Tua Tagovailoa’s chances of success are going to come down to Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniels ahead of a crucial year for the quarterback, Shaun Gayle has claimed.

2022 was a very rollercoaster year for Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. On the one hand he did more than enough to establish himself as the man to take the franchise forward after a rough few years since his arrival in 2020, including seeing the team actively try to trade for then-Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, sending a clear message that he needed to buck his ideas up.

And on the field, he certainly did that as he set career highs in a number of categories (taken via Pro Football Reference):

However he also suffered some rather horrific head injuries that were so bad and so badly handled that the league were forced to investigate the matter.

But despite the injury concerns, the Dolphins still saw fit to trigger the 5th-year option on his contract, keeping him under contract until the end of the 2024 season. However, that’s still not a long-term contract (something that he’s eligible for).

Tua Tagovailoa needs one thing to take him up a notch

According to Shaun Gayle, who was speaking exclusively to GIVEMESPORT, it will be down to head coach Mike McDaniel to get that little bit more out of his young quarterback in order to take him to the next level, which in turn will lead to a new bumper contract:

There's always going to be some something to talk about when it comes to young quarterbacks and young head coaches, and especially when you have them together. I think the situation is interesting, because you’ve got to remember it comes down to play calling, and it comes down to other aspects of what an offence is trying to establish and their strengths and their weaknesses.

And we just go by what we see on a certain play, or certain couple of ways or some, I call this ‘statistical malpractice’ sometimes of what they put together how many games that he do this, and that and X, Y, Z on when it was a Sunday night versus a Monday game. It doesn't make any sense. So my statement to that, I don't think it really matters. I think they have to find a way where he is at his most comfortable situation. And that's what a coach is supposed to do. And I don't think they've done that.

This is certainly going to be a big couple of years for Tagovailoa as he tries to earn his new contract, and whilst he’s stepping in the right direction, Gayle’s point about the coach helping him out is going to be a big part of that, especially when it comes to managing his injury and coming up with a scheme to keep him out of trouble.