Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill makes wild claim about Tua Tagovailoa’s accuracy

New Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill made an interesting claim as he begins to build a rapport with Tua Tagovailoa after years with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Hill lauded Tagovailoa’s accuracy in an episode of the “It Needed to be Said” podcast featuring Hill and friend Julius Collins.

“I’ve had a chance to see Tua throw the ball, to myself, but … he’s that due, bro. Like, what a lot of people don’t know, like, I’m not just saying this because he’s my quarterback now … Like, I’m not trying to get more targets right now, but what I’m trying to say is Tua is that deal, bro,” Hill said.

“Bro, he has a heck of an arm, bro. He’s accurate. He can throw the deep ball, and he actually goes through his reads, where people are like on Twitter like saying, ‘Oh, he doesn’t go through his reads.’ Man, this dude is that dude.”

Tagovailoa caught some flak on social media recently for a wobbly throw to Hill during practice. The Dolphins quarterback later slammed “Twitter warriors” critiquing him.

When asked about who was more accurate between Tagovailoa and Mahomes, Hill went above and beyond praising his new quarterback.

“Obviously, like I’m gonna go with 15 as the strongest arm, but, as far as accuracy-wise, I’m going with Tua all day,” Hill said, adding he prefers passes to the numbers rather than trying to track deep balls.

“I love the deep ball, but guess what though? I done expanded my game,” Hill added. “So, now I’m doing a lot more than just the deep ball now. I’m doing intermediate routes. I’m doing short routes. So, now I actually need a guy who can just get me the ball now on a dagger route, on a corner route, on a shallow cross route. You know, right now, right in my chest. So, I can do the rest. I make you look good now.”

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New Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel was asked June 2 about Tagovailoa’s ability to throw the ball down the field, especially with speedy wide receivers like Hill and Jaylen Waddle becoming more prevalent in the offense.

“Here is the thing about quarterbacks that I always think is funny. You can only design plays that the quarterback has time to throw,” McDaniel explained. “Generally, within the time of the play, from a historical perspective, you can’t get a receiver down the field past 55 or 60 yards in what we call one-hitch timing.

“You have to have a prerequisite arm strength to be able to throw it 60, in my opinion; and then, if you’re not going to be able to anticipate, and you have to see something before you do it, you probably need to throw 70 because you have to wait to see it, and then the receiver gets down further, and hopefully you have the protection.

“The way we’ve always operated since 2005 when I got in the league is if the quarterback can see the defense and is accurate, then you see if he can throw it 60 yards. I think he might have had a 55-yarder today. That’s why you hear no cause for concern at all from the players because they know that too. 

“He’s plenty fast, and the great thing is that he sees the field. He’s not throwing the ball 85 yards, but I don’t see the practical application of a 85-yard thrower unless you have the best offensive line in the history of football and a defense that is too poor to add on rushers when you’re max protecting.”

There will be higher expectations going into year three for Tagovailoa. In 13 games last season, he threw for 2,653 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Miami has not made the playoffs since the 2016 season.