NFL News: Former Dolphins teammate says Tua can be elite, but there's a catch

Back in the day, Tua Tagovailoa was seen as one of the most promising quarterbacksin college football. However, the optimistic opinions about his future started to change when he sufferedahip injury in 2019.

The Dolphins drafted him anyway in 2020. For the first time in years, Miami felt like it had finally landed a potential franchise quarterback. His first two seasons were not great, though, and many started to question Tua’s talent.

For some people, he didn’t have enough arm strength norspeed or ability to move in the pocket. The Dolphins always looked sold on him, but the reports linking them with other QBs didn’t help either. Former teammate Ryan Fitzpatrick believes that Tua can be elite, but only if he focuses on his strengths.

Former Dolphins’ QB Ryan Fitzpatrick says Tua Tagovailoa can only be elite at two things

“I get how dicey every opinion around Tua is,”Fitzpatrick said in the “Pardon My Take” podcast.“But if you’re a top-10 quarterback, you have to have at least one trait that is absolutely special — something you can do that nobody else can do. … With Tua, it’s the not the arm strength. It’s not the ability to run. It’s not the ability to scramble or get out of trouble. So what is it? … Anticipation and accuracy. Those are the things he has to be elite at. And I think that he is very, very good at it.

“The problem is,sometimes you have to create … and he’s not gonna be able to scramble around, escape the pocket and make the big plays down the field. So he has to take what he has that’s elite — his accuracy — and hopefully, as he gets better, his decision-making, and he has to be the best in the NFL at it, because he’s limited in some of those other ways.”

Fans, analysts, and even former teammates seem to have doubts about Tua. Fitzpatrick said Tagovailoa could be great at two things, but suggested that he’s average in every other aspect.

Still, Tagovailoa hasall the support he needs to prove the doubters wrong. The front office, Mike McDaniel, and even Tyreek Hill appear to really believe in him. And that’s all that matters.