MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Tua Tagovailoa is probably too far back to catch the top tier in the NFL’s MVP race.
But you’d be hard-pressed to find any player who means more to his team than Tua means to the Miami Dolphins.
When he’s out, the Dolphins are lost. But when he’s in — as he was in the Dolphins’ 34-19 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders — they have one of the league’s most efficient offenses.
Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa Is on a Heater
Tagovailoa on Sunday completed 28 of 36 passes for 288 yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions. If not for Jared Goff’s bananas game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tagovailoa probably would be the NFL’s offensive player of the week.
But Jonnu Smith, who had a career game Sunday, has even higher praise for Miami’s QB1.
“Best in the world,” said Smith, who had 101 receiving yards and caught two of Tua’s three touchdown passes. “You’ve got the best quarterback in the world. Makes things a lot easier for everybody else.
“And those guys that came in during that time when he was down, they did a great job and helped us as much as they could and showed a lot of grit and a lot of selflessness. We are happy to have those guys, but 1 is who he is for a reason. But we’re excited to have him back and excited to where we’re back where we need to be.”
Tua Tagovailoa on the transformation of the Dolphins’ offense in 2024 pic.twitter.com/kXNdMI0Ik4
— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) November 17, 2024
With Tagovailoa under center, the Dolphins are scoring most every time they have the ball. Jake Bailey didn’t punt Sunday, and Miami only possession that went scoreless was an end-of-half situation.
Tagovailoa on the season is completing 73.4% of his passes for 1,443 yards (7.5 per attempt), nine touchdowns, and four interceptions for a 101.6 rating.
But since his return from IR, Tua has completed an absurd 77.7% of his attempts, averaged 7.4 yards per pass, has a 7-1 TD-INT ratio, and a 112.2 passer rating.
Tua on third and fourth downs since his return has connected on 78% of his attempts, averaged 8.5 yards per attempt, thrown two touchdowns and no picks (118.5 rating), and has 25 passing first downs on 45 dropbacks.
He took it to another level on money downs Sunday, completing 10 of 12 attempts on third and fourth downs (83.3%), averaged 6.8 yards per attempt, threw two touchdowns (134.7), and converted nine first downs on 13 dropbacks.
Tagovailoa has a 94.9 QB+ rating on the season, which is second behind only Lamar Jackson and the ninth-best since 2019.
“He’s taken a gigantic step in his game,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said. “He’s got control of the emotional piece of the football game and isn’t trying to force things unnecessarily, isn’t trying to make plays when they’re not there, but also finding ways to extend plays and making more plays than maybe the play that I gave him enabled them to do.”
Added Tagovailoa: “I don’t think anyone can play their best game essentially. But you try to minimize the amount of mistakes that you have in games. So I think that’s what we’re trying to do.”