Tua Tagovailoa's NFL MVP candidacy hitting a fever pitch

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa entered his third NFL season with a ton of questions about his ability to be a franchise guy.

Miami had brought in a new head coach in Mike McDaniel who had no built-in relationship with the former Alabama star. Meanwhile, Tua’s first two seasons after Mami made him a top-five pick back in 2020 left a lot to be desired.

With Dolphins general manager Chris Grier going all in to provide the young quarterback with the necessary supporting cast, it was time for Tagovailoa to show his stuff.

Now that Miami heads into its Week 11 bye in first place in the AFC East with a 7-3 record, it seems pretty clear that Tua has taken this pressure and run with it. Miami is 7-1 in the eight games he has started. The team was 0-2 while Tua was sidelined with that now-infamous head injury.

With Miami in the midst of a four-game winning streak before it ultimately takes the field Week 12 against the Houston Texans, Tua has now entered the NFL MVP conversation in a big way. This four-game span tells us a lot about where he is at as a quarterback in the league right now.

• Tua Tagovailoa stats (past four games): 72% completion, 1,230 yards, 10 TD, 0 INT, 125.8 QB rating

A lot was made about Tua’s inability to get the ball down the field and whether he’d be able to make sweet music with new wide receiver Tyreek Hill. That criticism seems laughable at this point in the season.

“I think I’ve grown a lot with the deep balls, huh. That was probably a subtle jab but it was a jab,” Tua told reporters after Miami’s Week 8 win over the Detroit Lions.

It’s not that the former star in Tuscaloosa has been ignorant of the criticism he’s received thus far in his career. Based on that qhote, the youngster knew full well what he had to work on during this past offseason. It has showed up in a big way through his first eight starts of the 2022 season.

Tagovailoa ranks first among NFL signal callers with an absurd 118.4 QB rating. He’s also No. 1 in first-down percentage, sixth in completions of 40-plus yards and sixth in completions of over 20 yards.

Sure a lot of this has do with the ability of both Hill and Jaylen Waddle to make plays after the catch. But that’s part of McDaniel’s hybrid west-coast scheme dating back to his days as the San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator. McDaniel is asking Tua to do certain things on the field. In turn, the quarterback has answered that call at nearly ever turn.

Why Tua Tagovailoa is a top-end NFL MVP candidate