Tua...''He's the greatest prospect ever''

Tua has a different standard applied to him. Somebody on one of the panel shows said that after Monday night, we now know Tua's an average QB when you take away his top receivers. Somebody else replied that every QB becomes average when you do that. Heck, look at how much closer to the pack Mahomes is since he lost Hill, and he still has Kelce.

 

How many critics (including some on this board) are burning alive right now in anger because Tua proved them wrong? They were licking their chops hoping Tua failed without Tyreek. Case closed on this ridiculous notion that Tua can't become elite without Hill. Tua is this team's MVP hands down.

 

Speaking of which, seems like somebody's been missing since yesterday. Can't think of who it might be, though...

 

Nice pass, but it's not anything amazing. It's a 4.37 guy in Waddle being single covered with no deep help by a 4.54 guy in Reed, he blows right by him, no surprise. Tua throws it within 2.2 seconds and lobs it 45 air yards to a wide open Waddle.

Nice play, but it does not make Tua the "best deep thrower in the game".

 

Aaaaahhhh...

I finally see it. I thought you were digging in because you were just anti-Tua but you're actually satirizing Tua-haters. Performance artistry to see how far you can egg sensible posters. You're sort of this board's Sasha Baron Cohen.

Nicely played.

 

It OnLy TrAvElLeD 45 yArDs In ThE aIr. YuCk.

 

It does however show you were wrong when saying Tua's WRs keep having to constantly stop and wait for the ball when Tua throws deep. Tua has now shown many times he can place the ball near perfectly on deep throws. Tua is a very good deep ball thrower. Whether he's "the best" or not is too hard to say anyway with such small sample size.

 

Funny as I watched Dak the other night overthrow Cooks by about 5 yards when he was wide open deep. Easy, walk in TD missed by not being able to complete a 45 yard pass.

 

He brought in 40 times omg

 

You're only looking at the "throw" itself and not the entire play. Go back and watch it frame by frame.

Waddle is lined up with one on one coverage, with Reed respecting Waddle's speed and playing 8-10 yards off the line of scrimmage.

The ball is snapped. It is a play action fake to Moestert. Tua immediately sees he has one on one coverage with no deep safety help. To maintain this posture, he immediately looks to his right, holding Reed with his shoulders squared up facing the line of scrimmage to break off his coverage of Waddle to tackle or break up a pass over the middle.

This is where Tua excels. He uses his eyes to hold or move defenders where he wants them in order to give his receivers a clean route.

Reed recognizes his mistake, that Waddle is in full sprint and he has no over the top help. Tua sets and throws before Waddle is open and throws the ball not over Waddle's left shoulder, but over his right shoulder into open field for Waddles to have open field into the endzone.

Tua possesses an uncanny ability to see the entire field, manipulate defenders by looking off his primary receiver and deliver the ball with incredible accuracy, anticipation and timing. Tua may not possess the proverbial cannon of an arm which others may fear and respect, thus not allowing other receivers the open window that Miami's receivers enjoy, but Tua and the Dolphins have clearly demonstrated the need for that cannon is irrelevant.

This us why many cite Tua as being the best deep ball thrower. I suck at researching on the web. I tried finding current stats but only found this citing last year's performance but even that still validates many's arguments on Tua being the best deep passing quarterback.

Next Gen Stats' top 10 NFL deep passers of 2022: Geno Smith, Tua Tagovailoa excel at airing it out

 

They refuse to be objective. At this point they are even lying about what they wrote in the past in order to not look so dumb.

Each week I see QB's overthrowing their WR's when the receiver gets past the DB. I think Tua has missed on those throws once this season and that was to Achane when Achane was illegally contacted (no flag of course) and had to slow up. Tua makes it look so damn easy and I think that's why some of the Tua critics don't understand that what he's doing is extremely difficult. Of course some will try and act as if a faster receiver is easier to hit not being able to comprehend the simple physics that hitting a faster target is more difficult than hitting a slower target. The amount of work Tua has to put into this level of accuracy and success is incredible, and his innate ability to place the ball "through the keyhole" while most QB's can barely hit the door is beyond remarkable.

 

No I don't know of a site that lists air yards for individual plays. You're right that Tua has 7 TDs over 40 yards, but not sure what the air yards on those are. Purdy also has 7 TDs over 40 yards btw. No one else comes close.

 

Does a screen pass to Samuel who breaks 7 tackles count?

 

Purdy must have a cannon for an arm!!

 

This guy is about to go on a run.

 

I like it a lot. The Jets/Bills/Whatever fans around here probably don't though. lol

 

I wonder if they have a large contingent of fans who only comment about what he can't do? Or is that a Miami thing?

 

I know enough Dallas fans to be able to tell you many are like that when talking about Dak Prescott. For years many of them have been adamant he isn't good enough to ever win a SB with. And of course I've been happy to oblige them with statistics to back up their argument lol. Not sure if they post on message boards, but in person-to-person conversations the answer to your question is "No it's not just a Miami thing".

 

Of course, you're right. I'm smack in the middle of Buckeye country and they've been trashing first-year QB Kyle McCord all season. They got spoiled because they had Justin Fields and C.J. Stroud back-to-back and McCord's ceiling isn't as high as their floors. But that's true for most college QBs. It should be mentioned that they had their claws in on both Fields and Stroud early in their careers, too.

At the end of the season, McCord finished second in the conference in most QB statistics and led them to an 11-1 record. Most went full Pikachu face when he announced he was transferring before next season.

Heavy lies the head that wears the crown.

 

For years Brees couldn't win playoff games in NO, Young couldn't win Championship games in SF, Manning playoff games in IN, Brady was a system QB with a great D, and so forth. Those were national talking head positions, but I cannot imagine that the respective fan bases didn't have their more special fans regurgitate the same nonsense like some of ours do with Tua. Humans...

 

He's also #2 in YPA. That seems counterintuitive in light of the stats you listed. Makes me wonder how much better his detractors think he should be if he was the 6'5" stud with a howitzer arm they prefer we had.

 

And once again we see lying from him.

Waddle didn't run in the combine due to Covid cancelling some of the events. He does have an official 40 yard done at Alabama while he was a junior and it was 4.52. I do think he's faster than that time now, but where is this 4.37 number coming from?


Also, Reed doesn't run a 4.54, he's faster according to his NFL Combine numbers.

https://www.nfl.com/prospects/d.j.-reed/32005245-4518-0513-87ee-49ca85f53dfe


https://www.nfldraftbuzz.com/Player/stats/Jaylen-Waddle-WR-Alabama

 

Even if it wasn't an absolutely perfect throw we see QBs miss these throws all the time although the idea that any other WR can even get open at all is impossible to believe for some. Beyond embarrassing at this point.

Anyway time to move on from Tua as he is just a Waddle merchant.

 

Waddle was timed at 4.37 coming out of high school, he's probably faster now. No way he is a 4.52 guy, couple of sources below.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2704009-4-star-wr-jaylen-waddle-commits-to-alabama-over-texas-am

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl...istory-fastest-teams/e03da36c76d975c126dca044

And yeah, Reed ran a 4.51 not 4.54, typo on my part, but still he is significantly slower than Waddle that is for sure. You don't even need 40 times just look at the play, he blows right past him with ease and left him eating grass.

 

Not to get carried away, but I'm surprised when Tua misses a throw. I mean, every QB does, but I've come to expect him to connect when he gets the ball out quickly. I generally only worry when he spends 3 or 4 seconds in the pocket because it means nobody's open and IMHO Tua's weakness isn't his arm strength, it's his ability to make off schedule plays.

 

Do you even know what kind of points you're trying to make anymore?

 

Yeah, some guy from "Scout" who measures high schoolers and hypes them up to get recruited, probably using a hand stopwatch and fudging the numbers, is who I'd expect you to use in order to bash Tua. lol In reality, in 2017, the year Waddle was a Senior in High School, Nike hosted a camp that featured the fastest High Schoolers in the country. 33 kids ran a 40 at 4.5 seconds or faster. Waddle is from Texas. 3 of those 33 came out of Texas. None were named Jaylen Waddle.

https://www.pennlive.com/sports/2017/06/meet_the_countrys_fastest_high.html

I mean, the average 40 yard dash for an NFL WR is about 4.5 seconds. And that's after months of some of the best training a player can get before the combine and after years of college training. The fact that you believe Waddle, as a high schooler, ran a 4.37 makes me laugh. You believed it because you don't like Tua and need anything you can grasp at. lmao


In reality, Waddle is probably a high 4.4's 40 yard dash guy. On his best day. The reason he got past Reed was due to technique and had very little to do with speed. If you were to line up Waddle and Reed, and ran them side by side for 40 yards, they'd be neck and neck.

And sure...typo...I accidently hit the number 4 instead of the number 1 all the time what with them being so close to each other and all.

 

Point #1: Regardless of whether Waddle can run a 4.2 or a 4.5, he had a yard of separation on that play and the ball was where it needed to be. It's not like he was running so fast, he was 5 yards ahead of Reed and had to wait for the ball to come down. It was literally a perfect play.

Point #2: How could a fan of any team be unhappy with a QB who's been performing at a top-5 level all season (and for the better part of the past two seasons)? Do they believe that any of the ~30 QBs who are lower than him in passing stats would be better than he is with his players? Like, 75% instead of 71% completions? Or 4300 yards instead of 3900? Or have the team 1st in the conference instead of **uhhhh...** 1st in the conference?

What are they really suggesting? Because it sounds like they're saying "Yeah, he's a league leader in passing stats and wins. And his teammates and coaches love him. But he's not really a good player because he's not."

They're fundamentally unserious people.

 

Because they're not really fans of the team. You can see the complete lack of joy among some here when we win. Maybe they'd be fans if we hadn't chosen Tua, hard to say. But the need to see Tua fail is overriding the joy in seeing the team win.

 

Don't know why you are harping on this point, but it is pretty common knowledge Waddle is a speed demon, and D.J. Reed is not.

No, they would not be "neck and neck" if they were to line up and run side by side. Waddle has run neck and neck with ruggs who is a high 4.2 low 4.3 guy and he's been clocked at 21.9 and 21.8 mph both in college and the pros.

Source below:

https://tdalabamamag.com/2021/04/09/jaylen-waddle-clocked-21-mph-player-tracking/

Speed matters when running speed routes, and no, it was not all just technique.