In 2021, the Miami Dolphins relied on Tua Tagovailoa to lead their team on a quest that would hopefully end in a postseason appearance or better. Instead, they had a horrendous start to the season that set them up for failure despite an incredible second half.
Tagovailoa finished the season completing 67.8% of his passes for 2,653 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions with a 90.1 passer rating in 13 games. The one thing that could be said about Tagovailoa’s season was that it was extremely inconsistent. Some weeks it looked like he had taken that next step to being a good quarterback in this league, and other weeks it looked like he was a rookie starting his first game again.
There were a number of factors that limited Tagovailoa throughout the season including poor offensive line play, questionable play-calling, the lack of a running game, and injuries to his wide receivers, but he’s still responsible for his performances.
If there were just one or two throws that were put in a better spot, the season could have ended completely differently, considering the Dolphins were just one game out of a playoff spot.
The good thing for Tagovailoa is that he has the support of his general manager and owner. When Stephen Ross fired Brian Flores he had said that the next head coach would have the ability to decide what the team wants to do at quarterback, however, there have been reports stating the team wants their next coach to believe in Tagovailoa as they do.
Miami is down to two finalists for their head coaching job and there are plenty of reasons why Tagovailoa would be a good fit for each candidate, so it’s not out of the question to see him take a step next season. To this point, the Dolphins have done him no favors to this point with the amount of turnover they’ve had at offensive coordinator, forcing Tagovailoa to learn new things in now a third straight season.
2022 is an incredibly important season for Tagovailoa because, fair or not, he will be completely judged on what happens this year to determine what Miami does at the position the following year. If he struggles, they’ll likely move on.
