Tua Tagovailoa – September 20, 2023
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Wednesday, September 20, 2023
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(How excited are you to have your home debut for this season?) – “I think we’re all excited. It will be cool to finally get to play in front of our hometown crowd, so I’m sure it’ll be packed and I’m sure those guys are really excited to see us go out there and play.”
(You have a streak of beating Super Bowl winning coaches nine times in a row now. And you have another one coming up this week in Sean Payton. I know you’re just trying to go win every game, but that’s got to still be a pretty cool stat to hear, no?) – “Yeah, that is and you just mentioned it to me. But yeah, it’s a team sport. You win games with the team and I’ve been very fortunate to have great teammates. We’re just in here day-in and day-out trying to do everything we can to win.”
(On the other side of the ball, LB Bradley Chubb is facing his former team here this week. Just from what you’ve been able to observe of him – I don’t know how many meeting rooms you get to be in with him – but how has he ingratiated himself into this unit, this locker room, this family since he’s been here?) – “I think the cool thing about ‘B. Chubb’ (Bradley Chubb) is he’s all-around a class act person. I would say, like the first time that I met him, it wasn’t me going up to him. He came up to me and sort of introduced himself and I thought that was super cool being able to play against him my rookie year when we went down there to play Vic’s (Fangio) team at the time. But he’s a great guy, a great person. I like hanging out with him off the field. I don’t hang out with him too much on the field, but that’s all I can say is he’s a great person.”
(Opponents have had only four quarterback hits on you through the first two weeks which is second-best in the league. Only Baker Mayfield has been hit less. Two parts to that. One, if you could talk about why you think that that’s happening and then also how beneficial is that to you? Not just for injury, just the typical beating that a quarterback takes in a regular game?) – “I think that should tell you all you should know with the guys we have up front. There’s been a lot of naysayers and I know our guys in the o-line room hear what everyone is saying as well, so that’s a way that they’re able to shut the haters up basically. And to me, it’s nothing new. Those guys have been working their butts off this entire offseason – OTAs, training camp – they’ve been working their butts off. So this is nothing surprising to me and I think that’s what it entails, is just the work ethic that they put in day-in, day-out with their coach Butch (Barry). And guys are buying into new techniques, new fundamentals with how they’re getting off the ball and different things, so having Tyreek (Hill), having (Jaylen) Waddle – having fast guys also helps me get the ball out quicker to be able to distribute that and throw off timing for the rushers as well. So I think that’s been a big key to that as well.”
(You mentioned as part of that, that your quick release has been part of it. What goes into that? Is that just quickly going through your progressions, your reads?) – “Yeah, that’s just understanding pre-snap where we need to go with the ball and then also post-snap adjusting and making that adjustment quick. That’s basically all it is.”
(Broncos Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph with Denver this year and in previous years in Arizona has been top-five in blitz rate in the NFL pretty much since he’s been doing it. What kind of challenges does a blitz-happy defense present to you?) – “They present a lot of challenges. You’ve got to understand where those blitzers are coming from. You’ve got to understand where you want to protect them. So there’s a lot of things. We’re going to have to find out if they’re blitzing from here, where the openings are going to be and we’ve got to figure out how we want to attack them in that sense.”
(On that same token, how have you developed on the blitz throughout your career, like looking back to maybe when you started to where you are now?) – “I think a lot of it is just within the rhythm and timing of our offense. That’s basically what it’s evolved to where you understand where your hot (read) is coming from, but then if you are playing in the rhythm and timing of the play, at worst you’ll probably take a hit after throwing the ball. But that’s at worst. That’s what I’ve been trying to do, trying to get the ball out as quickly as possible, kind of seeing the defenses so that I can help myself out as well as the offensive line.”
(I saw most of training camp you guys were doing a heavy rotation with all the receivers. Now that WR Jaylen Waddle is out, how much will that benefit you in terms of whoever has to step up for him?) – “That’ll benefit our offense a lot. That will benefit us a lot because like you said, we’ve been rotating guys and it’s been allowing others to get reps with the ones, with the twos, with other guys. And it also helps with the timing of that. You know where this guy is going to be at what point. Guys when their routes a little different so being able to throw to a couple of the other guys out there today, working on timing, it’s been good.”
(In that same token, WR Jaylen Waddle and WR Tyreek Hill are obviously special for a reason. I don’t think last year either of them missed a game. How much changes or what you guys can do scheme, offensive-wise, if Waddle can’t go?) – “I think it’s tough when you don’t have two of your top guys in (Jaylen) Waddle and if we weren’t to have Tyreek (Hill) on any given Sunday, but I would say the rest of the guys in that room, they’re ready to step up. They’re ready to play. It doesn’t change how I prepare. I was going to be funny. I was going to say I might as well stay home if they don’t play. (laughter) But yeah, I think the guys in their room, they’re ready to step up and whatever cards you’re dealt with, you’ve got to go out there and play. Any given Sunday. Those guys on the other side don’t care about who’s playing or not. They just want to do anything they can to help their team win.”
(I liked that pass down to WR Braxton Berrios down to the 2-yard line and I noticed from watching the All-22 that you sort of felt or sensed pressure from your left and then slid to your right before throwing it in the buck down. I’m curious, was it just a sense and has your sort of spidey senses – are they better than every?) – “Spidey senses? Can you explain spidey senses for me? (laughter) That’s great. Yeah, I would say because I’m not the biggest person, I’m not able to always see over guys and because Tyreek (Hill) is not the biggest person, Jaylen (Waddle) is not the biggest person, Braxton (Berrios) is not the biggest person; sometimes you’ve just got to feel space for those guys and that’s when understanding where they’re going to be at the time they’re going to be there matters a lot. Sometimes we have to read the play inside out. I knew Braxton was going back up on a wheel and so as I kind of peeked towards the middle, I could kind of sense this backside player on the pressure and then I knew Braxton was going to be there.”
(I wanted to ask you, when you were growing up in Hawaii, what players did you look up to from a quarterback standpoint? Who did you admire or idolize or look at yourself and say, ‘hey, I want to be like that guy.’) – “I’d say it was hard because I grew up a Cowboys fan, so I always wanted to watch the Cowboys growing up. But in Hawaii, the games start at like seven or eight (in the morning). Then if you get a nighttime game on the East Coast, then the game in Hawaii is like at three o’clock. Whatever games we could catch, those were the teams that I would watch. I would just watch those offenses and whatnot. I wasn’t able to just specifically watch one person. I was able to watch a lot of quarterbacks. If I didn’t get to watch a certain game, then I’d just watch the highlights on YouTube.”
(You stay off social media. You’re not the type of guy to watch ESPN. But can you tap into the frequency of just the excitement around this team right now from a fan perspective? How electric Hard Rock Stadium is probably going to be on Sunday, how much pride does that give you?) – “I think it gives all of us on this team a lot of pride. We feel that the city of Miami has been waiting, and they’re ready for a championship. You look at the Heat, you look at the Florida Panthers, I mean, all those guys were able to make it to the final dance. They were able to do special things throughout their seasons. We’re kind of trying to trot along that line and sort of follow the lead of those guys.”
(You have a really diehard loyal fan base. To run through that smoke again and hear your name coming out of the tunnel, what’s that moment going to be like for you?) – “That moment is going to be special. Anytime I would say any of us are able to go back out there, this is not something that we take for granted. This game comes and goes and nothing’s ever promised. Anytime that we get to run out there and play for our families, play for each other, and play for the fans, it’s a blessing. It’ll be cool.”
(You guys do motion more than any other team.) – “We do it more than the Niners?”
(I think so, yeah. That element – the motion – how have you seen it this year in particular, change the looks that defenses give you?) – “Well, it forces them to communicate a lot more. We saw that in Week 1 and we also got to see that in Week 2. We have seen a lot of adjustments off of the motions that we’ve had. They’ve also given us different looks. So as we continue to work our motions, our snap counts, our timing with all of those, we’ll see how the defenses continue to adjust. And the adjustments that they make, we’ll come to the sideline, and we’ll hopefully be able to adjust as well.”
