Miami Dolphins fans can blame general manager Chris Grier for the mess that the team currently is, and they would be correct in doing so. But the Dolphins are not doing anything for Tua Tagovailoa.
The problems begin with Grier. He hired Mike McDaniel to be Miami’s head coach, and McDaniel calls the plays. They both decide on personnel, and that is where the problems on this roster begin.
McDaniel doesn’t hold his team accountable, and the players don’t either. That is a problem, but it isn’t the big problem.
The big problem for the Dolphins is, and still remains, the offensive line. That falls on the drafting and decisions of Grier and McDaniel, but what if Tagovailoa had a good offensive line in front of him? A better one than what he has?
What if instead of giving Tagovailoa just two seconds to throw the ball, he was given more time in the pocket to let plays develop downfield?
Miami’s offensive line isn’t bad when they are run-blocking, but when they are pass-blocking for more than a couple of seconds, they often can’t hold their own.
Tagovailoa is incredibly accurate with the football. Imagine if he had time like he did during his college career at Alabama. The Dolphins don’t give him time. He has a couple of seconds, and if the reads are not there, he has little time to adjust.
If the Dolphins are going to find consistent success, they have to find a way to give Tagovailoa more time to make progressions and reads, or else they will continue to do the same things over and over, and opposing teams have figured that out.
Tagovailoa would likely thrive best behind a line that could allow him to move around like what Miami fans saw from Arizona Cardinals signal-caller Kyler Murray on Sunday or what other quarterbacks around the league are able to do with just a little more time.
Instead, Tagovailoa has to quickly make a read and then dump off the ball to an outlet. It’s because of this that he will never reach his full potential in the NFL.
