- 10 minutes ago
Tua Tagovailoa has pretty much everything working in his favor as far as a quarterback competition is concerned -- at least one involving QB Michael Penix Jr. who is currently unable to play and also has to adapt to an unfamiliar offensive system.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00So let's hear the Tua answer from yesterday.
00:02We had him on the show.
00:03If you missed the interview, you can check it out.
00:0699thegame.com, the Andy and Randy page, or on the podcast page.
00:09It has a good solid 15 minutes with Tua.
00:11But here's about 90 seconds on coming here and the quarterback competition.
00:16Well, I think you look at the squad first, right?
00:20You look at the guys that you have an opportunity to throw to.
00:24You have the guys that are going to be protecting you.
00:27You know, you got Drake London, you got Kyle Pitts, you got B. John.
00:32You got all these weapons that surround you as well.
00:34But outside of that, I think the coolest thing about it was,
00:38regardless of where I decided to go, competition was going to be there.
00:41And so being able to compete against Mike,
00:46I thought would have been one of the coolest things.
00:49Mike had a good relationship with my brother
00:52as they were both coming out into the draft.
00:54And so I know him a bit through that.
00:57But, you know, I think it's going to be something that could be really cool
01:02in terms of two lefties, you know, working together and whatnot
01:07in terms of helping the team's ultimate goal, you know,
01:11which is win playoff games, get to the Super Bowl, and win the Super Bowl.
01:15What are all of the things that go into winning a quarterback competition?
01:20Well, I think the biggest thing that goes into winning a quarterback competition
01:24is getting to know your guys first.
01:27You got to know the guys you're working with, different personalities.
01:32There's understanding of how certain guys want the ball when you're throwing it to them.
01:37I think there's a lot of things that go into it.
01:39Your relationship with them off the field.
01:42And so I would say it's all of that and playing good football.
01:50There you have it.
01:51That's his answer yesterday about the competition.
01:55I just talking to him yesterday for the time that we talked to him,
01:59I didn't have any, like, huge takeaways about where his head is at or anything like that.
02:05Seemed about like you would expect him to sound.
02:07A guy who's been a starting quarterback his entire life,
02:10who's now in a situation he's never really been in before.
02:13Obviously, I mean, he said, I'm no stranger to competition, of course, playing sports.
02:17But you're a stranger to a quarterback competition.
02:19You haven't done this before.
02:20Yeah.
02:22To me, and again, I'll probably change my mind,
02:25just what I was thinking about this morning.
02:28You're going to compete, no doubt about it.
02:30I mean, that's the greatest thing about sports is the competition part about it.
02:34But I don't know if it's a quarterback competition.
02:37I think Tua's going to be the starter.
02:38And that's me right now on March 25th.
02:42Not knowing anything as far as how this offseason.
02:45Tua didn't come here to be in a quarterback competition.
02:48Tua came here to be the starting quarterback.
02:52I don't know how many other options he had.
02:54I don't know because this one came up pretty, pretty fast once free agency started
02:57as far as him getting his job here.
02:58That's a good point.
02:59It was before free agency started.
03:01Yeah, and so that means something.
03:04Yeah, it does.
03:05That means that, okay, where can I go to be the starting quarterback right now
03:09and have a possibility of being the long-term starter here in Atlanta for years to come?
03:15I mean, or the team for years to come, Atlanta.
03:18You know what I mean?
03:19And I don't know who reached out to who and all those different things like that.
03:22But, yeah.
03:24If Michael was – because I always say it's hard if Michael was healthy
03:27because if Michael was healthy, Tua wouldn't be here.
03:29That's right.
03:30But because Michael's healthy, that's why you cause a pause
03:33and don't know how long he's going before he's cleared to do football stuff.
03:37And what I mean by football stuff, I'm not talking about running in place.
03:39I'm not talking about running and all those different things.
03:41I'm talking about actually huddle, snap to center, all those different things.
03:45When is he able to get out there?
03:46Because you're not going to beat Tua rehabbing.
03:50You're not going to beat Tua by doing calisthenics or all that better than him.
03:53You're going to beat him out by being on the field and showing what you can do.
03:56When are you going to be able to do that?
03:58And I don't know, and I go back, and this is before they signed Tua.
04:01I was saying, I think Michael will be ready for the season.
04:03Well, you don't sign a quarterback like Tua if you're sure that he's going to be back for the season
04:08or if you're sure that you're even sure that he's going to be the guy.
04:10Well, that's the thing.
04:11Even if he is ready and back for the season and healthy enough to be in a legitimate conversation
04:15or competition in the summer, he also hasn't played that well in the NFL.
04:19Yeah.
04:20And these guys didn't draft him, and none of these coaches have coached him.
04:23So there's not a lot of equity built up in his NFL career.
04:28And there's none with these guys, which obviously we've talked about a lot.
04:32In situations like this, I feel like a lot of times, there's so many times where being
04:37in the local market, being the flagship of the Falcons, being there for training camp and
04:42all that is helpful and makes us more knowledgeable than the national conversation.
04:47So often the national conversation just kind of glosses over the top and misses a lot of the
04:51details.
04:52I think sometimes, though, the national perspective or the less emotional or less biased perspective
05:00can be valuable.
05:01And trying to zoom out and take all of my being here and Penix and all that stuff out of
05:08it,
05:08you start stacking these guys up next to each other.
05:11Penix doesn't have a lot of arguments in his favor right now where he's at injury-wise
05:17Yeah, but I mean, and then like last night, I went down and just looked at the last three
05:21years of what Tua did in Miami.
05:23He's been pretty good.
05:24Pretty good.
05:24He's been pretty good.
05:25He really, really has.
05:27And three years ago, it was very good.
05:28Yeah.
05:28I mean, this dude threw 4,700 yards.
05:31This dude threw like 29 touchdowns.
05:33Last year, got off to a bad start, but then lost most of his guys.
05:37And they never blocked for him down there.
05:39And so, it's a crazy thing to think that if he's protected, how it will go.
05:45And I know people want to put the Mike McDaniel offense on there and the motion, because he
05:49even told us that, because there's a lot of motions and all those different things for
05:54the defense to show their hand and stuff like that.
05:56Here is more of a traditional play action, mirror all the runs with the pass type offense.
06:02And so, when you go back and look, I was like, damn, he's around 67% completion percentage.
06:07Yeah, I mean, he's the most accurate quarterback in the league.
06:10Yeah.
06:11Now, he's not a perfect quarterback, obviously, but he's great at it.
06:15Yeah.
06:15I mean, and you go back, I mean, he had a career out of 15 interceptions, and he was
06:19benched the last three games.
06:20I went back and looked at the quarterbacks that played after him, Andy.
06:24I think Tua was sacked 29 times.
06:26Two guys started those last three games.
06:29Huntley and somebody else.
06:31Zach Wilson, maybe?
06:32Yeah, Huntley and them started.
06:33They got sacked 19 times.
06:35Yeah.
06:36Now, Tua got sacked 29 in 13 starts, I think I saw yesterday.
06:40Yeah, so they gave up 50 sacks.
06:41Yeah.
06:41It's a terrible offensive line.
06:43Yeah.
06:43And so, I mean, but, yeah, I don't know.
06:46And I like what you said.
06:48Mike doesn't have the on-field equity like Tua does.
06:52Tua's played good ball.
06:53Tua's led two teams to playoff, you know, to the playoffs.
06:57And Miami don't never go to the damn playoffs, but he was the starting quarterback and started
07:0117 games.
07:03And so, that was my thought process was like, and then you bring in Trevor Simeon, which
07:08I would never call him a bum or anything like that.
07:10I mean, he has value at what you'd sign him for, a backup quarterback or something like
07:15that.
07:15Yeah, he's a second or third string quarterback for his career.
07:17Yeah.
07:17And so, that lets me know even more, like, because I said this on Monday, I said, it's
07:23not a quarterback competition.
07:24Simeon's not in a quarterback competition because he's not.
07:26Yeah.
07:26No, he won't.
07:27He's not buying to be the starter.
07:29No, he's not.
07:30But I just don't, Mike is just so far behind.
07:32That's why I said, I don't know how long it's going to be until he can actually get out
07:36there because if you had a better idea of when he could be at, because there hasn't
07:40been an athlete that's been in a situation where Mike is in and they asked you about
07:44how's your rehab that said, well, I'm behind schedule.
07:47No.
07:47No one's ever said that.
07:48No one's ever said that.
07:49No one's ever been behind schedule.
07:50And nobody's ever said, if I'm going to be ready, I don't know.
07:54Yeah, I'll be ready.
07:55You know, and so I, and I'm got to take Mike for his work because he knows his body better
07:59than I do.
07:59And again, he's up there rehabbing and doing all those different things.
08:02So the Falcons see where his progress and where he is in his progression of coming back
08:07from his ACL.
08:08So they'll always know better than we will.
08:09I just find it right now in late March that like Tua came here to be in a competition to
08:16be who's a starter.
08:17I just, I just don't see that.
08:19Yeah.
08:19I also, like you said earlier, I think you have to take into account the fact that this
08:23started two days before free agency even happened, Tua was coming.
08:26Like that was, so his agent talked to whoever it was, Ian Cunningham or Stefanski or both
08:31of them or whatever.
08:32And they were like, this is what we're looking for.
08:34Because the agent can say very clearly, like, look, he wants to start.
08:37Yeah.
08:37Or at the very least, we need to be in a situation where you make it seem like a competition
08:41where he has a leg up to become the starter.
08:43Because he had options.
08:44Because all that's going to, the whole off season, whenever, you know, whenever Kevin Stefanski
08:50or Ian Cunningham or anybody from the Falcons organization, Matt Ryan, anybody talks, they're
08:54going to put it out there as it is a competition.
08:57But it's going to sound more like they're competing, meaning, you know, everybody, because
09:01everybody's out of competing.
09:02Well, I know that's the, that's the, you know, that's the glory of the word competition.
09:06Yes.
09:06Because of course it's competition.
09:08Yes.
09:08It's professional sports.
09:09Yes.
09:09What we mean is these two guys are competing for the same spot.
09:13Yes.
09:13One person's going to win it and one person's going to lose it.
09:16And the way that it's being, being framed is that it's an equal competition between the
09:20two of them for the one.
09:21And I don't believe it is.
09:22Well, I just don't think it can be.
09:23Certainly not right now.
09:24Because Michael can't.
09:24Go.
09:24And even, and that's my thing is like, I hope that his body and his rehab allow him to get
09:31back on the field as quickly as possible in a healthy, responsible way to make it like
09:38a semi-fair competition.
09:40Right.
09:40Because if he isn't, then it's just a wash and Tua's the starter or whatever.
09:44If he's able to get out there and actually compete physically and throw the football,
09:48that's the only chance he's got.
09:50And even still, and we've said this a number of times, just because of the nature of what
09:54NFL training camp and off season and preseason and everything is now, Tua's going to thrive
10:01in those environments.
10:03And I mean, hopefully Michael would, but I mean, Tua's going to put every pass right between
10:09the numbers every single time.
10:10And the one thing, Michael, among other things, but the number one thing we said even last
10:15year when he was a starter, he's got to improve the accuracy.
10:17But the thing about it, remember we said this when they came here last year, and I kept saying
10:21I said, they got to pressure Tua because they don't, he don't cut their ass up.
10:25And it's so, it reminds me so much of, and I'm not comparing the two, I'm just saying just
10:33how Steve Young would hit that back foot and throw, like, Steve was so precise, and he
10:38would put it where, when it hits your hands, you're still running.
10:42That's what Tua does.
10:43He puts it, as soon as, like when you're running and your hands go up to catch the ball, you're
10:46not moving or anything.
10:48You're running.
10:49Because he puts it right there.
10:50Yeah.
10:51And there's some guys on this team that will thrive in that situation.
10:54Kyle Pitts, B. John Robinson specifically.
10:57Penix is a guy.
10:57He's got a great comer.
10:58Penix is perfect for London.
10:59Yes.
10:59He'll hit, he'll, like, big body, catch radius, all that stuff.
11:02And if they had a damn downfield threat, that'd be great.
11:05Yeah, yeah.
11:05Because Penix can throw the ball 80 yards.
11:07They just haven't had a deep threat in five years.
11:08Yeah.
11:09Uh.
Comments