The relationship started on a warm, spring day in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Fresh off an awe-inspiring, championship game performance, a sophomore Tua Tagovailoa led his first-team unit down the field during seven-on-seven. In the second group: a diminutive yet speedy, rising freshman by the name of Jaylen Waddle. More than seven years after the two first met, one memory stands out.
“I remember throughout that seven-on-seven deal, I had my guys out there, then the second group would go in,” Tagovailoa recalled back to those dog days of spring ball in 2018 under famed Alabama coach Nick Saban. Known for his 4th Quarter Program, both he and Waddle participated in an intense offseason schedule of morning lifts, class before a return to the facility for more work such as the very scrimmages that the Miami Dolphins franchise quarterback mentioned. “You got the ball into his hands, prior to all the injuries that Waddle has had over there, he was fast fast. Super quick.”
That’s the sort of connection teams bank on when they select a quarterback-receiver from the same school. Over the course of roughly seven years, Tagovailoa and Waddle have connected on more than 400 passes. A season-ending injury to superstar wideout Tyreek Hill will once again have to test the Alabama duo’s connection test on the national stage.
“You can’t replace a personality and a player like that,” Waddle said. “You just kind of remember and know what you’re playing for, know how special a player and teammate he is and kind of just play through it or play in remembrance of his energy.”
Ask Waddle about the return to wide receiver No. 1 status and the Texas native responds with the humble charm only found in a Southerner.
“Uhhhhhh,” Waddle said, a bevy of microphones and cameras in his face. He then flashes a big grin. “We never look at it as WR1 or 1a/1b. That’s more of a media thing or, something that gives the media something to talk about. We all go out there, make plays and just try to help our team win.”
Waddle maintains that same perspective even when the lights aren’t on him.
“When you have a lot of weapons, someone is going to have more of the shine,” Waddle said, referring to Hill, adding that he doesn’t necessarily feel overlooked.
Outside the locker room, however, questions abound, especially after an injury-plagued 2024 led not only to a subpar season in which the former Alabama standout didn’t even crack 800 yards but a sub-.500 record as well. A lackluster start to 2025 has further fanned the flames surrounding Waddle’s potential lost step — even if the offense as a whole looked to be a shell of its former self.
The truth is, 2024 was the least amount of games that Waddle played without Tagovailoa since his final season at Alabama in 2020. And when the quarterback carousel began as it did in 2024, the Dolphins lost out on one of the primary reasons that they paired the duo in the first place: chemistry.
“Any sort of thing that subconsciously makes a thrower more confident that he knows what the player is going to do and/or the player being the receiver, being more confident in the type of ball that generally goes his way” is a good thing, coach Mike McDaniel said of the benefit of drafting quarterback-receiver duos.
What many seem to have forgotten is that Waddle was drafted to be the top dawg in the Dolphins receiver room. That’s the responsibility of a No. 6 pick. And in his first year, he certainly delivered, breaking Anquan Boldin’s rookie record for catches with 104 to go along with 1,015 yards.
“How he went about his business that year,” Tagovailoa recalled of what he learned about his friend as a rookie. . “Just things that we asked of him and him knowing that as well, he took it upon himself, too, that year like, ‘I can’t be a rookie. This isn’t the year for me to be a rookie. I’ve got to come in and I’ve got to go and ball for this team.’ I’ve got the utmost confidence in ‘J. Dub.”
Waddle then followed up with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons. Such a start to his NFL career put him on a list with Hall of Famers Jerry Rice, Randy Moss and Isaac Bruce as receivers with the most yards through their first three seasons.
“It’s one of those where we get right back into that,” Tagovailoa continued. “Jaylen understands the offense a lot better than he did the first year Mike came here, so I trust that he’s going to be here where he needs to be. We’ve built that chemistry from Alabama all the way until now, but Jaylen knows that doesn’t give way to me just always looking for him as the target. We’ve got to go through the progression and see what the defense wants to run now that ‘10’ is out.”
To say both Waddle and Tagovailoa have not benefited from one another’s presence on the Dolphins would be incorrect. This is a duo that, as Waddle said, “hangs out together more than people think,” something that has allowed the two to develop a relationship that extends far outside of football. With Tagovailoa, however, that off-the-field chemistry has always been a precursor to what happens in between the lines.
At 1-3, the Dolphins certainly don’t have much time to waste if a postseason berth still remains the goal. That puts the onus squarely on two of the team’s top picks from the last decade. And while Waddle won’t be the one to admit to people’s doubts, his teammate Malilk Washington certainly can speak for him.
“I know people know who Jaylen Waddle is,” Washington said. “I think it’s more so that people need to be reminded.”