One of the legitimate concerns that came up when the Miami Dolphins traded for receiver Tyreek Hill was the ability of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to get Hill the ball downfield. Hill has been the NFL’s most dynamic deep receiver for a while now, but that was with the Kansas City Chiefs, and a quarterback in Patrick Mahomes whose deep arm was never in doubt.
Last season, per Pro Football Focus, Tagovailoa completed just 14 of 29 passes of 20 or more air yards for 526 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. To put that in context, Mahomes completed 36 of 76 deep passes for 1,254 yards, nine touchdowns, and three interceptions. When your new quarterback has fewer deep attempts than your former quarterback has deep completions… well, that seems to be an indictment of Tagovailoa’s ability to hurl the ball downfield without too much effort.
“It’s fun,” Tagovailoa said in April, when asked what it’s like to throw to Hill. “You catch glimpses of his speed and you obviously have played against him and seen him play in other games, seen his highlights as well. He’s explosive. He can turn a negative two-yard swing route into a 20-yard touchdown or a 20-yard gain. It’s pretty cool. It’s exciting.”
But is it exciting for Hill? The Dolphins recently put out a tweet with this throw from Tagovailoa to Hill. The idea was to get fans excited about the connection, but the team unfortunately used a video in which the throw was wobbly, and Hill had to slow up to catch it.
Not great, Bob.
.@Tua 🚀 @Cheetah pic.twitter.com/HGALhokvkc
— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) May 11, 2022
Surely there were better throws against air the team could have used? Dolphins fans live in hope.
