Here’s what else has to go right (besides Tua) to keep Miami Dolphins’ momentum going | Opinion

Been a long time coming, but the sense of a franchise and team trending upward is palpable.

The Miami Dolphins are in the midst of a smartly calculated rebuild that will include eight first-round draft picks in the four year span of 2020-23. The Fins were 10-6 last season, the best team in the NFL to miss the playoffs. Brian Flores has been a prize catch as head coach.

If the future isn’t quite now, it’s getting here at a gallop.

Areas of concern remain, though, as the Dolphins completed their offseason work Thursday with the finish of a mandatory three-day minicamp. Fins won’t gather on a field again until the late-July start of full preseason training camp.

There is a reason Miami is no better than middle of the pack, tied for 16th, in current betting odds to win the Super Bowl.

Here are the five biggest concerns, the things that need to go right, if the Dolphins are to build upon the promise of last season:

▪ Tua Tagovailoa: This could be one through five, so critical is it that the young starting quarterback show great strides in his second pro season. Doubts remain, and minicamp did little to bring the jury back with a verdict.

Day 1 this week: There are monsoon-like weather conditions and Tua drowns, throwing five interceptions. Uh oh.

Day 2: The sun is out, and Tua with precision ball placement throws six touchdown passes. He’s back!

Consecutive days amply feeding Dolfans on either side of the Tua aisle.

This season — unlike his rookie year — Tagovailoa has had a full offseason of work, is healthy, knows the offense/playbook, and has more and better weapons with the addition of receivers Will Fuller and top draft pick Jaylen Waddle.

Put another way, Tagovailoa has no excuses left. He cannot idle; his improvement must be palpably evident. The team needs to be his now.

▪ Xavien Howard: Miami’s defense was stout last season, its 338 points allowed the best in the AFC East and sixth leaguewide. Adding edge rusher Jaelan Phillips from the University of Miami in the first round of the draft will further help on the sack front.

But there’s a mess that needs fixing, and it surrounds that defense’s best play, Pro Bowl cornerback Xavien Howard.

He was a minicamp holdout, incurring almost $100,000 in team fines. He’s demanding to renegotiate the contract extension he signed in 2019. After 10 interceptions last year — most by any player in the NFL since 2007 — “X” is plainly miffed he’s making less money than fellow Fions CB Byron Jones, who had two picks.

Miami can A) agree to give Howard a raise and make him happy; B) trade him; or C) stand pat and deal with either a Howard who begrudgingly plays or a Howard so upset he continues his holdout into the season.

Although Howard has value on the trade market (with Dallas among rumored would-be suitors), his value to Miami’s defense is difference-making big.

▪ Offensive line: The respected metrics of Pro Football Focus graded Miami’s O-line 27th of 32 teams last year. Four of the starters (all but at center) are back, so the team is banking on the extra year of experience translating to notably better performance. We will see.

The Dolphins signed free agent center Matt Skura, who was benched in Baltimore last year and failed to nail down the starting job this offseason.

Miami is counting on second-round draft pick Liam Eichenberg out of Notre Dame to turn into a prize, and possibly even win the starting right tackle job to protect lefty Tagovailoa’s blind side.

▪ Running game: The NFL has few running backs room less impressive, with Myles Gaskin, Salvon Ahmed and free agent addition Malcolm Brown the guys out front.

Miami was 22nd in rushing last season (29th in yards per carry) and failed to attack the problem as if it were a problem.

A reliably strong ground game would have hugely taken pressure off Tagovailoa last season, and would again. But, on a paper at least, the run offense looks substandard. (And without an elite offensive line to pave the way.)

▪ The competition: Tom Brady finally leaves New England and Bill Belichick finally has a losing season and Dolfans finally see a path clear for their team’s ascent in the AFC East?

Right?

Well, the Buffalo Bills today have the third-best Super Bowl odds of any team, after only Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City and Brady’s reigning champ Tampa Bay.

And Bills quarterback Josh Allen, who just turned 25, is coming off a Pro Bowl, MVP-caliber season and is seen as having sustainable greatness.

So. Maybe Flores and Tagovailoa will make Miami playoff good. But if the aim is higher — and it better be — the division goes though Buffalo and Allen now, and the road out of the AFC and into the Super Bowl goes though Mahomes and K.C.

Almost forgot. The Patriots and Jets also both drafted quarterbacks in the first round this spring.

More reasons the Dolphins need to shore up all of the concerns mentioned here.

And, mostly, why Tagovailoa needs to be something pretty damned close to great.