In a different time, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s preseason debut would have come before his first regular season start but 2020 rookies didn’t get the benefit of August games as rookies.
Tagovailoa wound up taking over for Ryan Fitzpatrick and starting nine games for the Dolphins in a season that left plenty of room for the first-round pick to improve heading into his second year. That process moved forward with Saturday’s preseason opener against the Bears and Tagovailoa’s effort had some high points.
He hooked up with tight end Mike Gesicki for a 50-yard gain in the first quarter and moved the team into the red zone on a long drive that moved into the second quarter. Tagovailoa was late on a throw to Adam Shaheen in the end zone, however, and DeAndre Houston-Carson picked the pass off. He was 8-of-11 for 99 yards overall and focused on the need for things to be sharper in future outings.
“I think the better question for that is what didn’t I do wrong?” Tagovailoa said, via Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald. “I thought I did alright. There are a lot of things we need to clean up offensively -- with our communication, more so our execution with our plays that we were given. But that first time coming out with a real game-like situation and environment, I thought it was real good. Obviously, there’s a lot of things we need to clean up, but that’s what we got film for. When we get on the plane we’ll look at those plays that didn’t go the way we wanted and we’ll get those fixed.”
The Dolphins played without wide receivers DeVante Parker, Will Fuller, and Albert Wilson, so a fuller hand on offense would be something to look forward to as Tagovailoa and company build toward Week 1.
