After all of the offseason speak surrounding Tua Tagovailoa getting into his third NFL season, it’s lastly time to see if the enhancements in his sport come to fruition.
The Miami Dolphins quarterback will open a crucial season for his staff and profession with new playmakers round him, an improved offensive line in entrance of him, a supportive, offensive-minded head coach and nearly all excuses he has beforehand had obtainable — though he himself opts to not level to them — erased.
And it comes towards the AFC East rival New England Patriots, a 1 p.m. kickoff on Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium.
“Week 1 is always exciting,” stated Tagovailoa following Wednesday’s apply.
“I can say every game is exciting, but Week 1 is always exciting. It’s the start to a new season for our new team with the Dolphins. A lot of the fans are really looking forward to seeing guys like [wide receiver] Tyreek [Hill], seeing guys like [tackle] Terron Armstead, a lot of the new additions that we’ve picked up throughout this offseason. … You can see the hype around the team with the fans and all the people that want to come and see our team play.”
Because of precisely that, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel’s message to Tagovailoa and his complete staff this week has been considered one of “don’t try to do too much.”
“Don’t let all that investment [throughout the offseason] hurt you,” McDaniel stated, “and start to think that you need to make X, Y or Z play. This is a team sport, the ultimate team sport. … You may put pressure on yourself to say, ‘Okay, I’m going to have the greatest game.’ This has been a lot of buildup before Week 1, so guys can fall into the trap of losing sight of what football is.”
Beyond all of the enhancements to the roster and hype from the fan base, what’s totally different for Tagovailoa this season is he’s able to take his subsequent step as a frontrunner in Year 3, after being named staff captain and main vote-getter by a “resounding” margin, in response to McDaniel.
“It doesn’t change the way I lead,” Tagovailoa stated. “I think the coolest thing is no one needs to go up and give a speech and tell the team why you should vote for me as a captain. It’s cool that coach just allows the guys to decide, and coach may say that I had the most votes, but there’s a lot of guys that have a lot of respect in our locker room that the guys really trust and really want to play for.”
Said McDaniel final week when staff captains had been first introduced: “It speaks volumes on where he’s at with the team and their belief in him.”
That notion was backed up by the quantity of confidence fellow offensive captains in Hill and Armstead expressed of their younger quarterback.
“We are 100 percent behind him,” Armstead stated. “He is the captain, so he’s the one that we are all following, and he’s going to lead us to wherever we got to go.”
Tagovailoa and the Dolphins open with a pivotal matchup, made much more necessary as a result of you may’t lose your early-season residence sport towards New England within the South Florida warmth and humidity, particularly when the Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals comply with on the schedule.
Tagovailoa takes a 3-0 profession document towards the Patriots into the opener, however with that, he carries an understanding that it by no means comes simple towards coach Bill Belichick.
“It’s difficult every time we play a Bill Belichick defense. You never know what you’re going to get,” he stated. “You’re always seeing different fronts. I mean, he’s going to find a way to confuse you. It’s never normally the same.”
He added about his document towards New England: “I wouldn’t attest that I’m 3-0, I would attest that we’re 3-0 as a team. Takes all of us.”
The apply week for Tagovailoa will probably be key in getting him re-acclimated with Waddle forward of the opener. Waddle missed weeks of apply to conclude coaching camp, didn’t play within the preseason and was restricted on Wednesday however with out the compression sleeve on his proper leg for his quad damage.
Although McDaniel has expressed confidence in Waddle’s availability for Sunday, twice Wednesday, Tagovailoa put an “if” in his remarks surrounding Waddle taking part in towards the Patriots. Tagovailoa stated it was “a good day to iron those things out” with Waddle in regaining that chemistry together with his former Alabama teammate. McDaniel stated he has no reservations about their capacity to rapidly click on after Waddle had 104 receptions as a rookie.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com