Shake it like a Polaroid picture: What’s behind Tua Tagovailoa’s helmet cam?

Henry McKenna

AFC East Reporter

You may have noticed that thing on Tua Tagovailoa‘s head.

Maybe you saw the pictures from spring practices of the Miami Dolphins quarterback wearing not just one but two different cameras on his helmet. Tagovailoa and coach Mike McDaniel have been experimenting during organized team activities and minicamp to see what they can glean from a little technological aid.

But, well, things went off the rails when Tua showed up to practice with a Polaroid camera on his head.

(Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

If you’re thinking, “He can’t be serious,” then … you’re right.

It seems like Tua was trolling or joking around with a Polaroid after the original camera — a small, black device that was maybe three inches long and a half-inch in diameter — received so much media attention. So he stuck the old camera on his head for a few throws during warmups to mess with everyone.

The Polaroid camera may have been for laughs. The original camera had a handful of utilities. McDaniel remembers the cameras coming into use about 10 years ago.

The first point of value is obvious: The camera points where the quarterback’s head points. So when the coaches review the film, they can see how the quarterback is moving through his progression.

“For all quarterbacks, it’s a tool to help really drive home certain coaching points and just see what they’re seeing to be on the same page as the player,” McDaniel said earlier in June. “I think that added resource, he’s seen it live and he has a very strong recall in what he sees and is able to communicate it to coaches. So it’s more for coaches to see exactly what he’s seeing. That’s proved beneficial.”

Coaches can put Tua’s camera footage up during meetings and walk through the quarterback’s progression as a teaching point — pointing out the good and the bad. That’s positive not just for Tagovailoa but the other Miami quarterbacks: backup Mike White, second-year signal-caller Skylar Thompson and rookie James Blackman.

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But then there’s the audio component. The camera takes the coaches inside the huddle at a level that they hadn’t previously heard before. They can record each play call. “You can library those play calls for players to hear when they’re studying,” McDaniel said. By recording the play call, the Dolphins can save it and use it like an audio note card for players learning each play.

“It gives audio for a lot of the new guys so that they can listen to the play over and over and over from the guy giving the play. Then they can listen to the cadence,” Tagovailoa said.

And then there are the unintended consequences of the camera.

“I’ve really set off the last two consecutive team meetings with random things that are hilarious like the noises Raekwon [Davis] makes when he pass rushes,” McDaniel said, laughing. “It’s a tool of resource, and it has many different applications.”

The most revealing aspect of the camera may be that it allows McDaniel to evaluate Tagovailoa’s huddle presence. It sounds like the quarterback isn’t always calling plays by the book in the huddle. He occasionally has special instructions to players. And it’s off-script.

“You think of the integrity of the huddle,” Tagovailoa said. “Do I really want the coaches to hear what I’m saying to the guys? Because sometimes you might not like a play and you go into it and you tell the guys how you feel. But you basically tell the guy, ‘Hey, I’m skipping this progression to come to you so you better be there.'”

So Tua gets caught freelancing?

“I won’t do that to Mike,” Tagovailoa laughed. “I’ve got too much respect for Mike.”

Whether by coincidence or causation, Tagovailoa didn’t wear the helmet cam for any of the remaining practices after his comments to the media. It will be interesting to see if any camera — Polaroid or otherwise — makes its way onto the field for training camp at the end of July.

Prior to joining FOX Sports as the AFC East reporter, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.

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