How McDaniel Helped Tua Not Have to Ask Himself if He Sucks Anymore

Head coach Mike McDaniel's work with Tua Tagovailoa's psyche in the offseason set the stage for his breakout year

There was another, most interesting chapter added to the Tua-Mike McDaniel story Sunday, courtesy of CBS Sports.

It should be well understood by now just what kind of role Mike McDaniel has played in the breakout season of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, if for no other reason that making clear his belief in him from the time he was hired as Miami Dolphins head coach in February.

But CBS added another layer during its telecast of the Dolphins' 30-15 victory against the Houston Texans.

TUA'S BATTLE WITH SELF-CONFIDENCE LAST SEASON

Reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala indicated that Tagovailoa's confidence (or lack thereof) last season reached a point where he would look in the mirror and ask himself, "Do I suck?"

Tagovailoa most definitely does not suck in 2022; on the contrary, he's put himself in the conversation for NFL MVP honors while leading the Dolphins to an 8-3 start and first place in the AFC East.

And one of the biggest differences in Tua this season, as opposed to his first two seasons, is confidence. And this is where McDaniel played a big role in it, beyond the famous social media video of his FaceTime call to Tua upon his hiring.

Rather, it came in the form of a video McDaniel put together of 700 Tua plays that should have given him reason to believe in himself.

"Well, I thought it was cool," Tagovailoa revealed when he was asked after the game. "I think anyone here can attest to someone believing in them and how that changes how they see themselves but also things around them, so perspective. But it was awesome. There’s a lot of details that entail me sitting down with him and other things as well, but it’s awesome. It’s really cool."

McDANIEL AND HIS MOTIVATING FACTOR FOR HIS TUA TAPE

It's pretty well established by now that former head coach Brian Flores was not a big believer in Tua, but McDaniel said everything began with his appreciation for the quarterback position.

"That is a tough place to live in," McDaniel said. "That was the motivating factor behind everything. You acknowledging that, understanding that, wow, it’s hard enough to play an opponent. I’d better make sure there’s a lot of things that are telling me that this player may not have the confidence that he should, so instead of getting mad at that or doing anything, it was incredibly important that anybody that would listen would be able to see from a starting point, not just watch the FaceTime where I’m like, ‘Yeah, you’re going to be a great player.’ To actually know, and it was easy; he had the stuff on the tape. I think that’s a credit to him. To his credit, he’s really listened, taken the coaching that he’s good. Said ‘OK, Coach, I believe you.’ And I think you guys have seen the residuals up close and personal for a while.

"This was just using intuition, that getting beat up and having your existence be completely tainted by people saying that you aren’t X, Y or Z, and then on top of that, from my vantage point, I felt like he was put behind the 8-ball in a way with the — basically his strengths, he couldn’t play to. And so if you’re not able to play to your strengths and your position that one of the reasons you’ve gotten there is you’re an unbelievable point guard, I felt, how could he, with all the things going on. It’s a lot of loud noise that you try to ignore, but people are human. It was intuition, and it started seeing him every practice once he started getting a little bit more confidence each and every day."

With the added confidence, a system that takes advantage of his undeniable great point guard skills and better talent around him, Tua no longer has to concern himself with whether folks in the organization believe in him.

He can just go out, do his job and hear the fans at Hard Rock Stadium with their chants of "MVP! MVP!" whenever the Dolphins are home.