Dolphins at Bills

Not only after the Buffalo game but I have to tap my hat to Butch Barry again! He again produced chickensalad out of chicken****, the O-line to everyone’s surprise hasn’t been a real issue.

 

2024 NFL Advanced Passing | Pro-Football-Reference.com

They define a pressure as a hurry, hit, or sack.

Tua's pressure rate is 10.1% (Best in the NFL with Burrow at #2 with 13.4%)

S. Thompson's pressure rate is 35%

T. Huntley's pressure rate is 24.1%

Tua makes the O-line not an issue. Tua also has the fastest average time to throw by a bunch. 2.39 seconds with number two coming in at 2.55 seconds.

 

While Tua's play makes our porus offensive line a non-issue as he quickly gets the ball out, the offensive line is an issue when it comes to the running game, although I will admit, they played great this past Sunday.

 

Did you take into account how good we’re in rushing the ball? For what he’s got he’s done a marvelous job and it’s not all Tua although I‘m sure some surely believe that…

 

Kind of. Tua back there with the Dolphins WRs means lighter boxes. Tua lets you build a line to take advantage of that, and value Linemen that can move and block in space. I think that short yard running shows how good your OL is at blocking as it's harder to double and get linemen up field. I need to see more than one game where the Dolphins convert short yard runs before I believe. Buffalo was a good step in the correct direction. But, I cannot think of another game like that this year.

 

There’s a distinct difference in pass blocking and run blocking. You can have a line that is really good at one and poor at the other. Marino days ring a bell?

The sad thing with our line however is they are as consistent as diarrhea in either blocking however, when we have run the ball, we’ve done pretty well. McDaniel, up until this past Sunday would abandon the run too soon.

If we can consistently run block we’ll, Tua’s skills can make up for a shortfall on pass blocking.

 

Don't tell that to Staletacos because run blocking and pass blocking are the exact same thing according to him.

 

We should change this sites name into thetuas.com., guess that’s the only thing people want to „talk“ about…

 

Can I nominate this for the post of the year?

 

That may be a huge plus of Tua missing those 4 games. Coach may have finally figured out how to use and trust the running game.

 

To be fair the last 2 weeks has has done well sticking with the run. Hoping he has it figured out.

 

As Tua goes so goes the Dolphins chances. It's not really that strange that he has such gravity as a topic.

 

No doubt, we don’t have a better QB but he’s not solely responsible for everything good that is happening and its really hard to have a reasonable discussion about that topic.

 

Tannehill was the topic of conversation while he here. Hell, there was a 273 page thread on Tannehill

Like Tacos said, as Tua goes, so does the Dolphins. We win, he gets credit. We lose, he gets the blame regardless if either is justified.

 

But on the flip side of that coin JJ, he’s not solely responsible for everything bad happening here either. That’s what makes discussions fill with rancor I believe. An obvious fact and truth can be noted and rebutted with a “yea, but” instead of acknowledging the fact pointed out. Take this for instance…

Last season, Monday night game against the Titans. There were folks afterwards that lost their minds over Tua’s inability to get first downs, keep possession of the ball and keep the clock moving. Fair and valid point however…didn’t the Dolphins defense allow the Titans to score 2 touchdowns in what, less than 3 minutes?

That’s the kind of thing folks like me look at, the totality of the game. Football is much more than just the quarterback and the offense. If it wasn’t, it would just be a Madden video game.

 

Last year it was always Tua needs Tyreek to win, all he's got is throwing the ball deep to wide open Tyreek. Then teams started taking away Tyreek and they couldn't adjust.

Now Tua is adjusting in the short passing game and using his running backs and is putting up points doing it. And, all it is now is Tua is just throwing short passes to his running backs.

I don't care how they put up points, it could be a quick strike offense or methodically getting the ball down the field. Just score points and he's doing that.

 

I know some people here think Tua should be putting up 35+ points a game because he's so great and that's the standard you put on him, but that's just not realistic.

 

I‘m not making him responsible for everything bad and I don’t see many if any on here who do.

You could argue that in that game he didn’t do enough as the whole offense, that’s where the big contracts are that’s McDs forte. Sure the D has to take blame too but it’s the offense who should carry this team.

There are other people who do the same and just have other conclusions or opinions.

 

It is weird when the discussion is about the D and it goes to Tua. It's just that the difference on O, with, or without Tua, is so profound it's like a different team. All of a sudden the line just has to slow down the pass-rush, the backs have light boxes to run into, and the WRs have to catch right at their breaks. I think what the team values is different with Tua than without. Different discussions about the various positions IMO. Not having a back QB that comes close to his strengths is tuff. Andy Dalton is number two at time to throw average, and was a free agent in 2023 signing a contract that was $1M more per year than Mike White's was. How different is the season if he was the backup?

 

Sure it shows that Tua is a good NFL QB, nobody is debating that, but that should be expected when you change out your practice squad QB. See, and now we’re back with Tua, although I was talking about what a marvelous job Butch Barry has done, again.

 

There are people here debating the fact that Tua is good, though. People here have called him a bust and are calling for him to be traded. You don't call for a good QB to be traded.

 

Yes you do, if you can get a better chance at picking up an elite franchise quarterback by trading him.

Just because Tua is good does not mean he is great and we should not look to upgrade.

 

Right, because Butch's job didn't look as marvelous when Tua was out.

 

Yes. Trade Tua to a team that thinks he’s worth a 1st round pick even though according to you he’s not, and draft an elite QB. I mean, it took 20 + years to get a QB better than Marino. And most teams have been looking for decades, also. So drafting an elite QB is easy.

OR… keep a QB that has had two straight elite type seasons.

 

People are/were happy with Grier and thought he was „cooking“, opinions change and when it comes to trading a good QB, I think the Chiefs traded Alex Smith the Lions traded Stafford, so it does happen and some don’t see him as elite and don’t trust his availability.

 

Only so much you can do with practice squad QBs, the rushing attack was more than solid all season, but yeah it’s all Tua, I get it…

 

The Chiefs traded Alex Smith after having Mahomes sit behind him for a season
The Lions missed the playoffs the last 4 years of Stafford's tenure and Stafford was frequently injured.

 

I know, but did they get traded?

 

Sure they got traded but you can’t look at those trades in a vacuum.

Why was Alex Smith traded? Smith was brought in from San Francisco as a stop gap, much like Fitzpatrick was here. The Chiefs drafted their future quarterback and when he was ready to lead the team, Smith was traded. Smith wasn’t traded to GET a draft pick to go DRAFT a new quarterback.

The Lions, being the dumpster fire of an organization they WERE cleaned house with the hiring of Brad Holmes as their GM. Stafford had been injury prone his last few years in Detroit and the Lions had only made the playoffs 3 times in Stafford’s 12 year tenure. It was time to move on from Stafford.

Smith’s trade from the Chiefs and Stanford’s trade from Detroit were under completely different circumstances as are the circumstances in Miami when it comes to the minuscule fan base on this site calling for Tua to be traded.

 

They got traded and people called for it, doesn’t happen often but it does (Baker would be another example). Agreed on the circumstances, but they were no part of the original post, just to show good QBs do get traded.

 

Nice straw man. Maybe make a real argument, or even a point, if you want to have a discussion.

**edit** Okay. That last sentence was not far. I am going to leave it, but I was wrong for it.

The run game has been okay without Tua. But, unable to convert short yardage and did not generate points.

 

Lol, it’s quite hard to have a discussion when you always go back to Tua. I made my point that Butch Barry is doing a marvelous job despite not having real talent on the line and he’s doing it for the 2nd consecutive year, for you that’s all Tua, I get it.

 

What is marvelous? A run game that cannot convert short yards or obvious run downs? Can they passbook for longer than 2.5 seconds? The Buffalo game was good, great even. But I am not sure how you discuss it without mentioning Tua?

 

That he made a solid line without any real talent and it’s been solid for most of the season, not just the Buffalo game, but it must be all Tua, right?!

 

I think you can add the Colts game, one that we likely win if not for two fumbles.

 

What is your case for it being "sold"? The 65 yards rushing and 6 sacks against Seattle? Or was it the follow up against Tennessee when the QB was the leading rusher, that's one way to avoid sacks I guess.

Of the 4 games without Tua, two were bad running games, and two were good. If that's your definition of "marvelous", you must be a DC fan. (Batman sucks, fight me about it). Wait, you changed it to "solid". Still don't see it as "solid". The two that were bad were very bad.

 

The run blocking was pretty solid last year also