In Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s career, he’s had more than his fair share of detractors, despite continuing to improve the team’s record with him on the field.
Many of the criticisms were fair, considering Tagovailoa wasn’t exactly playing to the level that’s expected from a first-round selection. And, while the Dolphins are preparing to play the Buffalo Bills in Sunday’s Week 3 matchup, Tagovailoa’s counterpart, Josh Allen, is an example of someone who overcame early negative returns on their play.
In Allen’s first season with Buffalo, he threw for 2,074 yards, 10 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 12 games. On top of that, he completed just 52.8% of his passes and finished the season with an abysmal 49.8 passer rating. In his second season, the stats may have looked better, but his passer rating dropped to 49.4.
It wasn’t until Allen’s third season, at 24 years old, that he took a massive leap in his development. In 2020, Allen recorded 4,544 yards, 37 touchdowns and 10 interceptions while completing 69.2% of his attempts on his way to a Pro Bowl appearance.
Although their situations weren’t exactly the same, if there’s anyone who knows what Tagovailoa has gone through over the last two seasons it’s Allen.
On a recent episode of Kyle Brandt’s podcast “Kyle Brandt’s Basement,” Allen spoke about how he relates to the Dolphins quarterback, and how good it is to see him proving people wrong with, of course, a twist as the leader of the Bills.
“Tua’s playing fantastic right now, which sucks, as a Bills fan and a Bills player, to see,” Allen said. “You don’t want to see your division rivals winning football games, but I’m proud of him for all the adversity and all the naysayers – I can relate to a lot of that. He’s playing really good football right now, and I hate to see it, but it’s very good for him.
“Every time I’ve interacted with him he’s been the coolest, nicest person that you can think of. It’s hard to not root for a guy like that. It just so happens that he’s in our division, so especially when he’s playing against us, we can’t root for that.”
On Sunday, Tagovailoa will have another chance to prove that he’s taking a step in the right direction along a similar path that Allen has traveled.
