Lefty QBs used to be an NFL annoyance but Dolphins are flipping the script with Tua

The message reached Mike McDaniel from Steve Young in early spring, 2022.

When you coach Tua Tagovailoa, make sure he feels his left-handedness is an advantage, not a flaw or annoyance.

In 2005, Young became the first left-handed quarterback selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He is one of only 33 to have ever played in the NFL. Tagovailoa became No. 32 in 2020 when the Miami Dolphins drafted him fifth overall.

When McDaniel took over as Miami’s head coach two years later, he’d never considered what it would be like to coach a lefty — but he did know that Tagovailoa’s overall confidence was shot. The quarterback later revealed that during the depth of his struggles over his first two NFL seasons, he used to look at himself in the mirror and ask, “Do I suck?”

So McDaniel put together a reel that spanned hundreds of Tagovailoa’s plays from practices and games, clipping together throws and decisions he believed could help eliminate negative self-talk from his quarterback. “It was in the process of making the tape for Tua, to present to him ‘this isn’t just lip service,’ to present to him why he is extraordinary and what I’m excited about,” McDaniel told The Athletic this spring, that he noticed something. Tagovailoa’s handedness kept tripping him up.

As McDaniel cut together clip after clip, he began to focus on Tagovailoa’s mechanics instead of the result of the throws, and somewhere in the middle of the film he eventually presented to the quarterback, it clicked. It was as if he were watching Tagovailoa through a mirror — he could see him throw the way he could see right-handed quarterbacks throw.

McDaniel began to daydream. If the coach felt his own brain hesitate ever-so-slightly over the left-handed delivery, would defenders feel the same? Could play formations, blocking and route combinations all accentuate a lefty? Was there a way to turn a visual anomaly into a schematic advantage?

Young knew what McDaniel knows now: Understanding how Tagovailoa throws could allow McDaniel to design an offense that takes advantage of how the ball comes out of his quarterback’s hand. It could also be a way for McDaniel to show Tagovailoa: I like you for you.

“What Steve learned is that (being left-handed) felt more like an inconvenience to all parties involved while he was playing, which didn’t help his confidence,” said McDaniel. “He was big on, ‘no, this is a resource, tool or competitive advantage,’ seeing it through that lens.

“Not only was it good advice to approach things with Tua like that, but it was factual.”

A few things naturally change for an offense if the quarterback is left-handed. Some of that irritates teams to the point that many have historically avoided lefties altogether.

For example, a quarterback’s “blind side” (the side of the field he turns his back to during a dropback) switches from the left to the right. The right tackle becomes the blind-side protector on passing plays instead of the left tackle.

Austin Jackson played left tackle after being drafted with Miami’s second first-round pick in 2020 but moved to the right side when McDaniel took over as head coach. “Your mechanics literally change (to) opposite legs,” Jackson said. “My left leg had to become my push leg, my right leg had to become my ‘catch/anchor’ leg that kind of keeps my balance.”

As he made the change, Jackson’s right leg was significantly stronger than his left. His left hip was strong but way tighter. The Dolphins’ strength-and-conditioning staff installed special programming to rebuild both hips and legs for his new role.

Pass catchers also have to adjust to a southpaw thrower. The ball spins the opposite direction — counter-clockwise — coming out of a left-handed quarterback’s hand, and some receivers have said the spin feels strange and takes some getting used to. Some left-handers’ throws can tend to fishtail at the end of deeper balls, though velocity helps dull the difference. Dolphins coaches and receivers say Tagovailoa doesn’t have that issue.

“It makes it a lot easier to live in a left-handed world when your quarterback has enough pronation, enough spin, that no one even notices,” McDaniel said.

Oregon Ducks offensive coordinator Will Stein has become a “lefty-whisperer” of sorts in the college ranks. His starter heading into 2024 is left-handed transfer Dillon Gabriel, and Stein previously coached all-conference lefty Frank Harris at UTSA while working with offensive coordinator Barry Lunney, a former left-handed quarterback himself.

The Ducks have workshopped a type of passing system they call “mid-game” that combines elements of quick-game footwork and corresponding short, fast route concepts with more traditional longer dropback route pairings. They can employ both on one play, splitting the field into sides or even multiple sections based on the quarterback’s progression.

“It’s kind of a new way of thinking because it does get defenders’ eyes in spots they are not used to,” said Stein. “It’s quick game on one side and dropback on the other. It’s something we have done a lot of last year and in the spring. … I think you’re gonna see it show up a lot more in professional football.”

With a left-handed quarterback, the sides of the concepts can flip — and therein lies an additional challenge for defenders. A left-handed quarterback’s progressions on any passing play are inverted, so his eyes sweep the field for his receivers in the opposite direction as a right-handed quarterback.

Stein’s experiences in the recruiting cycle and at all-star events have led him to believe that more lefties are on the way. Top high school quarterbacks like Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele and Deuce Knight impressed coaches and scouts at this summer’s Elite 11 in Manhattan Beach, Calif. Modern JUGS machines (the apparatus that shoots footballs out for receivers to catch) now even have a “left-handed” setting.

“There’s plenty of them,” Stein said. “I think the old ‘fear of lefties,’ maybe it’s going by the wayside. … I’ve been around guys that have refused to coach lefties, refused to recruit them. It’s kind of wild, I never really understood the logic behind it.”

Of course, modern NFL defenses are savvy enough to adjust to the ball coming out of a quarterback’s left hand over the course of a game. Most defenders say it only takes about a quarter or so to get used to a lefty.

McDaniel is very clear: He’s not looking for some “Eureka!” moment that changes the sport for left-handed throwers. He just wants to make defenders hesitate — just a little — and maximize production on plays where that happens. It’s why he sought so much speed in his skill players, who are the fastest in the NFL. Against that kind of speed, a fraction of a second’s hesitation could mean death for a defense.

NFL hashmarks are closer to the middle of the field, with wide swaths of grass on either side. Teams that use motion to change formation strength can manipulate the space on one side or the other before the ball is even snapped. Over time, McDaniel realized how many defensive rules are predicated on the quarterback throwing with his right hand.

The Dolphins rank among NFL leaders in using motions and shifts, some of which create new formations that force mismatches with “right side” defenders who suddenly face a flipped play. Rollouts and bootlegs flip sides, too, and the edge defender accustomed to defending those can find himself out of position, creating a natural mismatch for the less-experienced player on the other side.

“What (defensive end) gets used to defending boots the best? Well, the one on the rollout to the right side,” McDaniel said. “OK, well, now you can create schemes to out-flank the defense; to be on the perimeter … and change the pocket. And you’re having players that aren’t used to defending the primary throwing hand of a left-handed quarterback — the (defensive end) on that side — when you fake the boot and go out here, he’s not used to playing (that).”

McDaniel wondered how Miami’s speed might work in combination with Tagovailoa’s inverted progression, particularly against zone defenders who use visual keys to determine their drops.

The Dolphins also run their own version of the “mid-game” that Stein described at Oregon. The skill players in Miami’s “Chevy” series are so fast that Tagovailoa can use footwork and timing that make it look like he is running quick-game concepts — to the opposite side of the field than usual — before he gets the ball to a receiver on a deeper route.

“Inherently it’s going to hit (defenders) in live football differently, and they are going to be a hair, a fraction … later to react, which is the ultimate advantage of offense,” McDaniel said.

Los Angeles Rams safety Kam Curl, who prepared for Tagovailoa and the Dolphins in 2023 while with the Washington Commanders, said the biggest in-the-moment adjustment a defense needed to make against Tagovailoa’s handedness came when the Dolphins ran a true quick game. The vulnerable short parts of the field flipped sides, so the defensive assignments had to change.

“A right-handed quarterback will catch it — boom to his (right),” Curl said. “But a left-handed quarterback, he’s mainly going to throw it to his (left).”

And against a left-handed quarterback, the “tells” certain defenders get during a right-handed throw aren’t available. On standard strong-side formations with extra targets on a quarterback’s right side, nickel cornerbacks have to align to their matchup and then aren’t able to read a lefty’s eyes the way they can see a right-handed thrower’s. Instead, they end up looking at the back of Tagovailoa’s helmet as he opens his throw to the opposite side.

“I can feel him, but he can’t see,” Tagovailoa said.

Preparing a scout team for a left-handed quarterback is perhaps the biggest impact on an opponent, especially non-divisional teams that may see a lefty once a year or less. Curl recalled that Washington’s scout team quarterback had to reorder his progressions from back-to-front when presenting looks for the starting defense in practices ahead of the game against Miami last year.

“I just felt like everything was just flipped to the opposite side, every read and stuff like that,” said Curl, “Just trying to get that down in one week? It was a little challenging.”

McDaniel hopes to make the week of game preparation for defensive coordinators just a little harder.

“Anytime you can’t prepare for something during the week 100 percent so that one element of game day is new, it’s really hard for the opposing team,” he said.

So if the way Tagovailoa throws the ball causes even a fraction of hesitation, or if how McDaniel schemes formations and plays to the opposite side allows him to capitalize before a defense adjusts, he’ll take it.

“If you would have asked me before I started this job about a left-handed quarterback, I would have nothing to say,” said McDaniel. “Through working with Tua in particular, this is stuff that is super tangible that I know to be a competitive advantage.

“If I could clone a human being and I had the choice of primary hand, and if it was the same human being at quarterback, I would go left-handed just because of those factors — if they were an elite thrower, a pure passer.”

Maybe McDaniel and Tagovailoa will find a genuine new edge for left-handed quarterbacks, maybe they won’t. There’s a larger point at work. Entering their third season together, the two have become collaborators, “ideas” people with genuine, mutual trust in each other.

When Tagovailoa literally wondered, “Do I suck?” and McDaniel responded with a load of tape that he felt argued otherwise, he bought into everything about his quarterback, and he wanted Tagovailoa to know it. Adjusting to his throwing hand was simply the entry point.

In late July, Tagovailoa signed a franchise-record four-year, $212 million contract extension. He said he heard from “several birdies” around the facility that McDaniel advocated for the deal with the front office and team ownership. It further spoke to their bond, which started with the coach wanting to better understand how his quarterback threw and how to build his confidence.

Steve Young was right back in 2022. Or left.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Mike Stobe, Ryan Kang / Getty Images)