2022 Dolphins: Our coach is cooler than yours

lexrageorge

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Tua isn't going to quit football people. Jesus.

He is world class at the QB position. He is a Top 20 quarterback in the world. And he's just going to walk away from the life of an NFL QB and the tens of millions of dollars because he got a concussion? So naive.
Concussions have forced other NFL players into an early retirement.
 

Van Everyman

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How many 24 year old starting QBs have retired from the NFL due to concussions?
How many concussions became a national story?

I agree that Tua isn’t going to give up football easily. But the fact that he had two this season and went through the whole “He’s determined to come back and be better than ever” only to get a third that knocked him out for another two months probably means there will also be pressure from outside his own inner circle to quit, especially if he comes back and inevitably gets another.

As @streeter88 says, this isn’t a simple decision.
 

Dogman

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How many concussions became a national story?

I agree that Tua isn’t going to give up football easily. But the fact that he had two this season and went through the whole “He’s determined to come back and be better than ever” only to get a third that knocked him out for another two months probably means there will also be pressure from outside his own inner circle to quit, especially if he comes back and inevitably gets another.

As @streeter88 says, this isn’t a simple decision.

Likewise, I don't think Tua gives up football easily either. However, I do think that the number of concussions, the severity, and the current length of time in protocol make this discussion and and decisions moving forward far more complex than simply saying it is naive to think he won't be back. It's possible he never makes it back to full health. It's possible he attempts to play and doesn't make it out of camp. It is not absolute that he is the starter next year.
 

dirtynine

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It’s basically what Andrew Luck did, right? More preemptively, but IIRC preventing the long-term destruction of his brain and body was the driving factor.
 

sodenj5

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It’s basically what Andrew Luck did, right? More preemptively, but IIRC preventing the long-term destruction of his brain and body was the driving factor.
More that his throwing shoulder was shot and he decided he was sick of being in pain and constantly rehabbing.
 

Anthologos

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Chris Borland would be one of the best examples I think. Retirement while a young star because of concern over head trauma, etc.

edit: I’d forgotten he’d retired after only one season; thought it was two. He was 24.
 

Van Everyman

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Likewise, I don't think Tua gives up football easily either. However, I do think that the number of concussions, the severity, and the current length of time in protocol make this discussion and and decisions moving forward far more complex than simply saying it is naive to think he won't be back. It's possible he never makes it back to full health. It's possible he attempts to play and doesn't make it out of camp. It is not absolute that he is the starter next year.
Agreed. The absolute here is that Tua is very unlikely just to slink away. He’s obviously a passionate guy and very competitive. Indeed, you could argue that is part of the challenge here – when you have someone who plays incredibly hard and wants to be out there for his team, he’s less likely to self-report symptoms or change his playing style to protect himself.

So in that sense I agree with @johnmd20 – esp. when you add in how things seemed to click for him in year 3, the odds that Tua will just walk away are next to nil. He’s likely to exhaust every avenue to get back out there first.

What I’m suggesting is that he will not be the only one making this decision. The team and the league (and maybe the union) are highly likely to take a much more active role in managing his comeback because none of them want to, as noted above, be liable for him being catastrophically injured or, more broadly, be seen as indifferent to player health.

Fair or not, Tua is the current face of the league’s concussion problem – which means he could feel 100% ready to go and find that his coach won’t play him or the league finds some quasi-made up excuse for keeping him inactive.The other thing that could happen is that he’s out long enough that the Dolphins just move on to another QB in the interim sort of the way Washington did with Cousins while RG3 was continuously injured (obviously a different situation).

None of which is to say Tua is finished. But it could be a tough road back if he has any further setbacks.
 

sodenj5

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Agreed. The absolute here is that Tua is very unlikely just to slink away. He’s obviously a passionate guy and very competitive. Indeed, you could argue that is part of the challenge here – when you have someone who plays incredibly hard and wants to be out there for his team, he’s less likely to self-report symptoms or change his playing style to protect himself.

So in that sense I agree with @johnmd20 – esp. when you add in how things seemed to click for him in year 3, the odds that Tua will just walk away are next to nil. He’s likely to exhaust every avenue to get back out there first.

What I’m suggesting is that he will not be the only one making this decision. The team and the league (and maybe the union) are highly likely to take a much more active role in managing his comeback because none of them want to, as noted above, be liable for him being catastrophically injured or, more broadly, be seen as indifferent to player health.

Fair or not, Tua is the current face of the league’s concussion problem – which means he could feel 100% ready to go and find that his coach won’t play him or the league finds some quasi-made up excuse for keeping him inactive.The other thing that could happen is that he’s out long enough that the Dolphins just move on to another QB in the interim sort of the way Washington did with Cousins while RG3 was continuously injured (obviously a different situation).

None of which is to say Tua is finished. But it could be a tough road back if he has any further setbacks.
If the NFL decided to try and hold Tua back from resuming his playing career, pretty sure the NFLPA will have an enormous issue with that.

I agree that Tua isn’t/won’t be walking away. He finally looked like a competent NFL QB and Miami has as talented an offense as there is in the league. He isn’t going to just decide walk away from literally 100+ million dollars after working his entire life to get to this point.
 

Van Everyman

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We don’t need a QB more than 20 years older than the one we have right now.
Or do you? Hard to think of a better situation all around that would give Tua time to get healthy again without wasting Coach Vape’s Exploding Football Inevitable on the offensive side of the ball.
 

Shelterdog

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Tuas contract situstion is pretty interesting. Normally the fifth year option is kind of a no brainer for a good QB but it’s injury guaranteed if he’s in the roster day 1 of the 2025 season so I wonder if the play is to not use the option and just franchise him if he has a great 2024
 

sodenj5

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Let’s fucking gooooooooooooooooooo

Edit:apart from the obvious, Fangio fits the personnel that Miami has assembled. Their D Line talent is wild and they play in a division where they’re going to make Josh Allen nickel and dime his way down the field and read coverages after the snap.

An added bonus is Xavien Howard is probably going to extend his career another few years being able to play zone coverage and ball hawk instead of covering Diggs in man coverage with no safety help on a bad groin for 60 minutes.
 
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67YAZ

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Let’s fucking gooooooooooooooooooo

Edit:apart from the obvious, Fangio fits the personnel that Miami has assembled. Their D Line talent is wild and they play in a division where they’re going to make Josh Allen nickel and dime his way down the field and read coverages after the snap.

An added bonus is Xavien Howard is probably going to extend his career another few years being able to play zone coverage and ball hawk instead of covering Diggs in man coverage with no safety help on a bad groin for 60 minutes.
Having watched his defenses closely in Chicago, this is a homerun hire. The talent fit is already strong. And Fangio always sends out a unit with a clear, specific game plan. His players know their roles and are put in positions to play to their strengths.

Whatever it is, he seems to be one of these Wade Phillps/Norv Turner-types.
 

sodenj5

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Having watched his defenses closely in Chicago, this is a homerun hire. The talent fit is already strong. And Fangio always sends out a unit with a clear, specific game plan. His players know their roles and are put in positions to play to their strengths.

Whatever it is, he seems to be one of these Wade Phillps/Norv Turner-types.
You do feel a little bad for Boyer because Miami’s defense was devastated by injuries last year, but I’m expecting a big leap next year between significantly better coaching and injury regression.
 

sodenj5

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Good news, Tua has cleared the concussion protocol.

View: https://twitter.com/poupartnfl/status/1621107663089065986?s=46&t=x007EXLlFIGVP2_T2oKpFg

#MiamiDolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa cleared an important hurdle Wednesday (yes, even at this time) when he cleared the concussion protocol.
Yea I always sort of assumed that he was still in the protocol mainly because Miami had no reason really to clear him. Or possibly because they all agreed that sitting out the Pro Bowl and continuing to his consultation with specialists was in his best interest and “keeping him in the protocol” was a valid excuse for him not having to attend.

Either way, positive news as we all still await Vic Fangio’s signature to hit a contract.
 

dirtynine

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Why is every NFL “scoop” tweet written so awkwardly? Schefter is the worst offender, but he’s not alone. They all read like a 5th grader trying to stretch a single thought into a 5-paragraph essay.
 

ManicCompression

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Why is every NFL “scoop” tweet written so awkwardly? Schefter is the worst offender, but he’s not alone. They all read like a 5th grader trying to stretch a single thought into a 5-paragraph essay.
Not joking, I think because he's copy/pasting from agent/source texts and not editing them at all
 

sodenj5

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Who knows if Vic secured an offer from Miami and then shopped it around. I don’t care.

The guy can coach and he’s going to be a massive improvement over Boyer.
 

sodenj5

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Zach Thomas finally selected for enshrinement into the Hall of Fame, Class of 2023.

A shame it took so long and took so much public support from some of his peers to make it in. I was a little skeptical he would make it in this year because the finalist pool was stacked, but looks like he finally got over the hump with the voters.

In other news, Miami hired Denver’s former offensive line coach and former UM coach Butch Barry. I’ve read some unflattering reviews online about him and the hire. Seems as if some former players took issue with his style of coaching and communication.

Objectively, Denver’s line performance was better under him despite suffering some injuries. Also, he has a ton of experience teaching wide zone blocking and is a good fit in that regard. Hopefully whatever issues he had in Denver are behind him and we will see some improvement from the younger guys.
 

pdaj

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Zach Thomas finally selected for enshrinement into the Hall of Fame, Class of 2023.

A shame it took so long and took so much public support from some of his peers to make it in. I was a little skeptical he would make it in this year because the finalist pool was stacked, but looks like he finally got over the hump with the voters.

In other news, Miami hired Denver’s former offensive line coach and former UM coach Butch Barry. I’ve read some unflattering reviews online about him and the hire. Seems as if some former players took issue with his style of coaching and communication.

Objectively, Denver’s line performance was better under him despite suffering some injuries. Also, he has a ton of experience teaching wide zone blocking and is a good fit in that regard. Hopefully whatever issues he had in Denver are behind him and we will see some improvement from the younger guys.
So happy for Thomas! I remember being 15 years old, reading/discussing every team detail about the team on the Sun Sentinel forums, and being absolutely floored that Jimmy Johnson cut Jack Del Rio for a freakin' 5th round rookie. "What the fuck is this coach doing?" Welp, JJ knew best, and the rest is history. It's insane that it's taken this long, but all that matters is that he's finally being appropriately honored. Zach is one of the franchise's all-time greats; and what makes it even better, is that he's always come across as such a top-shelf person.