Jaylen Waddle praises Tua Tagovailoa, says he is a ‘great leader’ and ‘real confident’

A lot of the success that the Miami Dolphins hope to enjoy in the upcoming 2022 NFL season will likely hinge on whether or not quarterback Tua Tagovailoa can take the next step in his progression.

He’s shown flashes of brilliance so far during his professional career, but he has not shown enough to be considered a franchise passer at this point. With that in mind, the sentiment coming out of South Florida seems to be very positive.

Newly acquired star receiver Tyreek Hill has been incredibly complimentary of him since joining the team, and now, second-year receiver Jaylen Waddle has joined in on the praise.

He recently spoke glowingly of his quarterback while at Xavien Howard’s football camp.

“Tua’s great,” he said. “I think a great leader, real confident, got a lot of swag to him.”

Last season, the connection that Tagovailoa and Waddle formed was one of the bright spots of the Dolphins offense. Waddle had one of the better performances of a rookie receiver in recent memory. He finished the year with 104 receptions for 1,015 yards and six touchdowns.

Surely, he’ll look to take advantage of playing opposite Hill and build on those numbers in his sophomore season.

While Tagovailoa hasn’t had an incredible start to his NFL career, he has not enjoyed having a lot of elite talent alongside him on offense so far. That will not be the case in the upcoming season. The Dolphins made a point to add an elite star in Hill as well as lots of solid veteran talent.

The team has put Tagovailoa in a position to succeed in the upcoming season. Now, it’s up to him to prove that he deserves to be considered the team’s franchise quarterback.