MIAMI GARDENS — Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert are forever linked.
The Miami Dolphins had their choice in the 2020 draft of who would be the second quarterback off the board after the Cincinnati Bengals made Joe Burrow the No. 1 pick.
In case you haven’t been paying attention the past five years, the Dolphins chose Tagovailoa. The Los Angeles Chargers, with the ensuing selection, picked Herbert.
Since, Tagovailoa is 39-28, while Herbert is 44-40. Tagovailoa has thrown 110 touchdowns to 48 interceptions. Herbert has 145 touchdowns to 49 interceptions. Tagovailoa is 68.3 percent of his passes and has thrown for 16,514 yards. Herbert has a completion percentage of 66.4 and 22,322 passing yards.
Each has a Pro Bowl appearance. Herbert was Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2020. Neither has a playoff win.
In their three previous meetings, Tagovailoa has won two, including being the lone passer to win on the road in the series.
Both quarterbacks got their second contracts with their respective teams. Herbert is off to a better start within the 2025 season, but his Chargers are reeling of late, dropping their past two after starting 3-0.
Tagovailoa’s Dolphins, of course, are off to a 1-4 start, most recently blowing a 17-point lead at the Carolina Panthers last Sunday.
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Another installment of Tagovailoa vs. Herbert will be played in this Sunday’s 1 p.m. kickoff at Hard Rock Stadium as Miami is in early must-win territory and Los Angeles looks to reclaim its early momentum.
Amid all the comparisons outside observers inevitably make between the two, Tagovailoa steers clear.
“I know everyone wants to do the comparisons with all the dudes that were in my draft class,” Tagovailoa said Wednesday, with Burrow, Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts and Green Bay’s Jordan Love also in the class, “but all you can do is be happy for the guys where they’re at in their life of football and wish the best for them.”
But Tagovailoa does acknowledge Herbert has had a fine career.
“I think he’s done a great job,” he said. “He’s done a phenomenal job within his career this far. I hope he has a long career.”
Tagovailoa, as he has stated throughout his career, continues to say he keeps his focus on his tasks by staying off social media and going back to enjoy time with family after wins and losses.
“The only perspective you have is what you can do to help your team win every week,” he said. “I can’t go and look at what these other quarterbacks are doing and focus on what I need to for that week to get the job done in order to help our team win.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a necessity of me needing to watch these other quarterbacks and see, ‘Where do I stand? Did I have a better game? Did I have a worse game?’ … I wouldn’t say that I categorize myself as, ‘If I played well, I want to see how I stacked up against this person or not.’ That’s not how I go about it.”
Of course, Tagovailoa and Herbert won’t ever take a snap Sunday where they’re on the field together. Tagovailoa will try to execute against the Chargers’ fourth-ranked pass defense, and Herbert goes against the Dolphins defense.
“I think his ability to extend plays and, while doing that, make a defense cover the entire field,” coach Mike McDaniel said of the challenges Herbert presents. “He can put the ball across the field 50 yards on the other hash, so when he’s using his athletic ability, he stresses your plaster and your connectivity to eligibles down the field. That threat of arm and legs, I think he’s a competitor, I think he keeps getting better and he’s someone that the opposing team is in charge of minimizing his production.”
Tagovailoa, on Wednesday, further assessed his performance in the loss to the Panthers in which he had three touchdowns and no interceptions but had five consecutive drives come up empty after taking a 17-0 lead in the 27-24 defeat.
The Dolphins quarterback said it was really hard for him to show the restraint to slide short of the first-down marker on a third-and-8 scramble early in the third quarter.
He also touched on why the offense didn’t target tight end Darren Waller in the second half after Waller had five catches for 78 yards in the first half.
“I wouldn’t say we weren’t trying to get him the ball,” Tagovailoa said. “It’s just, within the progression of how we’re calling plays and how we’re reading it, sometimes we don’t progress all the way through or, sometimes, we like a certain matchup that we called for a play and we want to work that.”
