I’m not sure it’s a great idea for Tua Tagovailoa to be playing. He seems to be prone to head injuries. But he’s been cleared and it’s his decision, so we’ll see where it goes (and how long it lasts).
For fantasy purposes, Tagovailoa will have to be considered by those in a jam at the position. And for those in Superflex leagues, the bar for him to be relevant is a lot lower.
Tagovailoa is one of the best in the league at quickly getting rid of the ball, and the entire offense is built around him. It’s fallen apart when they’ve tried to plug in lesser backups. They haven’t had the same accuracy and processing speed to pull it off.
Neither Tyreek Hill nor Jaylen Waddle, remarkably, have scored in any of the games Tagovailoa has missed the last three years.
Unless there are issues with rust and confidence, Tagovailoa should be passing for plenty of yards. He led the league in passing yards a year ago, and he passed for a league-high 338 in Week 1 against Jacksonville.
Since the start of last year, he’s averaged 269 passing yards in the games he’s started. That ranked 3rd among quarterbacks with at least 10 starts in the 2023-24 seasons. He’s thrown 31 touchdowns in his last 19 games (1.63 per game, or about 5 TDs in every 3 starts).
PASSING YARDS PER GAME SINCE 2023 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Player | G | Yds/G | TD | Int |
Kirk Cousins | 15 | 277.4 | 28 | 12 |
Jared Goff | 23 | 268.9 | 40 | 16 |
Tua Tagovailoa | 19 | 268.8 | 31 | 17 |
Brock Purdy | 23 | 266.1 | 40 | 18 |
Dak Prescott | 23 | 266.0 | 44 | 15 |
C.J. Stroud | 22 | 262.3 | 33 | 9 |
Matthew Stafford | 22 | 256.2 | 31 | 16 |
Geno Smith | 22 | 255.0 | 28 | 15 |
Patrick Mahomes | 22 | 253.3 | 33 | 22 |
Jordan Love | 22 | 250.5 | 47 | 19 |
Baker Mayfield | 24 | 246.0 | 46 | 17 |
Josh Allen | 24 | 241.2 | 41 | 18 |
Trevor Lawrence | 23 | 241.0 | 30 | 17 |
Joe Burrow | 17 | 239.3 | 29 | 8 |
Lamar Jackson | 23 | 238.6 | 39 | 9 |
Sam Howell | 17 | 232.1 | 21 | 21 |
Justin Herbert | 19 | 226.2 | 26 | 8 |
Jalen Hurts | 23 | 224.6 | 30 | 19 |
Gardner Minshew | 18 | 221.8 | 18 | 14 |
Derek Carr | 22 | 221.2 | 33 | 12 |
Desmond Ridder | 13 | 213.8 | 12 | 11 |
Kyler Murray | 15 | 208.7 | 19 | 8 |
Russell Wilson | 16 | 208.4 | 28 | 8 |
Aidan O'Connell | 12 | 201.8 | 12 | 7 |
Zach Wilson | 11 | 193.7 | 7 | 6 |
Justin Fields | 19 | 193.1 | 21 | 10 |
Mac Jones | 11 | 192.7 | 10 | 12 |
Joshua Dobbs | 12 | 192.2 | 11 | 10 |
Daniel Jones | 13 | 180.8 | 8 | 10 |
Will Levis | 14 | 179.1 | 13 | 11 |
Deshaun Watson | 13 | 174.1 | 12 | 7 |
Bryce Young | 18 | 173.4 | 11 | 13 |
Kenny Pickett | 12 | 172.5 | 6 | 4 |
—Ian Allan