There was no sugercoating from the Dolphins quarterbacks coach this week, no attempt to put a positive spin on Tua Tagovailoa’s underwhelming 2025 body of work.
“Up and down,” is how Darrell Bevell described Tagovailoa’s sixth NFL season and fourth year under Mike McDaniel.
“He’s had good moments and not good moments,” Bevell said. “What we are trying to do is recapture what we’ve done in the years previous, 2022 and 2023, where he was playing well and at a consistent level.”
Bevell said Tagovailoa has fixed one issue: availability. He has played in every game after playing one only full season over his first five years.
“Now he’s in there and done a great job of taking care of that,” Bevell said. “We need to get back to a consistent level to know [what] we can get week in and week out. It’s been up and down. The last few weeks, we’ve started to steady it.”
But he said “a little bit of an uptick” is still needed.
Through 11 games and 12 weeks, Tagovailoa ranks tied for 12th in touchdown passes (17) and tied with Geno Smith for first (and worst) with 13 interceptions. He ranks 20th in passing yards (2123), 24th in quarterback rating (88.1), 25th in ESPN’s QBR (43.5), ninth in completion percentage (68.3), 22nd in average yards per pass attempt (6.8) and 31st in passing yards per game (193.0).
Bevell said that on the last three interceptions that Tagovailoa has thrown - including two third-down deep balls into double coverage against Buffalo - “he was doing exactly what we asked him to do. Those are the ones that eat at him the most, because he might not have made the throw, but was doing what we asked him to do.”
In an effort to protect himself from concussions or other injuries, Tagovailoa has a career low 14 rushing attempts for 38 carries (2.7 per carry). Several times, he has bypassed the chance to gain yards, and gone to the ground willingly, because the team wants him to prioritize his health.
Asked if Tagovailoa has confided any frustration about that, Bevell said he has not but added: “That’s always decisions you have to make in real time. To the naked eye, you’ve seen maybe three or four plays where he could have done something different but that’s going to be there all the time because it’s important to take care of himself and the team. There are moments where he does a good job taking care of himself and getting down.”
Personnel notes
▪ Bevell seemed to caution against assuming that tight end Darren Waller will make an immediate return from a pectoral injury that has sidelined him for four game. Waller began practicing this week, and the team has 21 days to activate him from injured reserve. Miami plays host to New Orleans on Sunday (1 p.m., Fox 7).
“We’ve got to make it through these 21 days and make sure where he’s at,” Bevell said. “I don’t know where he’s going to be at right now.”
▪ Beyond Minkah Fitzpatrick, defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver said the players on the roster who are best equipped to play nickel cornerback are rookies Jason Marshall Jr. (a boundary corner in college) and Dante Trader Jr. (a safety primarily).
Marshall allowed receptions on the first seven targets of his career, then missed more than a month on injured reserve but played well against Washington when Juju Brents left with a season-ending foot injury.
“It’s most natural for him to play on the outside, but we asked him to do a lot moving inside because we had a lot of injuries,” cornerbacks coach Mathieu Araujo said. “Early on, we made it hard on him by moving him inside. Some of those plays, he’s playing in space that he’s never really played in before. Now he’s comfortable,... playing calmer.”
▪ Over the past three games, running back Jaylen Wright has been on the field for 22 offensive snaps and has touched the ball on 16 of them: 15 carries for 49 yards (3.3 average) and one catch for no yards.
The Dolphins are mixing him in some, with De’Von Achane and Ollie Gordon II, because “we think he has good zone running ability and versatility to do the offense,” offensive coordinator Frank Smith said. “We want [all] those guys to get involved.”
▪ New Dolphins cornerback A.J. Green, who was poached off the Rams’ practice squad after Brents went on injured reserve, said Dolphins interim general manager Champ Kelly told him that he remembered watching his tape when he was coming out of Oklahoma State in 2020.
The 6-2 Green, who signed with Cleveland as an undrafted rookie, has played in 36 games and made two starts - one apiece for the Browns in 2021 and 2022. He has played 318 defensive snaps in five seasons but none in three appearances for the Browns last season and none in two appearances for the Rams this season.
“AJ is a veteran in the sense of poise he plays with, instincts he plays with,” Araujo said. “He plays a very calm style of corner; he knows when to anticipate and knows how to read routes. You saw a guy who was able to join the roster who was far along in terms of his development. He’s a great option for us.”
Here’s part 1 of my series on Dolphins issues that need clarity over the final six weeks of the season.