Tua Tagovailoa debuts for Dolphins during blowout of Jets

Tua Tagovailoa made his debut for the Miami Dolphins as they blew out the New York Jets

The long-awaited debut of No. 1 overall pick Tua Tagovailoa finally arrived on Sunday thanks to the Dolphins spanking of the Jets.

With a 24-0 lead, Miami put Tagovailoa into the game with two-and-a-half minutes to play, eliciting a big cheer from the crowd on hand at Hard Rock Stadium.

Tagovailoa’s first NFL completion was a two-yard pass to Patrick Laird. It wasn’t a spectacular first attempt, but he went on to complete a seven-yard pass to Jakeem Grant to convert on third-and-7.

He ran out of time to do anything more.

As far as debuts go, 2-for-2 for 9 yards doesn’t say much about his future one way or another. For the Dolphins, just getting him a chance to appear was a big deal, especially since it didn’t come via a negative performance.

The Dolphins have been too good to put Tua Tagovailoa in the game before now

Even though the win over the Jets just now brought Miami to 3-3, they’ve played consistently well for most of the season. After losing to the Patriots by 10 in Week 1, they fell to the Bills by just three points before beating the Jaguars. An eight-point loss to the Seahawks was followed by blowouts of the 49ers and Jets.

In those games, Ryan Fitzpatrick has completed 70.6 percent of his passes with 7 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. Three of those interceptions came in Week 1. He is averaging 224 yards per game.

Worse performances from the starter might have forced the Dolphins to take a chance on Tagovailoa, but it hasn’t been necessary so far. That’s a good thing for both the quarterback and the team.

The former is coming off a devastating hip injury from his days at Alabama. The more time he is given to strengthen up, the better.

For the latter, there shouldn’t be any rush to press Tagovailoa into action. If Fitzpatrick can carry the load while the rookie settles into NFL life, they should take advantage of his veteran leadership and mentorship. It’s what’s best for everyone in the long run.