Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa ‘very comfortable’ entering second season

Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is ready to prove his doubters wrong in his first full season as a starting quarterback. In an interview with NFL.com’s Judy Battista, the former No. 5 overall pick explained how he has dealt with high expectations and a variety of roadblocks early in his career.

“I feel very comfortable,” said Tagovailoa. “When you’ve been in a place longer than a year, you know where everything is, the flow of how everything works. I just think when you know how things work, you adapt a lot easier to the culture of your surroundings. I know a lot of the guys from last year — just being able to have some of the guys in the offseason has helped.”

The returning Dolphins are not the only familiar faces in the Dolphins locker room. Tagovailoa is reuniting with college teammate Jaylen Waddle, who was taken No. 6 overall by the Dolphins this year.

Gaining experience

Tagovailoa enters 2021 with nine starts under his belt. As a rookie, he threw for 1,814 yards with 11 touchdowns and five interceptions. Tagovailoa was sacked 20 times and averaged just 6.2 yards per attempt.

His 6-3 record was not enough to lead the Dolphins to a playoff berth but did allow to team to comfortably move on from stand-in quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick as the Tagovailoa-era officially begins.

“I’ve learned a lot,” Tagovailoa said. “To me, there’s talent and then there’s experience. No matter how much talent you have, I don’t think it ever overrides experience. For me, it’s a lot of learning. I learned a lot last year and continue to learn a lot.”

“Most definitely it’s been a positive,” he added. “It was my first year and nothing overrides experience. Being able to get into those games, get the experience, learn behind Fitz last year, it’s helped me a lot. This year, having the offseason and having a new quarterback room with Jacoby [Brissett] in there, asking him questions, and going out there and actually doing it. As many repetitions as we do now, it helps all of us, at every position. No matter how much film you watch, in order for you to be absorbing, you’ve got to do it.”

Using metaphors

The Dolphins quarterback is a self-proclaimed metaphor fan. He loves to apply lessons to every aspect of his life. Recently, while attempting to golf with his father, Tagovailoa came up with a metaphor for year two in the NFL.

His father encouraged Tagovailoa to keep his head down throughout his swing while he watched the ball fly down the fairway. Tua liked the approach.

“It relates to what’s going on in my life right now, too,” Tagovailoa told NFL.com. “For me, when I’m golfing, my job is to focus on the ball and make sure I’m hitting the ball. Don’t look at it. Go through your technique and your fundamentals and he’ll watch it. When you’re playing quarterback, you obviously have got to watch the ball. But the analogy is keeping my focus on what I have ahead of me, what play we have. That ‘next play’ mentality.”

That is not the only metaphor the 6-foot Hawaiian lefty is leaning on this season. Tagovailoa has a metaphor to help reman comfortable with his career progression, whether it’s game-to-game or season-to-season.

“When you look at it — there’s five cars in front of you,” Tagovailoa said. “The first car is a Mercedes. Three cars ahead is a Bentley. If your focus is on the Bentley three cars ahead of you, you might get into a car accident because you’re not focused on what’s in front of you. That’s my whole perspective — just worrying about what’s in front of me.”

“I’ve always been self-motivated,” he added. “I’ve been confident in knowing what I can do. I don’t really need motivation from elsewhere or from outside noise. That goes to the point, taking it day to day. It’s something that Coach [Brian Flores] would say in team meetings — one meeting at a time, one walkthrough at a time, one practice at a time. For me, it’s been working.”

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