Tua Tagovailoa skilled loads of highs and lows in his rookie season with the Miami Dolphins, which include the territory of being the beginning quarterback for a crew that carried out properly above expectations and fought for a playoff berth. The Dolphins weren’t afraid to take the child gloves off Tagovailoa when wanted, benching him in favor of Ryan Fitzpatrick thrice over the ultimate seven weeks of the season as a way to compete for a playoff spot. 

Tagovailoa was batting accidents final season, which wasn’t the foundation of his struggles. For a participant that after anticipated the transition to the NFL to be “quite a bit tougher,” Tagovailoa skilled a style of humble pie because the season progressed. 

“Nicely, I feel final yr for me, final yr wasn’t – I wasn’t as comfy simply generally. I wasn’t comfy calling performs,” Tagovailoa admitted in a convention name throughout Dolphins minicamp Wednesday. “I feel the fellows that we had final yr had been phenomenal. I simply did not have the comfortability of type of checking performs, alerting performs and doing that. I simply rode with the play even when I knew in a means that it wasn’t going to work. I used to be going to attempt to make it work nonetheless.”

“However the firepower that now we have this yr, it is good however you have to get it out to them, too. If you happen to’re in a position to defend your self after which get it out to them and have them make performs, then you definitely’ll be good.”

The Dolphins had been 6-3 in Tagovailoa’s begins, however he nonetheless carried out properly regardless of the playbook points. Tagovailoa accomplished 64.1% of his passes for 1,814 yards with 11 touchdowns to 5 interceptions (87.1 ranking). He additionally rushed for 109 yards and three touchdowns. 

Tagovailoa was very profitable towards the blitz, finishing 64.7% of his passes and throwing seven touchdowns to only one interception (101.6 ranking). His interception fee of 1.72 was the second-lowest in crew historical past and the sixth-lowest in NFL historical past for rookie quarterbacks (minimal 300 makes an attempt).

Think about what’s going to occur with a full offseason — and data of the playbook — underneath his belt. 

“That is on nobody else’s fault however my fault,” Tagovailoa stated. “Our play calls had been easy once I was in. I did not have alerts and checks whereas now, feeling extra comfy, I can type of maneuver my means by these items now.”