Tua Tagovailoa ready to silence the critics in year two leap with Miami Dolphins

'A beard and a little bass'. Those were the not-so-exhaustive deductions of Dolphins left tackle Austin Jackson when asked if he had noticed any difference in quarterback Tua Tagovailoa this offseason.

Hardly the critical dissection that had been sought after, but for sprouting facial hair to proceed the scripted 'he's working hard' box-ticker is perhaps indicative of a fortified equilibrium in Miami, where Jackson, Brian Flores and the Dolphins brass know the differences will soar beyond a minor change in appearance in 2021.

Infectious smile suppressed, jawline cloaked like a seasoned vet neglecting shaving in favour of 5am film sessions, villainous hood up as if blinkers to incessant outside chatter. Drawing inferences from team photos may be a reach; suggesting Tua appears primed for an escalation in production is anything but.

By now Miami have long-rehearsed their 'told you so' smugness in the mirror when it comes to a quarterback whose slog of a recovery apparently slipped the minds of many in his rookie year. They will hold for applause when their spiral artist turns on the style come September.

Not only was Tua's hip dislocation and posterior wall fracture with Alabama a traumatic season-ender, it was a footballing anomaly, an injury more commonly associated with severe car crashes. One that could quite easily warrant a full 12 months out of action. Let's recap.

November 2019, Alabama lead Mississippi State 35-7 while facing third-and-four with 3:10 to play in the second quarter.

Tagovailoa scrambles to his left before being smothered by two rushers, a combination of falling awkwardly on his knee and the weight of defenders toppling him forcing the femur out the back of his hip socket, resulting in the ball of the femur colliding with the socket to leave a small chip in the back wall.

Team doctors moved quickly to reduce the hip, such was the fear of blood vessels tearing or being on stretch for such an extended period that the blood supply to the bone would be cut off. As was the case with Bo Jackson, who suffered from Avascular necrosis in the wake of his career-ending hip dislocation and fracture with the Raiders in 1991. If it sounds freakish, it's because it was. If it sounds excruciating, it's because it was.

And still some sighed and huffed and flailed arms in frustration when things didn't go perfectly for the fifth overall pick in season one. In some gloomy corridors of social media lurked suggestions the Dolphins should trade him. Huh?

A rookie quarterback's transition to the NFL is a physically taxing, brain-scrambling process as it is; there is a reason the mastery of Patrick Mahomes was confined to an internship role for a year in Kansas City. Now picture the mental and physical rehabilitation from a career-threatening injury, learning a brand new offense via the joys of 'you're on mute!' WiFi-dependent virtual meetings amid a truncated, preseason-less COVID-stricken offseason.

"I thought him being able to get on the field this past year was remarkable," Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon told Sky Sports. "He was coming off a major injury, I'm talking about a major injury for a quarterback. Then to go to a team where you had no offseason, no minicamp, in a new environment and then there wasn't a whole lot of talent on the offensive side of the ball.

"I thought what he was able to do under the circumstances was really good and I hope they don't give up on him for the future because I think he needs to have a whole offseason and a whole training camp and then a whole season with his players to see exactly who he is and where he is and then you make a decision after that."

Year one was potholed, but it wasn't the disappointment many made it out to be. Tagovailoa finished the season 186 of 290 passing (64.1 percent) for 1,814 yards and 11 touchdowns to five interceptions, along with 109 yards rushing for three scores from 36 carries.

He went 6-3 as a starter having been pulled on two separate occasions. First in November's 20-13 defeat to the Denver Broncos, during which he was sacked six times on a punishing day for Miami's offensive line, and again in December's 26-25 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders, which saw Ryan Fitzpatrick come in to set up Jason Sanders' game-winning field goal with a miraculous 34-yard completion to Mack Hollins while having his face mask yanked.

The Broncos game was a culmination of shrewd defensive scheming on Denver's part educating a slightly off-the-pace Tagovailoa and dismantling an inexperienced offensive line, which featured three rookies in first-round tackle Jackson, second-round right tackle Robert Hunt, who is set to shift inside this season, and fourth-round guard Solomon Kindley, all of whom played upwards of 700 snaps in 2020.

Tagovailoa was sacked 20 times in 10 games and afforded on average just 2.3 seconds in the pocket (in comparison Baker Mayfield had a league-best 2.7 seconds among starting quarterbacks).

Miami's offensive line face a potentially-defining role in making a leap in unison with that of their signal-caller, and took further strides to ensure that becomes the case this offseason by drafting as-tough-as-they-come Notre Dame tackle Liam Eichenberg in the second round.

"We have our own kind of culture in the room," Jackson told reporters. "We want to be tough, disciplined, detailed and nasty. All of those four words are kind of what we aim for and I think you can see a big improvement in those aspects. We want to do our job well, know we don't have any errors and we want to do it fast and do it with a sense of urgency."

In Vegas it was a case of substituting a somewhat conservative performance with the trigger-pulling aggressiveness of Fitzpatrick, who entered with nine minutes to play in the fourth quarter and immediately let rip to Mike Gesicki in traffic down the seam with a throw Tagovailoa is capable of but had been reluctant to back himself on earlier in the game.

He had displayed a similar hesitation to target Gesicki's out-route on a smash concept; the tight end was well covered, but the window was there for an arm with Tua's threat-the-needle accuracy.

His season entailed the inconsistencies you would expect from a rookie coming off such a disruptive injury. The surgical passing, gorgeous mechanics and elite anticipation was there but sporadic, he was slick in RPO, bootlegs and play-action rollouts, at times he was limited by Chan Gailey play-calling better designed for Fitzpatrick while in other moments he himself was perhaps too safe in a scheme already designed to reduce errors.

Little things like dropping his eyes momentarily when pressure arrived was a sign of him rediscovering that pocket poise, and the occasional neglect to attack downfield likely reflective of a player building his confidence back up.

There too were nuggets of brilliance, including the 10-play, 93-yard fourth-quarter drive he led to lift the Dolphins towards a 34-31 victory over the Arizona Cardinals in Week Nine. In between going 6-6 on the march downfield, Tagovailoa laid claim to his unsung mobility when he took off from the pocket on third-and-four before bamboozling Budda Baker with a no-look juke to move the sticks.

He would eventually cap the drive by acknowledging Hollins' outside release on the fade and floating a beautifully-weighted 11-yard touchdown pass over Jace Whittaker to tie the game, paving the way for Sanders' decisive field goal. Confidence, conviction, precision and a touch of flair.

There was ice in his veins that day. Earlier in the game he had bucketed a 35-yard completion to Preston Williams, electing to bypass an open Adam Shaheen on a mesh concept underneath and instead splitting the cornerback and assisting high safety with ease; on the next drive he produced expert timing to match DeVante Parker's deep-post-out route with a cross-body dagger while stepping up through a crowded pocket. Now we're talking.

During the game-winning drive he also fed Gesicki with a touch-perfect pass after a neatly-designed flood concept had seen the shallow option open up the tight end's corner route. Offensive coordinator Gailey was notably missing on the day due to illness, and while the plays may have been of his design a considerably more creative approach in his absence was eye-opening.

Gailey later resigned on the back of the season, meaning this is set to be the fourth successive year Tagovailoa finds himself learning a new offense.

"He's dealt with adversity whether it's injury or whatever it may be," Gesicki told reporters. "He's fought back from that and he's also dealt with people saying stupid, uneducated stuff about him that they're not right about.

"The problem with the criticism is it's not - there's nothing behind it. The kid came in here and people were already calling for him. He played nine games and he did a lot of really good things for us, stepped up in some big situations, made plays and I think got better each and every week.

"I can tell you that firsthand, the guys in the locker room, we all believe in him, we all respect him and we're all excited about him."

There is a reason it took the Dolphins a month to unveil a new offensive coordinator, their diligence speaking volumes to the decision's importance on the development of their quarterback. In the end the organisation's approach to promote running backs coach Eric Studesville and tight ends coach George Godsey to co-offensive coordinators had some logic in regards to familiarity.

Their appointments should create excitement in a league when modern running back and tight end coaches are required to follow and even leap-frog the curve in terms of subterfuge and the art of distraction at the line of scrimmage.

Multi-purpose gadget options such as Lynn Bowden Jr and Malcolm Perry make for an intriguing guessing game, Gesicki and third-round pick Hunter Long can be employed as anything from fullbacks to fake blockers, first-round wide receiver Jaylen Waddle offers a jet-sweep and end-around threat the Dolphins lacked consistently last year and Myles Gaskin remains a growth project as a pass-catching option out the backfield. From significantly increased pre-snap motion to personnel upgrades, there will be many more necessary schematic distractions around the man in the middle.

The Dolphins offense ranked 26th in yards after catch per reception last season, while separation was short in supply from their three leading receiver threats, all of whom represented more bigger-bodied contested catch options. And so general manager Chris Grier went shopping.

For the unrivalled route-running and the suction pad hands and the sheer adeptness for coming down with tough catches, Alabama's Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith looked the safe bet for the Dolphins at No. 6. Particularly in a COVID year when player information was limited. Particularly when reminding of Jakeem Grant's drop for a potential 45-yard touchdown against the Cincinnati Bengals, his drop-turned-interception on a deep-ball against the Kansas City Chiefs and Dolphins receivers combining for 11 drops on catchable passes in the 56-26 loss on the final day of the regular season.

Quite conveniently though, the man they did pick in Waddle brings a showreel that includes springing in bracket coverage against Missouri to make a near-identical catch to that of Grant's drop against the Bengals, as well as out-racing a double-team to haul in a Mac Jones dime at the back of the end zone in the same game.

The ease at which he creates separation, the ability to stretch the field both vertically and horizontally and his explosiveness with the ball in his hands lives permanently in the minds of defensive coordinators; he is a two-man job, at the minimum. Though he looks an ideal match for the Dolphins' RPOs, he is also a player that should not be restricted to the short game.

Meanwhile across from him free agency signing Will Fuller, who recorded a fourth-fastest max speed of 21.56 mph among receivers last season, accounts for the deep-threat Miami required to keep defensive backs honest. Dolphins verticals are about to look a whole lot different.

The injection of speed means defenses cannot afford to fill the box as often as they might have against the Dolphins last season. Compile that with improved protection and life begins to look far more comfortable back there for Tagovailoa, a knock on effect being added space for Gaskin and Salvon Ahmed to operate in as they seek to justify the team's decision not to draft another running back.

Tight end Long may lack the bust of others in his position but has an intelligence to identify soft spots in zone coverage, and the Dolphins will also have Grant, Albert Wilson and Allen Hurns to choose between further down the receiver depth chart, the latter two of whom will return after opting out in 2020.

"I think last year for me, last year wasn't, I wasn't as comfortable just in general," Tagovailoa told reporters. "I wasn't comfortable calling plays. I think the guys that we had last year were phenomenal.

"I just didn't have the comfortability of kind of checking plays, alerting plays and doing that. I just rode with the play even if I knew in a way that it wasn't going to work. I was going to try to make it work still. But the firepower that we have this year, it's good but you've got to get it out to them too."

A beard, a little bass, a year of experience in the NFL, a full offseason, new play-calling and now the weapons to challenge the bar set by Miami's top 10 defense. Those that called for Tua's head have been warned.

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