{"id":112281,"date":"2025-06-07T22:52:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T22:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/112281\/"},"modified":"2025-06-07T22:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T22:52:11","slug":"dolphins-seeing-tua-tagovailoa-evolve-into-full-blown-leader-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/112281\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins seeing Tua Tagovailoa evolve into ‘full-blown leader’"},"content":{"rendered":"

After consecutive trips to the postseason, Miami<\/a> slipped to 8-9 in 2024 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2021.<\/p>\n

As the Dolphins<\/a> look to return to the NFL playoffs and to capture their first playoff victory in a quarter-century, Miami needs sixth-year signal-caller Tua Tagovailoa to morph into the best version of himself.<\/p>\n

Tagovailoa dealt with the injury bug again last season, missing four games after another scary concussion against the Buffalo Bills<\/a> in Week 2 and then the final two weeks of the Dolphins’ season with a hip injury.<\/p>\n

Tagovailoa is back and healthy. During the Dolphins’ OTAs, Tagovailoa earned the orange jersey<\/a>. That distinction is bestowed upon the player that was the best performer in the previous practice and recognizes their hard work and leadership.<\/p>\n

Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel shared how Tagovailoa earned the orange jersey.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a cool question, because this one specifically, I thought Tua, the previous practice to wearing the orange jersey, had most ownership of all the players on each and every down, particularly in non-passing downs. There were double motions where he was aligning people appropriately. He really had command and resolve within the practice of things.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes football for a quarterback can be uniquely challenging, because you have the ownership of the operation of the whole unit. You have 1\/11th of the execution of it, and anything that falls short can be frustrating. Sometimes your play can be exactly how you envisioned it going into whatever the performance is, but then you\u2019re faced with frustrating things that are out of your control.<\/p>\n

“What a great rep for a player of the quarterback position when you have practices like that. We had some things where people weren\u2019t necessarily where they should be at the appropriate time in run and pass, and he handled his job and then performed, executed and was very, very competitive and didn\u2019t allow the ebbs and flows of practice to really keep him out of his rhythm. For me, there\u2019s a lot of layers. It\u2019s definitely not just like, \u2018Hey, three throws.\u2019 When you\u2019re a quarterback, you throw the ball professionally so I feel like you should have good throws, but playing the position and being what the other 10 players on the team need you to be on that down, that\u2019s a whole other story and that\u2019s why he earned it,” McDaniel said of Tagovailoa.<\/p>\n

Dolphins right tackle Austin Jackson discussed how vital Tagovailoa’s command of the Dolphins’ offense is.<\/p>\n

“Very valuable. Tua in Year 6, he\u2019s definitely a lot more confident and decisive on and off the field. He knows what people are supposed to be doing in terms of training. He knows what we\u2019re doing on the field. He knows how to take care of his body. He knows how to unite guys, bring us together for team camaraderie and stuff, just to get together. He\u2019s a full-blown leader, and I think he\u2019s showing that he wants to take control of this team and he is,” Jackson said.<\/p>\n

After an injury-riddled 2024, Miami wide receiver Jaylen Waddle said Tagovailoa has an enthusiasm just to return to the practice field.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s just excited to play, man. I think all of us are. He looks confident, coming out with a different swag. He\u2019s got dye in his hair and some other stuff. He looks like he\u2019s just eager to play man,” Waddle said of his quarterback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After consecutive trips to the postseason, Miami slipped to 8-9 in 2024 and missed the playoffs for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[9819,10084,217,7,789,10541,14706,216,251,2087,6,7877,7876,3452,14701],"class_list":{"0":"post-112281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-jackson","10":"tag-dolphins","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-jackson","13":"tag-jaylen","14":"tag-jaylen-waddle","15":"tag-miami","16":"tag-miami-dolphins","17":"tag-miamidolphins","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-tagovailoa","20":"tag-tua","21":"tag-tua-tagovailoa","22":"tag-waddle"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114644539867169710","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}