Tua Tagovailoa is on a John Elway trajectory against the New England Patriots. The Denver Broncos quarterback made 10 starts against the Patriots during his Pro Football Hall of Fame career and won all of them.

The Miami Dolphins play New England on Sunday night, and their quarterback has won all four of his starts against the Patriots. But Tagovailoa said that has no impact on Sunday’s game against New England.

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“Every year is a new year,” Tagovailoa said. “4-0, 0-4, doesn’t matter. I don’t care. I don’t think those guys care. I don’t think my teammates care. They care about this year and what problems that team has to offer us, both offense, defense and special teams.

“We’re looking for a tough game. It’s always tough to go on the road against a team like that. It’s against a Bill Belichick-coached team, so you never know what to expect.”

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Tagovailoa doesn’t have incredible stats against New England – 74-of-108 passing for 726 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions – and the Dolphins have averaged scoring 23 points in the four victories. But Tagovailoa has not played in two of Miami’s games against the Patriots during his career, and the Dolphins lost both.

“Coach Belichick has been coaching in this league for way longer than I think I’ve been alive,” Tagovailoa said, “so he knows exactly what he’s looking at when he coaches his guys. Nothing new under the sun for that guy, so we got to come out, we got to be prepared. We understand that that’s a physical team, and they’re going to make us earn everything that we can.”

Tagovailoa did have incredible stats in Miami’s season-opening 36-34 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday. The former Alabama All-American completed 28-of-45 passes for 466 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Only three quarterbacks in NFL history have had more passing yards in a Week 1 game than Tagovailoa did against the Chargers.

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“The quarterback’s played very well,” Belichick said, “and he’s had tremendous production over the last couple of years, led the league in a lot of different categories passing the ball, so they’ve got a really efficient guy running the offense.”

Tagovailoa’s season-opening performance moved him from concussion-caused question mark for 2023 to MVP candidate.

“It’s Week 1 — everyone overreacts on everything,” Tagovailoa said. “My personal opinion. Take that for what it’s worth. You’re either going to win the Super Bowl after you win your first game or you’re the worst team ever and everything that comes with that, so I would say for myself, that’s one of the reasons I don’t pay too much attention to the outside noise. But, yeah, to me, that’s all it is. Like we still got to go on the road, and we got 16 more games to play against 16 really, really good teams. And it starts with New England this week. And that’s our main focus.”

But Tagovailoa has at least heard “the outside noise.”

“You can’t just take a drop in the NFL and just decide, ‘Hey, because everyone says I can’t throw the ball deep, let me just chuck this ball deep as far as I can,’” Tagovailoa said after he had nine completions that gained at least 22 yards against Los Angeles. “It entails everyone on the offensive side to work together, to be in symphony and guys to be at the right places at the right time. Timing has to be right.”

Does Tagovailoa still think anyone thinks he “can’t throw the ball deep” after his season-opening performance?

“I don’t care,” Tagovailoa said. “… That’s what 466 is. If I can’t throw deep, thanks.”

The Dolphins and Patriots will square off at 7:20 p.m. CDT Sunday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. NBC will televise the game.

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