Mike McDaniel promised to get the greatness out of Tua Tagovailoa, here’s how he’s delivering

Shortly after being hired as the next head coach of the Miami Dolphins, Mike McDaniel placed a phone call.

To Tua Tagovailoa, his new quarterback.

During the call, which was shared by the Dolphins’ media team, McDaniel stressed that it was his job to “ ... get all of that greatness out of you.”

Through five games this season, it looks like that process is underway. Tagovailoa is among the league leaders in a number of statistical categories, including Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt (ANY/A), where his mark of 8.26 is second only to Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills. Tagovailoa’s QBR of 71.8 places him behind only Patrick Mahomes and Allen, and Tagovailoa’s NFL Passer Rating of 105.9 places him fourth in the league, behind Mahomes, Allen and Geno Smith.

Looking at quarterback efficiency, we again find Tagovailoa among the league’s best:

As we can see from this chart, courtesy of RBSDM.com, Tagovailoa has the third-best Expected Points Added per Play (EPA/Play) this season, behind only Mahomes and Allen. His Completion Percentage Over Expectation (CPOE) of 1.4 places him 13th in the NFL, ahead of Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Justin Herbert.

How has this happened? In part due to the offense that McDaniel has constructed around — and for — Tagovailoa. McDaniel has built upon the offense that was in place for Tagovailoa last season, and expanded the playbook while stressing defenses to all levels of the field.

Last season, the Dolphins leaned heavily into the RPO game with Tagovailoa under center. According to charting data from Sports Info Solutions, Tagovailoa attempted 72 passes on RPO designs during 2021, which was third-most in the league.

Tagovailoa did that in just 12 games.

On those attempts, Tagovailoa posted an ANY/A of 7.6, which was fourth-best in the league.

When you remove the RPOs from the equation, however, the result changes. On plays charted by SIS as non-RPOs, Tagovailoa posted an ANY/A of 5.4, which placed him 34th in the league.

So the challenge facing McDaniel was how to bolster the non-RPO part of the Miami passing game. RPO designs are still part of the Dolphins’ passing attack — Tagovailoa’s 14 passing attempts on RPO designs is seventh in the league, despite him missing two full games — and Tagovailoa’s ANY/A of 9.9 on those plays is second only to Allen.

But it is what has happened on those non-RPO designs that tells the bigger story of Tagovailoa’s success this season. On those plays, the Dolphins passer has posted an ANY/A of 8.1, behind only Mahomes, Allen and yes Bailey Zappe. That is a marked improvement over his numbers from a season ago.

How has this happened? Through a combination of dropback designs and eye candy, putting Tagovailoa in a position to be successful regardless of route concept.

One of the ways that McDaniel has helped Tagovailoa is through giving him some half-field reads on pure dropback concepts. As we discussed in this piece from last week, the more a coach can do to maximize the quarterback’s decision-making window, the better the offensive execution should be when the play begins.

On these designs, McDaniel is giving Tagovailoa multiple ways to beat the coverage, while still stressing the defense at numerous levels of the field.

Take this example, from Miami’s Week 2 comeback win over the Baltimore Ravens. Facing a 2nd and 24, the Dolphins align with Tagovailoa in the shotgun and three receivers to the right, however, there is a twist. Fullback Alec Ingold is aligned wide to the boundary, which helps give Tagovailoa a pre-snap indicator. With a defensive back across from him, Tagovailoa can make an educated inference that the defense is in zone coverage.

Here is the route concept:

To the single-receiver side of the field, tight end Durham Smythe runs an out route, and Tagovailoa can target him if he likes the matchup, particularly against man coverage. To the right side of the field, McDaniel gives Tagovailoa a three-level vertical stretch, with Jaylen Waddle on a post route, Tyreek Hill on a curl route, and Ingold on a pivot route.

As the play begins, Tagovailoa confirms the Ravens are in zone coverage, and he targets Hill on the curl route:

Here is another example of this type of concept in action, from Miami’s Week 4 game against the Cincinnati Bengals. This play finds the Dolphins facing a 1st and 10 in their own territory, with Tagovailoa in the shotgun. Waddle is the single receiver to the right side, with running back Raheem Mostert flanking the quarterback and shaded to that side of the field. Again the Dolphins dial up a three-level concept, with tight end Mike Gesicki running the sail route to the left side of the field:

This design is perhaps perfect for today’s NFL. Putting aside the three-receiver concept on the left for a moment, take a look at the concept on the right. Mostert runs an option route out of the backfield, giving him a two-way go against the linebacker. If the defense is in man coverage, he can use his outside leverage to run away from that defender. If the Bengals are in zone, he can sit down and find space. But over his route is the backside dig from Waddle. In the two-high world we are living in, that backside dig is often a good choice against two-deep safety coverages.

Here, the Bengals drop into single-high, so Tagovailoa targets the Sail route from Gesicki with tremendous timing and anticipation:

This is a great read, and throw, from Tagovailoa.

These types of concepts were in the gameplan when the quarterback returned from his injury. In last week’s win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, McDaniel dialed up more plays like this. In the first quarter, the Dolphins aligned with an empty backfield, and gave Tagovailoa these options in the passing game:

On the left side of the field, Waddle and Trent Sherfield align in a condensed slot formation, and run a slant/flat combination. The formation and route combination works to create traffic and a natural rub, making this side of the field an ideal look for Tagovailoa if the Steelers are in man coverage.

To the right side of the field, we again see a three-level stretch. Gesicki runs the deep crosser, which could be a good look against split-safeties, while Hill runs a dig route. Mostert, aligned towards the boundary, runs a slant route underneath.

With the Steelers dropping into Cover 3, Tagovailoa works the right side of the field. Linebacker Devin Bush sticks on Gesicki’s crosser with safety help over the top, so Tagovailoa targets Hill in that secondary throwing lane:

Hill stumbles on his break, but recovers to make the catch, turning in another big play for the Dolphins in the passing game.

These half-field concepts are working to give Tagovailoa some information before the snap — through formation and personnel — and multiple options after the snap. In addition, they work to stress the defense to both sides of the field, forcing the secondary to “defend every blade of grass.” The result? Tagovailoa is comfortable and confident on these designs, as reflected in the production on non-RPO designs this season.

But this is not all McDaniel is doing to help his quarterback.

Another element of the Dolphins’ offense this season is how McDaniel is using the RPO success of the past, combined with pre-snap eye candy, against defenses in the passing game. Last week we talked about the two ways offenses use motion: For information, and for impact. Given how well defenses are adjusting and confusing the picture regarding the former, good offenses are leaning into the latter in today’s NFL.

One of the ways that McDaniel is combining motion for impact with RPO looks is through this design, that pairs pre-snap jet motion with a split-zone look as the play unfolds. Here is one example, from Miami’s Week 3 win over the Buffalo Bills:

On this play, Sherfield comes in motion across the formation, and is moving at the snap. He’ll release downfield on a vertical route, while inside of him Hill runs a curl route. Waddle, aligned on the right side of the formation, runs a glance route.

As the play begins, the Dolphins not only have Sherfield moving at the snap, but they show the Bills run action. Smythe, aligned in a wing to the right, blocks across the formation while Tagovailoa fakes a handoff to the back. This is a lot to sort through for the defense, and while the linebacker do a decent job at staying home, enough of a window opens up for Tagovailoa to target Waddle on the glance route:

This may look like an RPO, but with all of the lineman staying behind the line of scrimmage, it is more of a play-action concept. (For reference, SIS did not chart this play as an RPO in their charting data.) But to the defense, it looks like, well, a few different things, and all the pre-snap and post-snap movement and misdirection forces them to be disciplined in their reads and cues. As you see, the middle linebacker drifts a bit to his right as the play unfolds, opening the window for Tagovailoa to target Waddle.

Against the Steelers, Miami showed a few different wrinkles to this concept. In the first quarter, they lined up with two backs in the game, putting Ingold in the backfield next to Tagovailoa while Mostert aligned in the slot to the right. They brought Mostert in motion right before the snap, and as the play began, Tagovailoa faked a handoff to him, while Ingold blocked across the formation. All of this was bait, for the quick throw to Gesicki coming off the line of scrimmage:

Again, while this play looks and feels like an RPO, the lineman are not releasing downfield. SIS did not chart this play as an RPO, but you can still see how it stresses the second-level defenders. Linebacker Devin Bush takes a few steps down in response to the run action, and that is all Gesicki needs to sneak behind him on the quick crossing route.

A few plays later, Miami showed Pittsburgh the same look, only to hit Waddle on a backside glance route:

By putting players in motion at the snap, and showing defenses run looks, Miami can stress the defensive front while giving Tagovailoa some big throwing lanes to target in the passing game.

These designs, coupled with what the Dolphins are doing in the pure dropback game, are doing a few different things for Tagovailoa and the Miami passing game. They are stressing defenses at the snap, and forcing them to cover every blade of grass in the secondary. They are also giving Tagovailoa more information before the play, and multiple options after the snap with some half-field reads built into the designs based on the coverage in the secondary.

The result? Tagovailoa is just as efficient as he was last season on the RPO elements of Miami’s offense, but he is much improved on the non-RPO designs. This was a huge question facing the Dolphins last season, whether they could be successful on non-RPO designs.

It is one they struggled to answer a year ago, but one they have largely figured out so far this season.