Chan Gailey thought he would enjoy and enjoy the games of his grandparents, and did not think he would be back in the NFL game. But here he is, preparing for the 2020 season as the Miami Dolphins’ offensive coordinator.
Gailey said one of the Miami quarterbacks made it easier to return after three years away from football – and it was not appreciated rookie Tua Tagovailoa.
In Gailey’s 40 seasons of coaching, stopping as the head coach for Troy, Samford and the World League of American Football’s Birmingham Fire were part of the journey, and Gailey’s Trojans won the 1984 NCAA Division II Championship.
In five of Gailey’s seasons, Ryan Fitzpatrick served as his team’s starting quarterback – when Gailey was the Buffalo Bills ‘head coach from 2010 to 2012 and the New York Jets’ offensive coordinator in 2015 and 2016.
Fitzpatrick is the returning QB starter from the Dolphins.
“I can ‘t tell you it was not a factor,” Gailey said of Fitzpatrick’s presence when he considered Miami’s job offer. ‘It was, I knew I would be comfortable with a player who was here – actually more than comfortable. Very excited about working with Fitz again. That was something that played a role. If it were not a part of it, it could have been a different story. I do not know. ‘
Nearly four months after Miami coach Brian Flores surprised the NFL by bringing in Gailey, the Dolphins gave their offensive coordinator a new quarterback to work with by choosing Tagovailoa from Alabama with the fifth pick in the NFL Draft on April 23rd.
“You look at the success he had, of course, he is a very good leader,” Gailey said of Tagovailoa during an online press conference on Saturday. ‘You guys take all those great players they had at Alabama, it has to come together on the field. You can do all the coaching you want, but when they run out on the field, the players play, and, of course, his leadership and his ability to play football, his touch, game management, all that kind of game throw.
“There were a lot of good quarterbacks. We could have gotten one of several, and we were very happy with Tua. ”
RYAN FITZPATRICK BECOMES ‘PLACEHOLDER’ FOR TUA TAGOVAILOA
Tagovailoa’s ability to contribute when Miami starts will be determined by his mastery of the crime and the status of his health, Gailey said.
Tagovailoa’s college career ended when he suffered a dislocated hip and posterior wall fracture in a SEC game against Mississippi State on November 16. Miami medical staff has removed Tagovailoa for practice.
Gailey’s ability to influence Tagovailoa’s development is limited. The coronavirus pandemic caused the NFL to restrict its teams’ offseason programs to online work. Since training camp reporting, players have been restricted to strength and conditioning work and restarted with the Dolphins’ 2020 season opener 36 days away.
“He will develop quickly or slowly, depending on how much he understands the crime and how fast he comes and how he develops as a footballer, and a lot of that is based on health, so there are a lot of factors there,” he said. Gailey said. I mean, I hope I have a big impact on (the development of Tagovailoa), but you never knew. You have to see how hard and how well a player comes, and then you see what he does. And we treat him just as we treat everyone else: we will try to put him in a position to be successful when the time comes. ‘
Robby Brown, quarterbacks coach in Miami, said the staff would know more about Tagovailoa’s readiness as the Dolphins move into the full training session next week.
“Everything has been virtual, continuous,” Brown said Saturday. ‘He has not yet come on the field. I have not seen him live and personally throw it football, so it’s a deal where he’s like any other rookie. He needs to get in there and learn what we are trying to do first. The first thing he needs to do is learn what you’re doing as a criminal and then expand it to ‘OK, what’s the defense we’re trying to do’ and that sort of thing.
‘But he’s just like any other man, rookie, and tries to get in and learn that and learn it as fast as possible. Of course, it’s a bit accelerated in this training camp and a different process than it would have been if you had OTAs and all that stuff. …
‘It’s really hard to tell until you go out on the field and go through the practices, see how much they’ve saved from the virtual OTAs to the meetings now to the walkthroughs and then you adjust the kind as you go, so it’s really bad to tell. Some guys pick up certain things faster than others. Some guys catch other things a little slower, so it’s really hard to tell until you’re out there and the bullets start flying and see how much a man has mentally retained. “
Like Gailey, Brown has a coaching background in Alabama. He worked as a graduate assistant at Troy in 2005 and 2006 and as a running backs coach at South Alabama in 2014.
Tagovailoa is not just about going through a learning curve. Gailey said he never coached a left-back quarterback, and the difference “takes some mental gymnastics on my part.”
Gailey and Brown will not be the only people helping Tagovailoa transition to the pros, the offensive coordinator said.
“He’s a team player,” said Gailey of Fitzpatrick. ‘He tries to be the best and can be a great player, but at the same time he shares his knowledge, he shares his experience. That’s what makes him a unique boy. ‘
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ AMarkG1.
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