Sorting the National Reaction to the Tua Tagovailoa Comments
As one would expect, Tua Tagovailoa’s “Twitter warriors” comment late last week became a hot topic of conversation among those paid to talk about the NFL and its players.
In the unlikely event you’re not aware of what the Miami Dolphins quarterback said after a minicamp practice June 2 in regards to the narrative about his arm strength (or lack thereof), here it is: “For me, it’s just zone that out. We come out to practice; everyone else – Twitter warriors, keyboard warriors, whatever you want to call them – they’re not out here practicing with us working hard. So I don’t know if you guys recorded that last one to Tyreek (Hill) … well, I don’t know about you, but that looked like money.”
The reaction to Tua’s comment usually fell into one of three categories: those who liked a testy Tua, those who didn’t like Tua getting into any kind of war of words with “Twitter warriors,” and those who found the whole thing meaningless.
Here’s how it shook out:
LIKING TUA’S FEISTINESS
RICH EISEN, NFL Network
“Let me tell something. Let me tell you something, Tua. I love the salt in your diet. Wow. I like it! I like it. More salt in the Tua diet will serve everyone appropriately. Maybe that’s Mike McDaniel, right? Maybe he’s bringing a little bit of that.”
COLIN COWHERD, FOX Sports Radio
“I think Miami is going to be a playoff team. I love what he did there. He’s pretty funny at the mic. Tua is pretty good at the mic.”
SCOTT PIOLI, NFL Network
“I love the fact that Tua was bristled at the folks evaluating based on one clip that was made public. The thing is, is he made that throw three weeks ago. I mean, it was made in mid-May while he was wearing a bucket hat, for crying out loud. And we’ve got people out there trying to evaluate whether he can throw or not. I think if you’re an evaluator or general manager or a head coach, and you have scouts or evaluators that are going to cherry-pick video to fit the narrative that they’re looking for, it’s a very, very dangerous way of looking at players. I’ll say two things about this: The first five years of Tom Brady’s career, critics said over and over he can’t throw the deep ball. It’s all dink and dunk. I’ll tell you what, Brady was deadly accurate. He was being told to make short, high-percentage throws because that’s what he could do best at that time. As he got older, he got stronger. The second thing I’ll say is they just acquired one of the NFL’s fastest players in Tyreek Hill. It takes time for a quarterback and speed receivers to get connected. Tyreek has rare speed, so once they spend a little time together, they will develop a rhythm and I think Tua’s arm strength will be just fine.”
NOTHING MATTERS UNTIL LATER
ROB NINKOVICH, ESPN
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“I think it doesn’t matter. Week 1 when they play the Patriots at home, everyone will get the answer. Listen, right now, you’re out there in shorts and you don’t even have shoulder pads on. You have your shorts and T-shirts just throwing the football around. That’s easy. That’s seven-on-seven. That’s passing and catching. There’s nothing really there. They can’t even rush you. So, Week 1 when Bill Belichick comes down to South Florida, now that’s going to be a huge test for this offense with the new head coach and the guru as the head coach for offense. So we’ll see if all those weapons can come together and they can throw the ball down the field.”
KEYSHAWN JOHNSON, ESPN
“I don’t really care that he got back at the Twitter people or the media, whatever. That really doesn’t interest me. I’m like “Nink,” T shirt, All-American things in the offseason is great. The real thing comes down to the season. How do you make the adjustments? The speed of the game speeds up. This is another offense and another offensive coordinator mind that he has to learn. And I don’t know much about Mike McDaniel. I understand he’s from Kyle Shanahan’s tree. And he’s coached with the Shanahan family whether it was in Denver, Washington and in San Francisco, in Houston and all the places they met. This is the first time that he has the reins in the controls. He was a run game coordinator in San Francisco. Kyle Shanahan called the plays. He installed the run game; now he’s in charge of doing things. I don’t know how much he knows about the passing game. I have no idea. So it remains to be seen. We’ll find out when the regular season comes and when he has to make those adjustments against the New England Patriots in Week 1 and other teams thereafter.”
RYAN CLARK, ESPN
“Tua Tagovailoa telling me he threw a money pass to Tyreek Hill in OTAs actually means nothing to me. And I don’t think that we look at him being the fifth overall draft pick and say to ourselves, ‘We don’t believe he could throw a deep ball.’ What we haven’t seen is him throw the football consistently down the football field under pressure and a successful rate that can allow a team to be explosive offensively. So no one’s doubting to his arm strength. We aren’t treating him like Mac Jones. What we’re saying is we want to see consistently on the field, especially with some of these explosive athletes that they have. You ain’t got to be Josh Allen. You ain’t got to be Patrick Mahomes. You don’t have to be Aaron Rodgers. But you do have to find a way to push the football down the field in Mike McDaniel’s new offense. So Tua, he could come out and talk about Twitter warriors. He could talk about keyboard warriors. What he needs to think about are the warriors that are gonna be chasing him on the field and covering people on the outside and making plays when it really counts and not telling us look at money throws in OTAs.”
A.J. ADANDE, ESPN
“It’s unnecessary. I mean, we’re talking about practice. We’re talking about social media footage of balls thrown in practice. It doesn’t matter that much. All that matters is, can he produce in games? I’d be more concerned with the fact that he had the third-highest interception rate. So that’s where it could come into play. But you know what? Now they have Tyreek Hill. If you give him the ball on a 5-yard slant, he’s liable to take it all the way to the end zone by himself. He’s just that fast. So I just be worried about YAC, yards after catch That’s actually the most important word in this, YAC.”
PETER KING, NBC Sports
“I think you probably saw Tua Tagovailoa defend his arm strength the other day, and you probably saw the Dolphins post a tweet with Tua throwing a deep ball to Tyreek Hill. Cool. None of it matters until the real games start and we see the game plans new coach Mike McDaniel invents for an offense that includes two legitimate deep threats, Hill and Jaylen Waddle.”
NOT A GOOD MOVE BY TUA
TONY KORNHEISER, ESPN
“It was insane. I mean, I get this. I understand there’s a spotlight on him because the Dolphins have loaded up on receivers and they got Tyreek Hill and everybody wonders, can to get the ball to Tyreek Hill? So (Thursday) while meeting the media in Miami, he says, ‘I don’t know if you guys recorded that last one to Tyreek but that looked like money.’ OK, I get that. He’s saying, ‘I can complete this pass with my left arm to anybody.’ But then he called out — and I want to get the word correct — the Twitter warriors. You can’t do that. You can’t say I understand you’re out there on social media and you’re crushing me, you know, so stick it. No, because more people will jump on that and now every single time he short-arms a pass more people will say he shouldn’t have the job and the media in Miami will publish his stuff. It’s a fight you can’t win. It’s insane.”
ALBERT BREER, The MMQB
“I’m excited to see what Tua Tagovailoa can do with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle at his disposal. And I have some advice for him after last week I feel very qualified to give: Worrying about what people are saying on Twitter isn’t very productive.”
