In the first two seasons of Tua Tagovailoa’s NFL career, the Miami Dolphins didn’t appear convinced they had made the right choice picking the Alabama All-American QB fifth in the 2020 draft.

That changed last year, when San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel became Miami’s head coach, and Tagovailoa led the NFL in passing-efficiency rating. But a new knock against Tagovailoa emerged: He was injury prone. After all, hadn’t his Alabama career been ended by an awful injury? Then in 2022, the quarterback missed five and one-half games because of concussions.

This season, Tagovailoa has gotten off to a blazing start. Six weeks into the 2023 campaign, Tagovailoa leads the NFL with 1,876 passing yards, 14 touchdown passes and a passing-efficiency rating of 114.1.

Could Tagovailoa still have detractors with those numbers?

Of course. The newest narrative: Tagovailoa’s success is a product of his situation. McDaniels’ innovative offense, speedy receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle and a fleet running-back corps led by Raheem Mostert explain why the Dolphins are the NFL’s highest-scoring team and averaging 8.0 yards per play, the theory goes.

That idea got some legs this week when ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith told viewers during a discussion of Tagovailoa’s qualifications for the NFL MVP Award that the quarterback’s supporters hadn’t watched enough Miami games.

“All of these passes ain’t for 19-, 20-, 30-, 40-yards,” Smith said. “You’ve just got Tua dipping it 2 yards to (Hill), and he’s the one taking it to the house.”

But Waddle said the notion that any competent quarterback could do what Tagovailoa had done this season was “not true.”

While it is true that Miami’s average of 6.9 yards after the catch is the best in the NFL, Waddle said Tagovailoa’s precise passing had something to do with that, too.

“He make us look good like probably 90 percent of the time,” Waddle said during an appearance this week on FanDuel TV’s “Up and Adams.” “He allow us to get the ball and put it in the perfect position for us to make crazy plays and juke people out and get all this YAC we get. If anything, he’s making us look good.”

During his Wednesday press conference, McDaniel was asked about the idea that many other quarterbacks would do just as well as Tagovailoa if they were in his cleats.

“My answer to that would be: ‘Who the (expletive) cares?’ because it is a team,” McDaniel said. “We’re working together. And I know one thing: I’ve coached stuff a long time. I haven’t seen people do what our guys do — and I mean in a lot of experiences — to their credit, to their ability and their commitment to their craft. I know as a teammate, we’re all dependent on each other, and I’m not in any hurry to prove myself without those guys because those are part of who we are, and to try to say it’s this person or that person is kind of missing the point. It is a team working together, people working together. And myself, Tyreek Hill, Tua, cool, but what if no one’s blocking anyone? You know what I mean? Like, we’re all connected in that way.

“That’s why I think a lot of the guys. Tua’s success is their success, Tyreek’s success, Waddle’s, Raheem’s, etc. We’re all tied together. It’s a journey that we’re experiencing together. Somebody will get the statistics from it, but none of those statistics are worth anything if you don’t have full support from your players across the board, all 11, and then it goes down to the organization and all those things combined.

“But I know this: Our players run a lot of plays that I have a lot of history with, and it looks different, and that’s because of hard work and unbelievable ability. So don’t try me on other players; I’m not trying to prove that.”

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Hill suggested it was Smith who needed to watch more Miami games.

“For Stephen A. Smith to go out of his way and say that Tua isn’t worthy of being the MVP, it’s crazy to me,” Hill said. “I’m sick of people bashing my QB for no reason. He’s been doing a hell of a job this year, and people need to stop giving him crap. A lot of people don’t understand what my dog went through just to get here, especially last year. To get to where he is now, being talked about as the MVP, that’s next level.”

The next chance to watch Tagovailoa and the Dolphins’ offense operate will come at 7:20 p.m. CDT Sunday, when Miami will square off against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. NBC will televise the game between 5-1 teams.

Smith sounded as though he’d be watching.

“To accuse me of not watching the games,” Smith said, “Tyreek Hill, please watch your mouth. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.