I haven’t done anything to put my life in – that’s tough. (laughter) He deserves it. He caught the screen that was supposed to be a throwaway to Myles (Gaskin) and he made the best of that.”
(How much better is the finger compared to Thursday night? Are you in much pain?) – “It feels good. Obviously there’s still healing that’s taking place. But other than that, it’s fine.”
(Do you have any limitations in terms of the throws you’re able to make on Sunday? I know that Head Coach Brian Flores said that when you have to come into the game kind of cold, they wanted …) – “I don’t think there are going to be any limitations for this Sunday with the finger. I think it feels good at this point. We should be good.”
(Are you going to wear a sleeve on your hand?) – “A sleeve? No. I’ll just do it as normal.”
(You have a history of coming into games and playing well in your career. What’s the difference between coming off the bench and coming into a game as opposed to preparing all week and starting the game?) – “Well, you don’t get the reps. That’s what I would say. You get all of the mental reps. You just don’t get to go in and rep it out. That’s just the biggest thing.”
(What’s the difference in your workload from last week to this week?) but I – “Yeah, full practice. Getting most of the reps out there today. We’re just trying to see what the gameplan is and that’s really all that is.”
(How are the ribs?) – “The ribs are good but not great. They’re still healing. I feel good with it.”
(How good did it feel – when you went back and you watched the film, how good did it feel not only for when you were in there but for most of the entire game, to be able to connect on some of those deep passes that may have been kind of missing from your guys’ offense?) – “It was good. Like I said, I had to take a lot of the mental reps. We’ve talked a lot throughout the week about where we want to attack the Ravens defense and how we were going to try to attack them. Those are just the plays given to us and that’s what I had to do to read it out. Those plays came to us because that’s kind of what we discussed in our meeting rooms.”
(I’m just curious, as a quarterback or as kind of a leader of the offense, there were some coverage breakdowns in the Ravens defense. How do you view that as an offense? Do you just say, ‘Hey, that’s one of the gimmes that we’ve got to take?’ Or do you kind of also view it in the sense of maybe you guys may have done something in terms of the motion or whatever to maybe influence that? How do you view that when you go back and you review that?) – “I think with a lot of the shifting that we did against the Ravens, it kind of put them in a bind if you will, just because it forces communication defensively with where the front is going to be, where the ‘backers need to be aligned now. That kind of helped open up a lot of the deeper routes.”
(When you take a look at the Jets, has anything stood out to you?) – “Yeah. I would say they’re good at what they do. Just regardless of the losses that they have, you look at the teams that they’ve beat and those are some really good teams – Cincinnati and the Titans. We look at those things that they do really well and we try to avoid those things happening in these games. We’re going to try to do our best to play a mistake-free game. Obviously that’s never the case in games, but the least mistakes as possible.”
(I noticed at the end of the game that there were a lot of fans that were chanting your name. Do you hear it? And how does it make you feel?) – “I hear it. It makes me feel good but the fans can’t go in there and play for me. I’ve got to go out there and I’ve got to execute what play is given to me. At the end of the day, I have to focus on what I can do to help the team win every time that I’m in there. It’s much appreciated but I can’t use that to help me win or help our team win.”
(WR Jaylen Waddle is on pace for someone in the neighborhood of 102 catches and about 950 yards, which would both be rookie records for the Dolphins. How do you see his development going along?) – “I think Jaylen is doing well. Jaylen communicates a lot out there with what he sees, things that he likes. But I would say everyone in this league knows on third downs who we like going to. With Jaylen, with however many receptions he has already on third down and then also normal downs too. But yeah, I think he’s done a great job for us getting open and we just have to continue getting him the ball.”
(Yesterday, Wide Receivers Coach Josh Grizzard said that WR Jaylen Waddle has been playing a little bit more inside and outside the last couple of weeks. How does having guys that can be flexible and play every position at the receiver spot help your job and kind of identify those matchups?) – “It helps my job a whole lot just because you have not just Jaylen but you have Mike (Gesicki), you have Albert (Wilson) – you have multiple guys that they need to put their players on. We take a look at that and we see the matchups that we like and that’s kind of what we do as far as talking on the sideline and getting plays for whoever the individual is that we want to work on.”
(With Co-Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends George Godsey having taken a central role and a process that was at some point streamlined this season, how are things going working closely with Coach Godsey?) – “They’re going good. A lot of communication between George and us in the quarterback room. A lot of what we like and, ‘hey, do you think we can change this protection to this because of that? Or the route –‘ there’s just a lot of communication going on right there. A lot of flexibility with that communication too.”
(Last Thursday, it looked like the Ravens were putting CB Marlon Humphrey on TE Mike Gesicki a lot and you guys kind of isolated him out wide. Have you seen any defense try to defend him like that and if so, were you able to deduce anything with their defense because they had to switch things up?) – “No. We obviously want to give Mike shots and opportunities but if the opportunity doesn’t present itself then you have to move on to your next read. Being in the back there, we don’t have a lot of time as quarterbacks to just sit there and pat the ball, waiting for our guys to get open. We have to move on and make quick decisions in the back there.”
(This game is supposed to be a rivalry. Do you sense anything different this week? Do you like rivalries at all?) – “Me personally, I don’t necessarily believe in rivalries. I think those are all made up for the hype. I know that every game in the NFL is a big game and that’s how we’re going to treat this game.”
(Do you feel like the mood in this locker room has really transformed over stringing together a couple of wins after a losing streak?) – “I think we’re getting into a good flow of things – no pun intended. (laughter) But yeah, I think that guys are starting to find their rhythm defensively, offensively and in special teams. We just have to continue to find ways to play complementary football. That’s really all it is.”
(The little dance that you hit after you scored. Who taught you that?) – “No one taught me that. My brother was doing it for a while and then also my roommate in college my freshman year, Najee (Harris) would do the dance a lot. He’s from the Bay Area and I think that’s a Bay Area thing, right? But man, I thought that thing was cool when I saw it so I learned how to do it, then started doing it. (laughter) It was good fun, good fun out these. Especially when you score and you’re with the guys, good fun.”
