Tua Welcomes Jalen Ramsey to Miami
Buffalo has to be kicking themselves for not winning the Super Bowl during the past three years because their division is suddenly heating up hardcore making everything worse. The Jets seem to be headed into Aaron Rodgers territory, and that arguably solves their biggest problem (at least for a short time). The team is pretty good otherwise. The Patriots aren’t actually bad either, more mediocre, but they are solid enough to make every team fight, and now have a competent offensive coordinator again. But the real team that is nipping at their heels in the AFC East is the Miami Dolphins, who appear to be going for it and might genuinely be entering a championship window next season. If things go well, of course. Offseason champions notoriously overpromise.
The Fish acquired Jalen Ramsey from the Rams firesale this weekend to bolster the defense. Ramsey is close to the wrong side of 30, but he’s enough of a persistent asshole that he probably has a couple years left in the tank before he hits the Cornerback Cliffdive. Looking at this roster, with Hill, Waddle, Chubb, Gesicki, Eric Fisher, lots of young bright talent and solid veterans. It all kind of hinges on one thing: Tua. Is Tua gonna be okay? I’m worried about him.
Tua suffered 3 concussions in the span of a few months last year and it took him several weeks to be cleared from protocol after the last one. His play over the course of the season went from lightning sharp like we saw at Alabama to erratic and questionable late season. He looked like one of the best QB’s in the league when he was at his best last year and if he can make that leap official, it adds just another terrifying young QB to the AFC lineup of death. I’m genuinely rooting for him, but they need to coach him on how to get sacked this off-season.
One of the greatest overlooked skills a QB can have is the ability to take a sack, and it is a dying art in the era of scramblers. Tua isn’t even a scrambler, so he needs to learn how to take a sack. Yeah, it’s cool to see a guy being hit throw darts on the way down, but is it worth a concussion? Tom Brady didn’t last as long as he did by doing that shit, Tom Brady crumpled like tissue paper anytime someone touched him, and he played till 45. Learn how to take a sack. You lose some yards, but not brain cells. These days taking the sack even has the added multiplier bonus of probably getting flagged for roughing. Learn to fall down right, Tua.
Gesicki isn’t re-signing.
>One of the greatest overlooked skills a QB can have is the ability to take a sack
I feel like I have to point this out at least every other week and I use the same example as you just did. Not just sacks either, learning to fall in general is the difference between a great QB for several years and a great QB for a decade or two.
The dolphins are gonna be pretty good if they don’t kill Tua’s brain again. I just don’t want him to have to retire early for the sake of his own health. That’d be the worst.
Don’t worry it’s just his back acting up
I’m not ready to crown the AFC East as the division of death just yet. I see too many parallels to the AFC West a year ago:
Bills as the division favorite that is losing key pieces.
Dolphins as the high potential team that seems to be cursed.
Patriots as the team with a storied past who could try to make a push.
Jets as the team that was a quarterback away and brought Nathaniel Hackett in.
Definitely good advice for the young QBs. In many sports and martial arts, and just life in general, it’s good to know how to take a fall. I imagine it’s even more important when Aaron Donald is the one making you hit the ground
This reminded me of when I started playing football in middle school and the coach spent like half of the first practice just doing drills meant to teach us how to fall. At the time it seemed kind of bizarre, but looking back, that was extremely helpful in preventing injuries. Knowing how to fall or get tackled can be the difference between the occasional knick/bruise and a broken bone or head injury and more young players need to learn that.
The Fins did just snag Mike White so they can use up his one good game a year if Tua gets slightly tweaked
I gotta say, I do appreciate how much faith Miami seems to be putting in Tua in the McDaniel era, it would be legitimately heartwarming if I didn’t actually fear for the kid’s life every time the ball is snapped.
As a phins fan, between Ramsay and Mike white as the backup, I actually feel pretty good about next season so long as we’re smart about Tua
I think they should be very careful with tua
What’s interesting is Tua never had concussion problems until that BUF game. After the concussion from Milano, suddenly he started falling in the weirdest ways that looked so sketchy. He’s doing Judo a few times a week through the offseason as it’s the 1 martial arts that considers falling an art, even having a name for it (ukemi). This is guaranteed to help him keep himself healthy.