Tua needs to be a miracle worker

Tua will be returning to a most likely 1and 4 team. That means he will need to win 9 or 10 of his remaining games to make the playoffs. Prior to this season I thought 10 and 7 would be a success for Tua. Can he provide the spark to get the offense running properly? 9 and 3 or 10 and 2. It is a lot to ask.

In the words, and tone, of Jim Mora Sr.: "playoffs????"

Really, this season will be all about evaluating Tua once he comes back. In a conference with Buffalo, Cleveland, KC, the Chargers and Raiders (who we will lose a TB to now), an improved Denver, Baltimore and one team guaranteed in from the South (likely Tennessee I suppose), we can forget about a playoff berth.

Tua will have to show enough, both in play AND availability, else we need to keep looking this offseason IMO.

There's no way to evaluate any QB behind this OL. As good as I think Tua can be, he's set up for failure this season. Flores really screwed him with this coaching staff. I'm sure the fans will continue to blame everything on Tua as the losses pile up, because everyone has already buried him, but the real blame falls on Flores and his clueless offensive staff.

There's no way any QB in league history could take this team to 10 wins.

As I said earlier, this entire season is a waste of time. All we'll really learn by season's end is that we need a new offensive coaching staff - AGAIN.

JMP wrote:There's no way to evaluate any QB behind this OL.  As good as I think Tua can be, he's set up for failure this season. Flores really screwed him with this coaching staff.  I'm sure the fans will continue to blame everything on Tua as the losses pile up, because everyone has already buried him, but the real blame falls on Flores and his clueless offensive staff.  

There's no way any QB in league history could take this team to 10 wins.

As I said earlier, this entire season is a waste of time.  All we'll really learn by season's end is that we need a new offensive coaching staff - AGAIN.

All true. OK, evaluate him as best possible. If he does somehow get this team to, say, 9-8, then I'd say he's the guy and there's one less thing to worry about. We certainly have enough on our plate for the off-season already.

Former Browns general manager and longtime NFL executive Mike Lombardi told WQAM’s Joe Rose this week that “when you have co-coordinators [on offense], it doesn’t work. It’s been proven it doesn’t work. You need one guy who’s going to call plays and set up the game plan based on the personnel.”

Asked how a general manager can survive with having multiple first-round flops, Lombardi said: “I don’t know how he does it. Chris [Grier] is a really good guy. He has had a lot of picks and hasn’t repaired the offensive line. I don’t know how you survive that. Unless someone else is making the picks, unless Stephen Ross really fell in love in Tua.”

(We’re told that Ross strongly supported the selection of Tagovailoa in the draft but did not order Grier to pick him.)

But, Lombardi said, if anyone evaluated Justin Herbert (40 TDs, 13 picks in with the Chargers) and Tagovailoa (12 TDs, 6 picks), “there is no chance you would watch both of these players work out and pick Tua. One is bigger, stronger, faster, with a bigger arm. It makes no sense at all. But it is the power of the media. When you begin with the end in mind [drafting Tagovailoa] and violate the first rule of scouting, which is not beginning with the end of mind,.. that’s what they did.

“I don’t understand how it can happen. It’s the power of bias, the power of media, the power of the PR machine, the power of the Leigh Steinberg machine. There was a complete bias that was set up in this. Leigh Steinberg [who is one of Tagovailoa’s agents] is the greatest marketer of all time. He can spin a story and people buy it. You have people still buying it at the worldwide leader [ESPN]. I was reading something the other day that Tua is still going to be great. It’s unbelievable. You took a player who has been injury prone his whole career.

“Tua can throw crossers, flats and curls. But if he has to do anything more than that, he can’t. Is Tua going to be a top 15 quarterback in the league? If the answer is no, you need a [new] quarterback. Herbert is in the top five” already.

https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/barry-jackson/article254750427.html#storylink=mainstage_lead

crossers, flats and curls - that sounds exactly like all Miami's offense was designed to do.

Lombardi is such a blowhard. Way to go out on a limb, kicking a team when it's down and pissing on an injured player. Lombardi is a piece of shit and he's a liar, too.

First of all, most teams had Tua ranked ahead of Herbert. In fact, if not for the hip injury Tua likely would have been the #1 pick. Chargers' GM Tom Telesco literally said that they would have drafted Tua over Herbert, so Lombardi is just making shit up. It's really easy to say "everyone loved Herbert" in retrospect, but that simply wasn't the case.

Second, Tua can and has made every throw. He is not limited in any way. Remember that perfect 50 yard bomb that Grant dropped last season? That was not a crosser, flat or curl. And if you ever watched Tua at Alabama, you know that he threw tons of deep balls and other passes and didn't just rely on those 3 plays. I would also argue that in the NFL, Tua hasn't thrown enough crossers - that play is deadly when you have a guy like Waddle running it. And Leigh Steinberg created the Tua hype? Really? Was Steinberg Tua's agent in college??? I must have missed that.

And no, Tua was not injury prone in college. He had one major injury - a freak hip injury that was described as something you'd only see in a car accident. Don't give me the bullshit that "oh, he hurt his finger and ankle." Yeah, him and every other QB ever to play the game. Russell Wilson and Matt Stafford both injured their fingers last night - are they injury prone? Pat Mahomes had an ankle injury last season - is he injury prone? Herbert and Josh Allen both broke their collarbones in college - are they injury prone? Hell, he's not a QB but Gronk is on IR with broken ribs, just like Tua - is he too weak and injury prone?

Finally, there is not one team in the NFL that has just one person designing a gameplan. Lombardi is completely speaking out of his ass with that statement. Every team uses a collaborative effort when setting a gameplan. And the Dolphins do have one person calling plays - so again, wrong.

There's a reason Lombardi is a FORMER NFL executive. He was Cleveland's GM in 2013-2014, when they finished in last place both seasons with a combined 11-21 record. Prior to that, he was a personnel executive with the Raiders for a long time...and in his last 5 seasons with the team, they never won more than 5 games and had a combined 19-61 record. As far as I'm concerned, his opinion is worthless and he has absolutely no business trash-talking about current NFL GMs.

Well, Lombardi is probably angling to get back in as a GM with some gullible owner (hint) lending an ear to him when he says, "lemme tell ya what *I* woulda done!"

It worked for Tannenbaum here, so Lombardi figures he might as well give it a shot....

The offense was tailored to fit Tua's strengths. Until Tua starts making deep throws consistently teams will stack the box. Crowd the line and play man with press coverage. Everything other teams do will be to interrupt our short and intermediate timing throws. Unfortunately those short and intermediate throws are the only throws our QB's have time to throw since the offensive line can't give the allotted time needed to throw anything else.

As for Tua and Hebert, we got what we got and need to make the best of it. The front office and coaching staff should be designing an offense similar to what New Orleans ran with Brees.

Well said, Carson. I agree that running the Saints' offense would have been a great fit for Tua...we should have gone after Saints QB coach Joe Lombardi, who is now Herbert's OC with the Chargers.

But yes, we did tailor the offense to Tua...but he's only had one game in that offense, and even when he comes back he won't be able to successfully run it with this mess of an OL.

In addition to not being able to throw deep because the OL can't protect, we can't even run RPO plays the right way. While this was never going to be an all-out RPO-based offense, RPO plays won't be successful because there is zero threat of a running game. The coaches have pretty much ignored the running game all season for some reason, and you can't run RPO plays if the defense doesn't respect the run. It's just a complete clusterfuck, and IMO it all starts with the failure of the OL coach to get his squad at a competitive level.

Grier has NOT used the draft haul he got from the Texans well. There is not one pick that we can say with a certainty is gonna be a HOFer or is even a bonafide impact player.

Maybe its Waddle, but... Maybe Phillips but...

As well as we all thought Flores was doing apparently he got LUCKY with all the coaching spin the bottle he was playing for two years and now it has jumped up and promptly bitten him in the keister! I do think a majority of the Offensive woes stem from the horrid coaching the players are getting, especially on the O-line.

I have never understood how Grier prioritizes his boards for the draft. Some of the moves make little sense IMHO. Picking Harris over T J Watt should have gotten him fired instantly IMO. That sort of mistake is emblematic of a deep-seated lack of drafting skill IMO.

Ross probably should clean house and start over, but he will not. He will ride this flaming dirigible down into the swamp and step out while it sizzles and steams in the murky swamp water behind him and talk about how much he has learned from what went wrong!

SIGH

I would love to see a path that fixes all the Phins problems, but there just is not one.

As I have said before and will continue to say: Until the Phins fix the MAIN PROBLEM they have, talent evaluation and acquisition, they will continue to stink on ice!

All the draft deals and moves make for good news leading up to the draft, but if the picks are not used properly, even having a boatload does the team no good.

I will say this: I think the 2021 draft will turn out to be excellent.

--Waddle looks like he could be a star in the right circumstances. Those circumstances don't exist in Miami yet, but I think he's got a real bright future.
--Phillips is really starting to come on, and looks like he could become a great player - both pass rushing and run stopping.
--Holland has been quiet, but has the tools to shine once he starts getting more playing time.
--Eich...so far, no bueno - but his college tape is excellent, and I bet he will be great under a legit OL coach.
--Hunter Long - who knows, but again he did have great college tape

We'll see, of course...too early to tell, but these look like (future) impact players to me.

My hunch is that EVERY player on offense will look much better the second we get a real OL coach.

finfanatic wrote:Grier has NOT used the draft haul he got from the Texans well. There is not one pick that we can say with a certainty is gonna be a HOFer or is even a bonafide impact player.

Maybe its Waddle, but... Maybe Phillips but...

As well as we all thought Flores was doing apparently he got LUCKY with all the coaching spin the bottle he was playing for two years and now it has jumped up and promptly bitten him in the keister! I do think a majority of the Offensive woes stem from the horrid coaching the players are getting, especially on the O-line.

I have never understood how Grier prioritizes his boards for the draft. Some of the moves make little sense IMHO. Picking Harris over T J Watt should have gotten him fired instantly IMO. That sort of mistake is emblematic of a deep-seated lack of drafting skill IMO.

Ross probably should clean house and start over, but he will not. He will ride this flaming dirigible down into the swamp and step out while it sizzles and steams in the murky swamp water behind him and talk about how much he has learned from what went wrong!

SIGH

I would love to see a path that fixes all the Phins problems, but there just is not one.

As I have said before and will continue to say: Until the Phins fix the MAIN PROBLEM they have, talent evaluation and acquisition, they will continue to stink on ice!

All the draft deals and moves make for good news leading up to the draft, but if the picks are not used properly, even having a boatload does the team no good.

The sad thing is I think we do a better job of talent evaluation than a professional that should live and breathe football.