Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is making strides quickly, and offensive coordinator Chan Gailey seems pleased with what he has seen so far.
“He has a tremendous feel for the game,” said Gailey. “That allows him to see some things and do some things, throw the ball in some spots other people might not do. He just went out and played the game. He didn’t care who was there, who wasn’t there. He was playing the game. That’s what you like about him. He wasn’t thinking about adversity, he was thinking about how can we go be successful. That will carry a person a long way.”
In Week 9 against the Arizona Cardinals, the rookie led a successful fourth quarter comeback that resulted in a 34-31 victory and surprisingly solid 5-3 record.
Gailey also talked about what he would like to see out of the University of Alabama product moving forward.
“The next strides, he’s gotta see and understand defenses more and more,” Gailey added. “And that just comes from doing it. We worked against the same defense, all offseason. We didn’t have any preseason games to say this is what another team does, this is what another team does, he’s getting that on the fly. I think just understanding defenses, what they’re trying to do…those type of things will be the strides I hope he makes in the next few weeks.”
Against Arizona, Tagovailoa completed 20 of his 28 pass attempts and threw two touchdown passes against zero interceptions. He also had a pretty impressive 122.3 passer rating for the game.
As it stands, the Dolphins are just 1.5 games behind the Buffalo Bills for first place in the AFC East.
Coming into this season, few felt the Fins had a real shot at making the postseason.
But if Tagovailoa continues to produce the way he has of late, Miami might be in the NFL playoffs for only the third time since 2001, especially since it has a pretty favorable schedule.
